1897] SOME NEW BOOKS l»7:i 



species by means of natural selection as a superficial conjecture, and 

 hopes for a speedy recognition that Darwin's deduction, as he calls it, 

 was a most unfortunate one. Supposing it to have heen so, the world 

 could well do with one or two more misfortunes of a similar kind. 



Dr Hansen's hook is in English. This is evidently part of a 

 conspiracy to discourage the English-speaking peoples from studying 

 foreign languages, a plot in which llussia has, unfortunately, not yet 

 joined. The translation from the Danish manuscript has heen well 

 executed by Miss Louise von Cossel. It is unlucky that one fre- 

 quently recurring word has heen too literally rendered 'list,' not in 

 any of the accepted English senses of the word, hut to signify a ridge 

 or linear prominence, or possibly a seam or an unraised line of 

 hardening of the integument. In naming the mouth organs Dr 

 Hansen himself adopts the terms maxillulae and maxillae, respectively 

 for the first and second maxillae, on the analogy of antennulae and 

 antennae for the first and second antennae. The great objection to 

 these terms is that sometimes the first maxillae and the first antennae 

 are larger, even very much larger, than the second, and then the 

 diminutives are misleading. As a matter of fact, in a paper published 

 only last year by F. Vejdovsky, the second antennae are called the 

 antennules. The confusion is not unnatural in describing Anrphi- 

 pods, which often have the second antennae shorter than the first, 

 occasionally less than one-fifth as long. But these are not matters of 

 vital concern. For the pith and marrow of the research the reader 

 must have recourse to Dr Hansen's volume. It is a masterly piece 

 of work, which will confirm and increase his high repute as a 

 naturalist of distinction. T. R R S. 



Prehistoric Problems, being a Selection of Essays on the Evolution of Man and other 

 Controverted Problems in Anthropology and Archaeology. By Robert Munro, 

 M.A., M.D. 8vo, pp. xix. + 371. London: Blackwood, 1897. Price, 10s. 



In these days of scattered scientific literature, the bringing together 

 into a single volume of a number of essays by one author is a very 

 desirable thing, particularly when, as in the present instance, the 

 author is a scientist of distinction. Although the volume contains 

 comparatively little that has not already appeared in print, Dr 

 Alunro's newly-published selected essays on " Prehistoric Problems " 

 will be welcomed by many as a valuable addition to Archaeological 

 literature. The book consists of a number of chapters, each of which 

 is a separate and distinct essay. This collection of essays is of a 

 decidedly heterogeneous nature, comprising as it does so varied a 

 selection of subjects as : The Pise and Progress of Anthropology ; 

 Man's Antiquity and Place in Nature ; Prehistoric Trepanning ; Otter 

 Traps ; Bone Skates ; and Prehistoric Saws and Sickles. The very 

 varied nature of the subjects discussed imparts a character of in- 

 equality to the volume, and imposes a certain lack of proportion, 

 which is evident to the reader who, taking the book as a whole, 

 would read it straight through from beginning to end. Taken indi- 

 vidually, the essays are decidedly both instructive and interesting, and 

 the first four, which form Part I. of the volume, may well be taken 

 together, as they form a very fairly eonneeted and consecutive series. 



