Genre:

Regular Feature, Editorial, News-Commentary

Relevant illustrations:

photo. [2], map

Subjects:

Ethnography, Observation, Utilitarianism, Scientism, Steamships, Accidents, Railways, Error

    Comments on the popular 'prejudice against cannibalism' provoked by the late James S Jameson's 'scientific investigations into the existence of the custom' in central Africa. Relates how 'Possessing the scientific temperament, Mr. Jameson, hearing stories of cannibalism, refused to believe what he had never seen'. He 'put it to the test' by watching a group of cannibals kill and eat a slave girl, sketching the scene 'with the utilitarian nonchalance of a man of science' and 'congratulating himself on his unique experience'. (541) Also records (with the help of photographs and a map) the sinking of HMS Serpent off the Spanish Atlantic coast, as well as a 'disastrous' railway accident near Taunton caused by the human error of a signalman. (542–43)