gesture and posture signs is next discussed, showing the intimate relation between a thought as expressed without words by signs, and a thought expressed without words by pictures corresponding to those signs. _Conventionalizing_ is divided into conventional devices, which were the precursors of writing, and the syllabaries and alphabets evolved. The pictographic origin of all the current alphabets of the world, often before discussed, receives further explanation. While comparison by the reader between all the illustrations and the facts recorded and the suggestions submitted about them is essential to the utility of the work, the author gives, as representing his own mode of study, found to be advantageous in use, a chapter on _Special Comparison_, divided into (1) Typical style, (2) Homomorphs and symmorphs, (3) Composite forms, (4) Artistic skill and methods. This chapter is followed by one with which it is closely connected, styled _Means of Interpretation_, divided into (1) Marked characters of known significance, (2) Distinctive costumes, weapons, and ornaments, (3) Ambiguous characters with known meanings, the latter being chiefly a collection of separate figures which would not be readily recognized without labels, but which are understood through reliable authority. Finally, under the rather noncommittal title of _Controverted Pictographs_, the subjects of fraud and error are discussed with striking examples and useful cautions. From this brief paraphrase of the table of contents, it is obvious that nearly all branches of anthropology are touched upon. It is also to be remarked that the work is unique because it presents the several anthropologic topics recorded by the Indians themselves according to their unbiased conceptions, and in their own mode of writing. From this point of view the anonymous and generally unknown pictographers may be considered to be the primary authors of the treatise and Col. Mallery a discoverer, compiler, and editor. But such depreciative limitation of his functions would ignore the originality of treatment pervading the work and the systematic classification and skillful analysis shown in it which enhance its value and interest. FINANCIAL STATEMENT. _Classification of expenditures made from the appropriation for North American ethnology for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889._ Amount of appropriation 1888-’89 $40,000.00 =========== EXPENSES.