Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/551

Rh a crime in the eyes of those who consider precise nomenclature to be the end of science; but those who deem it merely a means whereby knowledge can be securely stored will take a different view—and have done so." We need quote no more from this part of the work, the pages of which have quite a literary charm of their own, stimulating perusal, and with much original criticism compelling either acquiescence or dissent.

As regards the main body of the work, it has been, as already stated, previously noticed in these pages. A dictionary of birds is a fair trial of strength for any ornithologist. It indispensably requires three possessions: scientific capacity, knowledge of the literature, and the critical faculty; and if the great lexicographer shared the illusion that a language might be "fixed" by making a catalogue of its words, the present dictionary has very largely focussed ornithology to date. But, apart from special ornithology, Professor Newton, his assistant, and three contributors, have probably produced one of the best books on natural history that has appeared in the English language.

two years ago a notice appeared in these pages of a precursor to this book,—we allude to Mr. Keane's 'Ethnology.' That book discussed the fundamental problems of the science; the present work is of a more descriptive ethnological character, and deals with the various races of mankind. The four primary divisions of the Hominidæ, as proposed in his 'Ethnology,' are in the main followed here, due weight being given "to all available data—physical and mental characters, usages, religion, speech, cultural features, history, and geographical range." Whenever two or more groups are found agreeing in all, or at least in the more essential, of such elements, they are treated as branches of one stock. "So far, and no farther, is a strictly zoological or genetic classification possible in the present state of the multifarious inhabitants of the globe."

There was a time in Anthropology, and probably that period is not closed, when the non-acceptors of the evolutionary view