46 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



BOOK NOTICE. 



The Antiquity of Man. By Arthur Keith, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 pp. XX. + 519, and 189 illustrations. London: Williams & Norgate. 

 Price los. 6d. net. 



Professor Keith sets himself to interpret the evolution of the human 

 races from the phases of physical development through which man has 

 passed. To this narrow path of research he confines himself almost 

 to the extent of abstracting the individual from his surroundings 

 that he may exhibit him in the anatomical museum. From the 

 naturalist's point of view there is much to be said for such a method of 

 treatment, for only thus can be gained a sound knowledge of man's 

 scramble up the zoological tree from the point where he parted company 

 with the ancestral primates. Yet one cannot forget tliat brain capacities 

 are but rough indices to man's progress, and that his mental develop- 

 ment — a matter of vital significance — is perhaps better gauged by a 

 study of the products of his handiwork. Therefore the author wisely 

 suggests that his anatomical description may profitably be considered 

 in relation with the researches of the anthropologist. 



Professor Keith discusses the characteristics of primitive man, from 

 the neolithic peoples backward through the ages, and his estimates 

 of the relationships of the early types have led to many conclusions of 

 interest to the naturalist. He considers that man made many false 

 starts on the evolutionary track, before the ancestor of the modern races 

 arose. On the side branches of the evolutionary tree he places such 

 forms as the Neandertal and Piltdown man ; and since the latter lived 

 not later than the beginning of the Pleistocene period— say 40o,(.oo 

 years ago — he would place the parting point between the human and 

 primate stems more than a million years back, in the early half of Tertiary 

 times. The diagrams which illustrate the development of the human 

 stock and its relationship to that of the higher monkeys illustrate 

 vividly the long ages involved in the evolution of animal life. 



Apart from its general appeal as a lucid history of the prehistoric 

 races of humanity. Professor Keith's book will prove a useful guide to 

 the student on account of its detailed description and its excellent 

 exposition of the methods employed by the anatomist in interpreting the 

 fragments which, unfortunately, too often represent all that remains of 

 ancient man. Special commendation is due to the illustrative method 

 of enclosing the reconstructed skulls in a standard frame representing 

 the average dimensions of a modern English skull, an innovation which 

 emphasises at a glance changes in form scarcely to be appreciated in 

 series of numbers. — J. R. 



