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Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/174

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THE ZOOLOGIST.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.


The Races of Man: an Outline of Anthropology and Ethnography. By J. Deniker, Sc.D. (Paris). Walter Scott, Limited.

English readers have long been familiar with the writings of French anthropologists. The names of Broca, Topinard, and De Quatrefages are quite household words among those who study the zoology of their own kith and kin, while the present work of Dr. Deniker will further increase our respect for the capacities of anthropologists across the Channel. There is always room for a fresh book on Man; the multitude of subjects that make for his history are truly complicated; each student and professor is always stronger on his particular specialty than on others; we leave the school of anatomy to study written records; from the unwritten testimony of prehistoric archaeology we turn to the problems of philology; the physician and the zoologist compare notes; one measures the skull, another photographs the features; the traveller publishes his notes, the missionary gives his experience; the prison, the hospital, and the lunatic asylum alike contribute to our knowledge; the statistician, the comparative theologian, and the recruiting sergeant all have something to tell, while many a forgotten book contains the only detail of a vanished or vanishing race. Consequently to bring the subject up to date is a quest and not a feasibility; there is always something behind the arras.

Dr. Deniker in the present volume has added much to our knowledge by referring us to recent work that has been done, and his bibliographical notes are valuable. The general reader may learn much as to races other than savage, even as regards such a familiar being as the Jew. Of these people, contrary to general ideas, only some 250,000 are stated to be found in Asia, and Palestine can only claim about 75,000 in the present day. "Their total number is estimated at eight millions, of which the half is in Russia and Rumania, a third in Germany and Austria,