Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/374

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��8CIENCE.

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��vrhether that group be agnstio, enatic, or cognatic. Such a group does not necessarily dissolve on the death of the ruler, for the next younger man who is the oldest of the groii|) takes hia place. The group, therefore, is com- paratively permanent, and there is no inherent necessity for its dissolution. It may remain as long as there is a living man to act as ruler. Presbiarchy has widely prevailed: in fact, it seems to be primordial.

The patriarchy, with its patria potestaa. as far as we now know, was confined to the Roman tribes: but the patriarchy without absolutism has been much more widely dis- tributed, and it has probably been associated also to a greater or less extent with presbiarchy, real or fictitious ; so that the latter has fre- quently been divided into patriarchies, they being subordinate groups.

Maine and the McLennan brothers seem not to recognize presbiaixby ; and Maine, wherever he discovered evidences of it, and also where he discovered evidences of any other form of elder-rule, presented them as proof of the existence of the patriarchy. Had the McLennans recognized elder-rule, they could linve made their criticism of Maine much more effective. As it is, they have success- fully attacked Maine's theory by showing that patria polestas has not been widely spread ; in fact, that there is no evidence of its exist- ence, except among the Itomans.

Maine also bases his theorj' of the primordial and universal patriarchy u|x>n his theory of agnation ; and. wherever he discovers a recog- nition of agnation, he holds Uial it is evidence of the patriarchy with patria potestas. The McLennans show that agnation is not the only kind of kinship recognized in tribal society, by arraying much evidence of the recognition of enation ; hut they themselves fall into the antipodal error of supposing that enation was the only kind of kinship recognised.

Altogether the patriarchal theory of Maine has been successfully overthrown in the work before us, by a re-examination of the very facts adduced in its support; and we owe a debt of gratitude to the authors for the thorough way in which they have aecorapliahed their task- If, now. Sir Henry Maine will on his part as completely overthrow the McLennan theory of exogamy and endogamy, and its con- comitant polyandry, the ground will be well cleared for the development of a sound system of sociology upon the inductive basis estab- lished by Moi^an.

Connected with this theory of the patriarchy is Sjiencer's theory of ancestor- worship, by

��which he accounts for the genesis of tbdam, — a theory which ignores all the facts of savage philosophy, finds an origin for opinions midway in the history of culture, and accounts for later opinions as following in the course of normal development, and for early opinions as dcgea- J eracies. With the final overthrow of tb«| patriarchal theory, the ancestral worship theory I has its weak foundation entirely removed. A.f piece of good destructive criticism here would! be opportune.

Spencer's ghost theory of the origin of si dual existence has long been overthrown bfl Tylor's grand induction denominated 'Airf-f mism.' A good piece of destructive critidsmg on this point also would be timely.

J. W. POWKU-I

��This work is the third, and will undoubtedly be the last, of the series of final reports con- tributed by this author to the publications of the V. S. geological survey of the territories in charge of Dr. Hayden, and which together constitute a tndygreat and enduring monument to the fame of the now venerable paleobotanist. The first of these volumes appeared in 1874, and was devoted to the flora of the Dakota group, the only cretaceous flora then known in the west. The second, a larger work, came out in IflTH. and was called Iho ■ Terliarj- flora ;' but more than half of it was taken up with species of the Laramie group, by many regarded as cretaceous. The present volume is in the nature of a review of the whole field covered by the two preceding, bringing the matter down to date, and embraces some Pacific-slope miocene localities in addition.

The first hundred and twenty pages and eighteen plates are devoted to a revision of the flora of the Dakota group, and the description and illustration of thirty-Bve new species frooi that formation. At the close of this division of the work, the author introduces an exhaus- tive table of distribution, extending it to em- brace the entire Cenomanian formation, to which he assigns the Dakota group, as well as the middle cretaceous of Greenland. He divides the Cenomanian of Europe into thre« groups of localities: viz.. 1, Molctein, Qtied- linbuig ; 2, Quadersand stone, Uarz, Bohemia ;

Canlriballoni la ikt Jiittt tora »/ l/n wtften ttrrntHn. Part lil. Thf rrrtacfBut and Ifrliam jforai. Vj Leo Lu- qi;KmKui. Itspnn of iln U.S. g»ln«li»l tamj of iba wr rluirlrt. P. V. Btydcii. U.S. geolOKliI In otuirKe. Vul. *nL Waihlngtun, «DP*r(ini™i .1*8*. II'»»p„6»|iL ♦*.

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