LITERARY NOTICES. 



537 



complex growth, can only be tlioroughly 

 understood when studied through its entire 

 range ; as the past is continually needed to 

 explain the present, and the whole to ex- 

 plain a part. The matters here discussed 

 have been chosen, not so much for their 

 absolute importance as because, while they 

 are among the easiest and most inviting 

 parts of the subject, it is possible so to 

 work them as to bring into view certain 

 general lines of argument which apply not 

 only to them, but also to the more complex 

 and difficult problems involved in a com- 

 plete treatise on the history of civilization. 



The book contains essays upon " Gesture 

 Language"; "Word Language"; "Pic- 

 ture-Writing and Word- Writing" ; " Images 

 and Names " ; " Growth and Decline of 

 Culture " ; " The Stone Age, Past and Pres- 

 ent " ; " Fire, Cooking, and Vessels " ; 

 "Some Remarkable Customs"; "Histori- 

 cal Traditions and Myths of Observation " ; 

 "Geographical Distribution of Myths " ; and 

 " Concluding Remarks." One or two ex- 

 tracts from the last chapter will give the 

 reader an idea of the spirit in which the 

 inquiry is pursued. The author says : 



The facts collected seem to favor the view 

 that the wide differences in the civilization and 

 mental state of the various races of mankind 

 are rather differences of development than of 

 origin, rather of degree than of kind. . . . The 

 state of things which is foimd is not indeed that 

 one race does or knows exactly what another 

 race does or knows, but that similar stages of 

 development recur in different times and places. 

 There is reason to infer that our ancestors in 

 remote times made fire with a machine mnch 

 like that of the modern Esquimaux, and at a 

 far later date they used the bow and arrow, as 

 so many savage tribes do still. The foregoing 

 chapters, treating of the history of some early 

 arts, of the practice of sorcery, of curious cus- 

 toms and superstitions, are indeed full of in- 

 stances of the recurrence of like phenomena in 

 the remotest regions of the world. We might 

 reasonably expect that men of like minds, when 

 placed under widely different circumstances of 

 country, climate, vegetable and animal life, etc., 

 should develop very various phenomena of civ- 

 ilization, and we even know by evidence that 

 they actually do so ; but, ueverthele«s, it slrik- 

 ingly illustrates the extent of mental uniform- 

 ity among mankind to notice that It is really 

 difficult to find among a list of twenty items of 

 art or knowledge, custom or snperstition, taken 

 at random from a description of any uncivilized 

 race, a single one to which something closely 

 analogous may not be found elsewhere among 

 some other race, unlike the first in physical 

 characters and living thousands of miles off. 

 VOL. XIT. — 35 



It is taking a somewhat extreme case to put 

 the Australians to such a test, for they are, per- 

 haps, the most peculiar of the lower varieties 

 of man, yet, among the arts, beliels, and cus- 

 toms found among their tribes, there are com- 

 paratively few that can not be matched else- 

 where. They raise scars on their bodies like 

 African tribes; they circumcise like the Jews 

 and Arabs ; they bar marriage iu the female line 

 like the Iroquois; they drop out of their lan- 

 guage the names of piants and animals which 

 have been used as the personal names of dead 

 men and make new words to serve instead, like 

 the Abipones of South America ; they bewitch 

 their enemies with locks of hair ; and pretend 

 to cure the sick by sucking out stones through 

 their skin, as is done in so many other regions. 

 It is true that among their weapons they have 

 one of very marked peculiarity, the boomerang, 

 but the rest of their armory are but varieties of 

 instruments common elsewhere. They show 

 but few exceptions to the general rule that 

 whatever is found in one place in the world may 

 be matched more or less closely elsewhere. 



The author believes that " the history 

 of mankind has been, on the whole, a his- 

 tory of progress." Some facts are quoted 

 which bear on the possible degeneracy of 

 savage tribes when driven out into the des- 

 ert, or otherwise reduced to destitution, or 

 losing their old arts in the presence of a 

 higher civilization ; but there seems ground 

 for thinking that such degeneration has 

 been rather of a local tnan of a general 

 character, and has affected the fortunes of 

 particular tribes rather than those of the 

 world at large. 



Man PAL OF Intropuctort Chkmical Prac- 

 tice. For the Use of Students in Col- 

 leges and High-Schools. By George C. 

 Caldwell, S. B., Ph. D., and Abram A. 

 Brexeman, S. B., Chemical Professors in 

 Cornell University. Second edition, re- 

 vised and corrected. New York : D. 

 Van Nostrand. 1878. Price, $1.50, 



Ix its earliest form this work consisted 

 of detached sheets for the use of students 

 of chemical practice. Corrected by trial, 

 they were published in book form two years 

 ago. We have now the second edition, in 

 which the authors, guided by their larger 

 experience, have been able better to adapt 

 the work to tlie average capacity of stu- 

 dents. Some experiments have been modi- 

 fied or rejected and others introduced, and 

 another section added to the introduction 

 for the help of teachers. The experiments 

 are chosen to illustrate principles, and in 

 the performance of the experiment the stu- 



