RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 567 



savage countries sometimes display to revert to savagery them- 

 selves. And he thinks that the wild, bizarre forms of art 

 are psychologically analogous to this weird tendency to revert 

 to savagery. And he makes this suggestion notwithstanding 

 the fact that the art produced by savages themselves is of an 

 entirely different and indeed much higher character. 



The last point brought forward in this interesting paper 

 is that the artistic efforts of persons suffering from mental 

 disorders display in an exaggerated degree " the same desire 

 to escape from the shackles of civilised complexity and revert 

 to simpler conditions." The Presidential Address is certainly 

 the most original contribution to the study of primitive art 

 which has been published for some time. 



The remaining articles in this number of the Journal, 

 though few in number, are of unusually great interest. Prof. 

 Giuffrida-Ruggeri contributes an article entitled " A Sketch 

 of the Anthropology of Italy." He discusses in small space, 

 but in very considerable detail, the distribution, according to 

 provinces, of the different Italian types ; and the criteria of 

 these types which he takes relate to height, colouring, character 

 of hair, cephalic index, so-called nasal index, cranial capacity, 

 and weight of the brain. In regard to colouring, it may be 

 mentioned here that in Italy generally the pure brown type 

 (that is, black hair and black or dark brown eyes) amounts 

 to just over 25 per cent, of the population. The pure blond 

 type is represented by only 3 per cent. The remainder of 

 the population is made up of what he calls the mixed brown 

 and the mixed blond types, with the former much predominat- 

 ing. 



The last paper in this number is also unusually suggestive. 

 This is entitled " Anthropology and our Older Histories," and 

 is by H. J. Fleure and Miss L. Winstanley. The authors 

 put forward the hypothesis that according to recent anthro- 

 pological and archaeological evidence the ancient histories 

 and legends would seem to contain a greater element of fact 

 than has been generally supposed during the last few decades. 

 Among other matters they instance the undoubted connection 

 between Spanish Galicia and the Celtic fringe of Europe, and 

 they even think that the ancient stories about Stonehenge 

 may not be altogether devoid of truth. 



There is also a well-written article by Carveth Read entitled 



