NEW YORK, MARCH 9, 1894.

CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. NO. XLI. (Edited by D. G. Brinton, M.D., LL. D., D. Sc.)

THE HIEROGLYPHS OF EASTER ISLAND.

In a previous note (see Science, May 8, 1892) I have referred to the curious carved hieroglyphs which the Easter Islanders were accustomed to preserve on batons or narrow tablets. The art is lost, and few of the batons remain, as the present generation burnt up most of them for firewood! A genuine one would now be worth its weight in gold—or, at least, in silver. The last and best work on the translation of the inscriptions has lately been published from the posthumous papers of Bishop Tepano Jaussen, apostolic vicar of Tahiti, who included in his diocese Easter Island also. He secured a few of the

tablets, and some intelligent natives read them for him, explaining the meaning of each hieroglyph. These he collated, and they are printed in dictionary form, analyzed as far as possible. They prove to be ideographic in character, and are read boustrophedon.

The Bishop took much pains to discover the origin of this writing, sending specimens of it widely over Oceanica for comparison. He finally decided that it was brought "more than a thousand years ago" from the Moluccas and the Spice Islands, almost an identical writing having

been discovered on ancient stone monuments in the island of Celebes by Archbishop Claessens, of Batavia.

This excellent study of Jaussen's is a pamphlet of 32 pages, entitled "L'Ile de Paques," and may be had of Ernest Leroux, 28 Rue Bonaparte, Paris. It is indispensable for every student of the subject.

PALEOLITHIC VERSUS NEOLITHIC.

IN the Journal of the Anthropological Institute for February an important article appears from the pen of Prof. Boyd Dawkins, entitled "On the Relation of the Paleolithic to the Neolithic Period." His main point is to prove that nowhere in the Old or New World can we trace the transition in culture between these two periods. Everywhere there seems a gap or hiatus, sharply dividing the two, this break extending also to the fauna of the two epochs.

This opinion was long ago maintained by Mortillet and other eminent archæologists, but has lately been denied by J. Allen Brown and others. Professor Dawkins makes a strong plea for its correctness; but, after all, his argument has the weakness inherent in reasoning ab ignorantia. The most he can show is that not yet have the steps of the continuity of the periods been demonstrated; while it would surely be difficult for one familiar with the diligent studies of investigators not to be convinced that there is no such sharp line between the two cultures as was once

laid down. For instance, all must now concede that palæolithic man made pottery, which was long denied him.

An interesting part of Professor Dawkins's article is that on the so-called palæolithic implements from the Trenton gravels, New Jersey. He has visited that locality himself and collected some of the specimens of which he speaks. His conclusion is, that there is no sufficient evidence for considering any of the Trenton finds as palæolithic; and that the theories which have been built upon them by their finders will have to be discarded. Evidence of another kind than the mere rude form of implements is needed to determine the presence of palæolithic man in America.

66
THE SO-CALLED CRIMINAL TYPE."

THE all-important question among criminologists is, whether there is a peculiar physical type, which at once marks and condems the habitual criminal. Reference has

already been made in these notes to the wide difference of opinion on this subject which obtained at the last International Congress of Criminal Anthropology (see Science, Nov. 18, 1892). In a paper read before the Russian Anthropological Society last October, Prof. E. Petri, of St. Petersburg, declared in favor of the reality. of the "type," maintaining that it had been denied because of lack of uniformity in modes of measurement, neglect of proper selection of cases. and in the technical nomenclature, as well as from a He argued that a so-called "pure series" of criminal types could be obtained, and would always show clearly defined contrasts to a series of non-criminal individuals.

On the other hand, the legal profession almost unanimously deny the existence of the "type." Take, they say, a dozen criminals as they come into the dock, wash and dress them as neatly, and they will certainly look as well as the dozen men in the jury box impanelled to pronounce upon their misdeeds. To be sure, many criminals are such through want, misery and destitution, and these leave their traces; but as many more have not suffered in this manner; and a large class of crimes demand a wellregulated life for their commission; so the average is maintained. Of course, exception must be made in either case, of mental alienation, idiocy, insanity and the like.

THE PLEIADES IN EARLY ASTRONOMY.

THE prominent position which the group of the Pleiades. occupies in many early myths and calendars has recently attracted the attention of several writers. Prof. Norman Lockyer, in his "Dawn of Astronomy," shows that the oldest temple on the Acropolis of Athens was oriented to observe the rising of the Pleiades about the year 1530 B.C.; thus connecting the worship of these stars with the primitive religion of the Hellenes.

The subject has been considered at length and with much thoroughness by Dr. Richard Andree, in a late number of Globus (Bd. 64, No. 22). He analyzes the names of the constellation in many languages, and explains its relation in primitive peoples to their calendars and agricultural procedures. He shows that among the most diverse races and in all parts of the globe, these stars have been chosen either to indicate the beginning of years or cycles, or to regulate festivals and recurrent ceremonies.

One who has also given fruitful attention to this question is Mr. R. G. Haliburton, whose results, many of them not yet published, are spoken of by Dr. J. C. Hamilton in the last (fifth) Report of the Canadian Institute of Toronto. He brings together a mass of curious information concerning primitive beliefs about these stars.

The question has special interest in American archæology. At the Anthropological Congress in Chicago last summer, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall read a paper in which she referred to the well-known fact that by these stars the Aztecs regulated their cycle of 52 years. If they had commenced their computation when at that season the Pleiades culminated at midnight, it would be about 4000 years ago,-a deduction which gives rise to interesting speculations.

WHAT IS ARCHEAN?

BY ALFRED C. LANE, HOUGHTON, L. S., MICHIGAN.

WHEN in the issue of the Nation for March 1, 1894, p. 163, I saw my friend Professor Tarr criticised for calling the Huronian Archæan, and saw the reviewer go on to state that the rocks in which magnetic iron ores mostly occur are not undoubted Archæan, I said, "This is too much."

The history of the words Azoic and Archean shows the irony of fate in scientific usage so well as to be worthy the attention of the readers of Science.

The term Azoic was originally applied to all the preSilurian strata, at first including the intrusives.' Later Foster and Whitney excluded them and applied the term to the metamorphic group or formation,-composed of "Gneiss, Mica and Hornblende Slate, Chlorite, Talcose and Argillaceous Slate, and Beds of Quartz and Saccharoidal Marble," supposed to be the first detrital rocks, modified by heat. They expressly mention the association of magnetic iron ores with them, and give Logan's division into two groups, which they say they failed to recognize on the south shore of Lake Superior.' The Azoic rocks included all rocks below the Potsdam,' existing as a geologic system in the Lake Superior region.

Dana objected to the application of the term Azoic," as a misnomer, since there are direct and indirect traces of life in the rocks to which it was applied, and proposed the term Archæan instead. In his use of the term, Archæan is a name applied to one of the four or five primary divisions of geologic time, co-ordinate with the term Palæozoic. In this he has been followed by Geikie and Leconte. From the text-books of these three men, probably ninety-nine per cent of living American geologists have been taught. Moreover, Dana retained the

Van Hise, Archæan and Algonkian, Bulletin No. 86, United States Geological Survey, 1892, P. 470; but compare Foster and Whitney, p. 3.

2 Foster and Whitney, Lake Superior, part ii., 1851, p. 2.

3Ibid., p. 8.

Ibid., p. 11; compare Van Hise, loc. cit., p. 470.

Ibid., p. 2.

Van Hise, loc. cit., pp. 394, 473.

7 Manual of Geology, 1880, p. 140.

"Summarized in Van Hise, loc. cit., p. 469.

term Azoic,' applying it to the earlier part of the Archæan time, and to the latter part applying the term Eozoic in his manual of geology, Archæozoic in a paper published in 1892.8

The arrangement in Dana's text-book seemed an admirable one, was widely adopted, and all seemed serene, when trouble arose. The first symptom of it appeared in a circular letter of the Director of the United States Geological Survey, wherein he suggested the division of Geologic time into ten periods, to which provisional names were given. The name Archæan was applied to a period below the Cambrian, co-ordinate with it, and separated from it by another period.

No comment nor notice was made on this degradation of the rank of the word, and of course in a provisional scheme it was not necessary. But when in pursuance of this letter the name Archæan was formally applied to a time division earlier than the time of deposition of the clastic rocks older than the Cambrian, and co-ordinate with Cambrian,10 the mischief was done.

a

The term Archæan, introduced to replace Azoic as misnomer, has been so changed in application by the United States Geological Survey as to include only rocks which cannot but be Azoic.

There certainly could have been no life before the beginning of sedimentation.

The only reason for this change, that I know of, is given by Van Hise in the following words:"

The

"As here used the term Archæan is restricted to this fundamental complex. It is no longer possible to regard as a unit or treat together all pre-Cambrian rocks. rocks included in the fundamental complex are everywhere called Azoic or Archæan. The crystallines and semi-crystallines above this complex, often called Archæan, must be distributed from the Devonian or later to the pre-Cambrian. It is clear that if Archæan is to remain a serviceable term it must be restricted to some unit. Such a unit is the fundamental complex, and to it this term is most appropriate."

Comment is hardly needful, in view of the fact that for some four hundred and seventy eight pages Professor Van Hise has been treating all the pre-Cambrian rocks together, and that, as he avers, "it is impossible to make a wholly satisfactory theoretical definition of the Archæan" (as he uses it).

I should perhaps add that while I still think that the Archæan will "remain a serviceable term," if retained in the sense in which it was proposed, and is used by all the leading text-books, not only in America, but also in England (Geikie), and Germany (Credner and Neumayr) and is employed by the Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie, etc. (as one of four or five divisions of geologic time co-ordinate wlth Palæozoic), I do not here question the appropriateness of its division, nor attempt to combat the arguments so ably urged by Van Hise' for the crustal or sub-crustal character of the fundamental complex. I merely cannot see why the time-division given by Dana is not satisfactory, and why the time previous to the formation of clastics should not be called Azoic. Then for a parallel formation term, according to the principles of that dual nomenclature, rightly proposed by H. S. Williams, Van Hise's term Basement Complex seems to me very appropriate. Possibly Basal, as somewhat shorter, and in adjectival form more correspondent with other terms, might be better. The age of the Basal, so far as formed by subcrustal consolidation, might not be altogether Azoic, but it would all belong to one formation.

Tenth Annual Report of the Director, United States Geological Survey, 1800, p. 50. 10 Ibid., p. 66.

11Van Hise, loc. cit., p. 478.

12Van Hise, American Journal of Geology, vol. i., p. 113.

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THE PROGRESS OF ASTRONOMY IN 1893. BY GEORGE A. HILL, WASHINGTON, D. C.

THE year 1893 beheld a most rapid progress in all branches of astronomy. It will be our purpose to call attention to the more important advancements that have been made, and also to items of especial interest, as a complete resumé of the subject would reach far beyond the limits of this article.

In instrumental equipment we have passed beyond our present apparatus, and we are launching out upon a most wonderful improvement in instruments and their accessories. The mounting for the great telescope for the Yerkes Observatory has been completed, and was on hibition at the World's Fair. The tube will be at least sixty-four feet long. The object glass of forty inches clear aperature is a reality, and Alvan Clark, its makers has said that it will be finished the coming summer.

Brashear has completed the star spectroscope, and is about to commence the solar spectroscope and the spectroheliograph.

Professor Pickering has received from the maker, Clark, a twenty-four inch photographic telescope, the gift of Miss Bruce, of New York. The telescope will be mounted on a high mountain of the Andes, in Peru, and from that elevation its whole energy will be concentrated upon a photographic map of the heavens.

Father Algue has just departed for Manila, in the Phillippine Islands, at which point he will install an astronomical observatory. The most important instrument that accompanies Father Algue is an equatorial, with an object glass of nearly twenty inches clear aperature. The mounting is by Saegmuller, of Washington, D. C., the object glass by Mertz, of Munich, and is a companion to that at Strassburg, and the one at Milan, which has been productive of so many interesting observations in the hands of Schiaparelli in his measurement of double stars, and the markings upon the planets, especially Mars. was the writer's pleasure to recently wish Father Algue God-speed in his long journey and a rich measure of success from the results of his observations to be made in that far-off land.

It

The Greenwich Observatory has accepted from the maker, Sir Howard Grubb, an equatorial with an object glass of twenty-eight inches aperature, and the Astronomer Royal reports that it is satisfactory.

The United States Naval Observatory, one of the most magnificent and complete astronomical edifices in the

world, both in instrumental equipment and offices for the astronomers, was during the year formally opened.

The Dudley Observatory at Albany, N. Y., has, under the wise administration of its director, Professor Lewis Boss, been moved to a more desirable site, a new twelveinch object glass by Brashear has been supplied, the other instruments repaired and refitted with all modern conveniences, and a substantial residence built for the director in proximity to the instruments.

Dr. S. C. Chandler, of Cambridge, Mass., has presented to the astronomical world a remarkable series of papers, commenced in 1891, and continued through the past year. The exhaustive investigation undertaken by that gentleman has lead to the proof that the earth's axis of rotation is not invariable, but that a variation of latitude does exist. Dr. Chandler has made a thorough discussion of all astronomical observations, which bear upon the determination of latitude from the time of Bradley down to the present date, and any one who has read his papers must be convinced that he has almost in sight the law that controls the variation in latitude. He has made a thorough discussion of the work of Struve, Peters, Gyldén and Nyrén at Pulkova, with both the prime vertical and vertical circle instruments; observations made at Washington with the prime vertical in 1862-66; Küstner's zenith telescope work; observations made at Cambridge, Leyden, Melbourne and Greenwich; Doolittle's zenith telescope work, and Comstock's and Brown's meridian circle observations at Madison. All these have been discussed in a masterly manner, and from them has been established the fact that the revolution of the earth's pole occupies a period of about 427 days, moving from west to east, the amplitude being a variable and probably entangled with a yearly period.

In connection with what has been said, the reader will find in Nature, vol. XLVIII., page 451, a very interesting paper by Professor C. L. Doolittle, given as his address as Vice-President of Section A (Astronomy) at the last meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held last summer at Madison. Professor Doolittle's paper covers every historical fact connected with the subject of the variation of latitude, besides giving valuable information from the results of his zenith telescope observations carried on so many years at Bethlehem, Pa.

Mr. S. Kostinsky, of the Puikova Observatory, presented last February to the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersbourg, a paper containing observations made of close zenith stars with the prime vertical transit instrument at that observatory, for the express purpose of determining the amplitude and period of the variation in latitude, recently dug up by Chandler. From that series an aplitude of 0.60", with a period of 412 days, is demonstrated. Mr. Kostinsky's paper will be found in Bulletine de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, tome vII., page 367.

Mr.

Ac

Upon exhibition at the World's Fair was a new form of pendulum devised by Sigmund Riefler, of Munich. Leman read a very interesting paper before the Congress of Astronomy held in Chicago, which was a description of the pendulum. His paper appeared in the December number of Astronomy and Astro-Physics. companying the article was a table extracted from the records of the Royal Observatory at Munich, giving the daily rate of the clock controlled by one of Mr. Riefler's pendulums. The period covered by the table is from September 1, 1891, to September 2, 1892, or one year. Dr. Seeliger, the Director of the Observatory, states, in forwarding the table, that with a variation of temperature up to 30 centigrade no influence worth mentioning on the rate of the clock could be perceived. The mean daily