REVIEWS 683 



The History of Social Development. By Dr. F. Muller-Lyer. Translated 

 by E. C. and H. A. Lake, [Pp. 362.] (London : George Allen & 

 Unwin, 1920. Price i8s. net.) 



Dr. Muller-Lyer' s Phasen der Kultur, of which this book is a translation, 

 is the first of a series of six volumes in which the author gives a comprehensive 

 treatment of the whole course of man's social development. The title of this 

 volume belongs rather to the work as a whole than to this first part, which 

 deals primarily with the economic stages of culture. The first book (63 pp.), 

 however, forms a general introduction to the whole series, dealing briefly 

 with the nature of the science of culture and with the origin of the human 

 race. At the end of the volume there is an even more general disquisition 

 on the nature of progress, the age and probable duration of the earth, and 

 the relation of culture and happiness. This is characteristic of the author's 

 whole treatment of his subject, which tends to excessive generalisation. 

 Moreover, the ethnological and geographical aspects of culture are unduly 

 neglected, and sometimes forcibly subordinated to the author's economic 

 schematisation. What real value can there be in a classification (p. 95) 

 which places in a single economic-cultural group such diverse peoples as the 

 Bedouin, the naked Dinka of the Nile swamps, and the Galla of the well- 

 watered Abyssinian highlands ? A similar disregard of modern ethnology 

 is shown by the author when he describes the peoples of the Mediterranean 

 area as consisting of three races, Semitic, Hamitic, and Aryan ; and the same 

 passage contains a truly surprising reference to the Assyrio-Babylonians of 

 Asia Minor. 



However, the central thesis of the book is an economic one. Dr. Miiller- 

 Lyer divides the economic history of the world into three epochs : that of 

 class organisation, which includes all primitive peoples ; that of industrial 

 organisation, which includes the societies of early classical times and of 

 mediaeval Europe ; and that of capitalistic organisation, which includes in 

 its earlier stage the highest development of the classical world, and Western 

 Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, and in its later stage 

 the modern world only. Finally, he regards 1881 as marking the beginning 

 of a new epoch — that of world economy and socialised industry. 



The book contains a very full analysis of contents but no index. The 

 references to authorities quoted in the text are insufficient, and contain 

 numerous misprints. It requires, for instance, some effort of mind to realise 

 that the reference at the foot of p. 186, Conrado Handw. u. Staatsw.. is in- 

 tended to refer to an unspecified volume and article in Conrad's Handw5rter- 

 buch der Staatswissenschaften. The translation also is not free from mis- 

 takes, such as Metoken for Metics, and "the Third Position" instead of 

 "the Third Estate." 



H. O. Dawson. 



Optical Projection : A Treatise on the Use of the Lantern in Exhibitions and 

 Scientific Demonstrations. By Lewis Wright. Fifth Edition. Re- 

 written and brought up to date by Russell S. Wright, M.I.E.E. In 

 two parts. Part I, The Projection of Lantern Slides. [Pp. viii + 87.] 

 (London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1920. Price 4s. 6d. net.) 



The first edition of this work was written by Mr. Lewis Wright as long ago 

 as 1890. It passed through three successive editions, and has rightly been 

 regarded as the standard work on lantern projection apparatus during that 

 period. The original work covered practically the whole range of optical 

 projection, but this edition covers that dealing with the projection of lantern 

 slides only ; the second part of the demonstration of opaque and microscopic 

 objects and other scientific phenomena is to be dealt with at a later date. 

 There is considerable need for a book of this type, as lantern demonstrations 



