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BENTHAM AND HOOKER Genera plantarum ad exem

THAM et J. D. HOOKER. Vol. I. Pars 1. Sistens Dicotyledonum polypetalarum ordines LVI. [Ranunculaceas-Connaraceas.] Royal 8vo. Cloth. 218

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IERS (J.) CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY, Iconographic and descriptive, detailing the Characters of Plants that are either new, or imperfectly described; to which are added, Remarks on their Affinities. Vol. I. 1851-61. 42 plates. 4to. Cloth. 1862. 36s

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[CCOY and GRIFFITH on the CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE FOSSILS of IRELAND. A Synopsis of the Characters of the Carboniferous Limestone Fossils of Ireland. Prepared by F. McCoy, Professor of Natural Sciences in the University of Melbourne, for Sir R. GRIFFITH, BART., F.RS.E., F.G.S., etc. etc. By whom is now appended a list of the Fossil Localities, as arranged for the Journal of the Geological Society of Dublin, according to the stratigraphical subdivisions of the Carboniferous System adopted in his Geological Map of Ireland. (With 29 lithographic plates.) 4to. Cloth. 258

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CCOY and SALTER. A SYNOPSIS of the SILURIAN
FOSSILS of Ireland. (With 5 lithographic plates.) 4to. Cloth. 78 6d

DAVY (John, M.D.) ON SOME OF THE MORE IMPORT

ANT DISEASES OF THE ARMY, with Contributions to Pathology, by John Davy, M.D., F.R.S., Lond. and Ed., Inspector-General of Army Hospitals, etc. 8vo. Cloth. 158

SMITH

MITH (Aquilla) THE BLOWPIPE VADE MECUM. The Blowpipe Characters of Minerals: deduced from original Observations. Edited by Rev. S. Haughton and Rob. H. Scott. 8vo. Cloth bds. 1862. 48

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CHERER-BLANFORD. INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF THE MOUTH-BLOWPIPE, by T. Scherer. Together with a Description of the Blowpipe characters of the more important Minerals, by H. F. Blanford. 12mo. Cloth. 38 6d

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AHON (G. C.) THE MINERAL AGENT'S HANDBOOK, edited by Rev. S. Haughton, M.A, F.R.S., President of the Geological Society of Dublin; and R. H. Scott, M.A., Secretary to the Geological Society and Lecturer in Mineralogy to the Royal Dublin Society. 8vo. Cloth. 1862. 4s

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a view to facilitate the study of GEOLOGY, and of the application of Mineral substances in the Arts. The Lectures will begin on WEDNESDAY Morning, October 8, at Nine o'clock. They will be continued on each succeeding FRIDAY and WEDNESDAY, at the same hour. Fee, £2. 28. R. W. JELF, D.D., Principal.

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BIBLIOTHECA ENTOMOLOGICA.

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PALAEONTOLOGIA INDICA. Being FIGURES and Descrip

TIONS of the ORGANIC REMAINS procured during the progress of the GEOLOGICAL SURVEY of INDIA. Published by order of the Governor-General, under the direction of Dr. THOMAS OLDHAM. Part 1. The Fossil Cephalopoda of the Cretaceous Rocks of South India (Belemitidæ-Nautilida), by H. F. BLANFORD. 25 plates. Royal 4to. Price 158

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EMOIRS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA.
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1. On the Geological Structure and Relations of the Raniganj Coal Field, Bengal, by W. T. BLANFORD, with additional Remarks by Dr. T. OLDHAM. With large map, geologically coloured.

2. Indian Mineral Statistics. I. Coal.

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BIBLIOTHECA HISTORICO-NATURALIS.-1846-60.

BIBLIOTHECA ZOOLOGICA: The Literature of Zoology

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QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE.

Reviews.

XXXIII.

1. BERICHT ÜBER DIE ZUSAMMENKUNFT EINIGER ANTHROPOLOGEN, in September 1861, in Göttingen. Leipzig, 1861.

2. ZUR MORPHOLOGIE DER RASSEN-SCHÄDEL. Von Dr. J. C. G. Lucæ. Frankfurt, 1861.

3. THE MENSURATION OF THE HUMAN SKULL. By J. Aitkin Meigs, M.D. Philadelphia, 1861.

4. LE KEPHALOGRAPHE. Nouvel Instrument destiné à déterminer la Figure et les Dimensions du Crane ou de la Tête Humaine. Par P. Harting. Utrecht, 1861.

5. ESSAI SUR LES DÉFORMATIONS ARTIFICIELLES DU CRANE. Par L. A. Gosse. Paris, 1855.

6. CRANIOMETRIE OF ONDERZOEK VAN DEN MENSCHELIJKEN SCHEDEL BIJ VERSCHILLENDE VOLKEN, IN VERGELIJKING MET DIEN VAN DEN ORANG OETAN. Door J. A. Kool. Amsterdam, 1852. 7. UNTERSUCHUNGEN ÜBER SCHÄDELFORMEN. Von Dr. Joseph Engel. Prague, 1851.

8. OBSERVATIONS ON THE HUMAN CRANIA contained in the Museum of the Army Medical Department, Fort Pitt, Chatham. Crania Britannica. By J. Thurnam and J. B. Davis, 1858-62. [With Plate VIII.]

THE above long list of comparatively recent works, chiefly on the subject of Craniometry, or on the various modes in which the dimensions, proportions, and form of the Human Cranium may be estimated and defined, and to which numerous additions of prior date might be made, will alone suffice to show, how much importance is now deservedly attached to this branch of COMPARATIVE ANTHROPOLOGY. A term, first proposed, we believe, by the illus

N. H. R.-1862.

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trious v. Baer, and under which is comprehended that department of the great science of General Anthropology which embraces more particularly the study of the physical characters of the different varieties of the Human Race, and which has of late assumed more and more the features of a definite branch of Science.

Long confined in great measure to Ethnologists, and not very sedulously, and by no means very successfully cultivated even by them, it has in more recent times begun to claim its due importance in the eyes of the Zoologist and Comparative Anatomist. It has also become one of the most useful aids to the Archæologist, and even, it may be said, to the Geologist, whose pursuits seem at length to be converging to a common point.

The great questions embraced by Comparative Anthropology, concern not only the true nature and value of the diversities so manifestly exhibited in the different varieties of the existing races of mankind, but also those relating to the connection between them and the priscan populations whose remains have of late years more especially occupied the attention of philosophical enquirers.

Much has been done and great labour has been expended on this branch of science, but, nevertheless, some of the most important problems connected with it still await solution. Its hitherto limited progress may be assigned to several circumstances, amongst which it may chiefly perhaps be noticed that the purely physical enquirywith which, regarding Comparative Anthropology as a part of Zoology, we alone have to do,-has been in great measure postponed as it were to the philological; a course which a little consideration will, we think, show to be unlikely to lead to any satisfactory result. is also attended with inherent difficulties of its own, regarded simply as a physical enquiry. The difficulties attending the investigation of the diversities of human beings, it is scarcely necessary to observe are far greater than are met with in other branches of Zoology. In the case of animals and plants, copious collections can be made and stored up in museums for accurate and leisurely examination and comparison, but it would be impossible to make similar collections of the different forms of the human race. At best but few perfect specimens of pure or unmixed races (to use an indefinite term) can be obtained, and the Anthropologist at home is compelled to rely for the materials of his studies upon the incomplete descriptions and imperfect figures of travellers, or upon such fragmentary portions of the body as can be easily obtained and transported.

A Gorilla or a Chimpanzee can be caught and sent alive to the Zoological Gardens, or killed and forwarded in a cask of rum to the British Museum, but loud would be the outcry were similar attempts made to promote the study of Anthropology.

It follows that the principal part of our materials for this study can consist only of the more permanent and portable portions of the frame. Amongst these it is manifest, for many reasons, that the cranium taken singly is by far the most important, and it is to this

part of the skeleton, therefore, that the labours of the Comparative Anthropologist have necessarily been mainly devoted.

The study is of course chiefly of a morphological nature, and depends therefore for its data upon measurement and delineation.

Hence have arisen the arts of CRANIOMETRY and CRANIOGRAPHY,` which form the subjects of the following observations.

Easy as it might at first sight seem to be to contrive such a system of measurement, as would suffice to give a tolerably good notion of the capacity and relative proportions of the cranium, it has not been found so easy in practice; and although to an artist it may appear a facile task to produce a faithful picture of a skull, experience has shown that the great majority of figures hitherto given are absolutely worthless for accurate comparison, or in fact for any scientific purpose.

For these reasons it happens that the expensive and valuable materials for craniological enquiry collected in many places, have as yet not been rendered so available to science as they might have been, no means having hitherto been devised by so describing and delineating the objects contained in them as to render it needless for enquirers to visit the collections themselves, if they desire to institute exact comparisons.

This has arisen mainly from the want of a precise and common plan of investigation, and of recording the observations made.

Without some common plan of operations, it is extremely difficult, and in some respects impossible to institute such comparisons between the data of different observers, as are alone sufficient for the deduction from them of reliable general results.

The necessity of some such accord among Anthropologists has long been felt, and has daily become more and more imperative, as the importance of their science has become more extensively perceived. Inspired by this need, Prof. v. Baer, to whom science is already so deeply indebted, in conjunction with Prof. R. Wagner, issued in August, 1861, an invitation to a select number of German and other Craniologists to meet, in the, to them, classic town of Göttingen, and confer upon the general interests of Anthropology, but more especially to agree, if they could, upon the adopting of some uniform system of measurements, and upon some plan of making drawings, casts, or other representations of the cranium. This meeting, which, as a preliminary one, was purposely confined to a few, accordingly met in the month of September, and consisted of Prof. v. Baer, R. Wagner, Vrolik, Lucæ, Bergmann, Meissner, and E. H. Weber, and one or two others, whilst communications were received from Prof. Schaffhausen and Prof. Harting. Names alone sufficient to show the reliance that may be placed upon the result of their deliberations, and highly auspicious for the future progress of Anthropology.

After some introductory observations from Prof. v. Baer, who worthily occupied the chair in such an assembly, in which he gave a general and very interesting survey of the scope and state of Anthro

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