5 2 4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



during the Neolithic Age," Chapter V. with the " Origins of Civilisation," Chapter VI. 

 with " the growth and spread of Civilisation," and Chapter VII. with " Man at the 

 Present Day." 



The author defines the word " civilisation " in a much more precise manner 

 than is customary in theses on such subjects, and he protests against the use 

 of such expressions as " the Cro-Magnon civilisation." He points out that 

 primitive hunting tribes live like the lower animals, in that they only maintain 

 an equilibrium with the natural food resources of their environment ; whereas at 

 a certain point human societies go beyond this and increase the natural pro- 

 ductivity of the territory wherein they dwell by taming animals, sowing crops, 

 draining swamps, and so forth. It is this advance which he defines as the 

 beginning of civilisation, and the definition appears to be a good and necessary 

 one. Mr. Spurrell makes some illuminating comments on the institution of 

 slavery, which he regards as an almost uniquely efficient engine of material 

 progress. He points out that sheer indolence has been one of the most serious 

 obstructions to progress. There are many things which a man might mildly 

 desire to have, but with which he will dispense in preference to putting himself to 

 the trouble of working to obtain them. Where, however, conquerors can, with 

 little exertion on their own part, compel other people, a subject population, to 

 labour for them, the conditions are altogether different, and all manner of luxurious 

 desires will be satisfied. Moreover, the slaves themselves, living in hourly dread 

 of the lash or of death, will work as they would never work in any other circum- 

 stances. The reader will find that on these and kindred questions the author has 

 much which is suggestive to say. 



The chief weakness of the book is the over-confident manner in which the 

 author habitually makes his assertions. For instance, Chapter V. begins with a 

 bold announcement that man of the modern type has inhabited the earth for 

 hundreds of thousands of years, and the uninitiated reader would almost certainly 

 infer from p. 5 that the Mendelian theory of heredity and evolution is established 

 beyond dispute. The author naturally builds up his story exclusively on the basis 

 of the theories in which he himself believes, but he should have been more careful 

 (as he is careful in the case of the Galley Hill Skeleton) to let the reader know 

 that many of these theories are notorious matters of controversy in the scientific 

 world. 



A. G. Thacker. 



MEDICINE 



An Introduction to the History of Medicine : with Medical Chronology, 



Suggestions for Study and Bibliographic Data. By Fielding H. 



Garrison, A.B., M.D. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. [Pp. 905, 



with Illustrations.] (Philadelphia and London : W. B. Saunders Company, 



1917.) 



Medical men will be pleased to see that Dr. Garrison's excellent Introduction 



to the History of Medicine has reached a second edition. Very modestly Dr. 



Garrison claims for his book that he has never regarded it as anything " but a 



primer or guide-book to a territory of vast dimensions." It is more than that, for 



it contains biographical matter which is invaluable for reference to every one who 



writes on the past or present of medical science. Moreover, it is extremely 



interesting in itself, and the numerous well-printed portraits add greatly to the 



readers' pleasure and information. It is curious how the same medical type of 



face recurs in most of these portraits ; and just as the priest and the lawyer have 



