REVIEWS 499 



and it is intended for the general reader as well as for students of geology and 

 zoology. It is not a mere textbook, but is, as the author justly claims, a 

 serious introduction to the general results of the science of palaeontology, 

 and to the meaning and implications of these general results. Part I, 

 including j&ve chapters, deals with the " materials, methods, and principles " 

 of palaeontology. Part II is entitled " Historical Biology," and consists of 

 six chapters dealing in a general manner with the respective invertebrate 

 faunas of the pre-Cambrian, Proterozoic, Deuterozoic, Mesozoic, and Caino- 

 zoic eras, and finally with " crises in evolution." The book has much less 

 purely descriptive matter in it than an ordinary textbook, and much more 

 discussion of general problems. Indeed, whether intentionally or otherwise, 

 the author assumes on the part of the reader a very considerable knowledge 

 of geological and zoological facts — and of geological and zoological termino- 

 logy — and we think the book is too difficult for the general reader. It is 

 also not likely to interest many geologists, except such as are also avowedly 

 palaeontologists. But to zoologists it should have real value. Mr. Hawkins 

 writes throughout from a thoroughly evolutionary point of view, and advanced 

 zoological students, who wish to understand the kind of illumination that 

 palaeontology throws and may throw upon zoological theory, would do well 

 to consider carefully what the author has to say. In particular, the last 

 chapter in Part I, which is entitled " Biological Palaeontology," is full of 

 suggestive ideas, which give much food for thought, whether or not the reader 

 agrees with all the suggestions thrown out. This important chapter could 

 have borne, however, a fuller infusion of modern zoological philosophy, and, 

 among other things, the author appears to accept too readily and too generally 

 the theory of recapitulation in development. The discussion of hemerae 

 and " morphogenetic modes " in chapter iv of Part I should be very valuable 

 and suggestive to zoologists. Part II is clearly written, but would have gained 

 by less meagre references to foreign strata, even though the book is intended 

 for English readers. For instance, it is unfortunate that the Algonkian 

 should have been dismissed in a few lines. The illustrations are good, and 

 the publishers must be commended for the low price at which the book is 

 produced — which is almost " pre-war." A. G. T. 



Totem and Taboo. By Professor S. Freud, LL.D. Authorised English 

 translation by A. A. Brill, M.D. [Pp. xii + 268.] (London : G. 

 Routledge & Sons, 1919. Price los. 6d. net.) 



This new work by Professor Freud consists of a series of four essays, which 

 were originally published independently, but which all have the common 

 object of pointing out the " resemblances between the psychic lives of 

 savages and neurotics." The author explains that the essays represent his 

 " first efforts to apply view^points and results of psycho-analysis to unex- 

 plained problems of racial psychology." The four chapters respectively 

 deal with : (i) The Savage's Dread of Incest ; (2) Taboo and the ambivalence 

 of the Emotions ; (3) Animism, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought ; 

 and (4) The Infantile Recurrence of Totemism. The author is able to deal 

 with taboo much more thoroughly and — as he himself acknowledges — much 

 more successfully than with totemism. This is no doubt due to the fact 

 that the phenomena of taboo are much better understood by ethnologists 

 than is totemism. The second essay is extremely interesting, and the parallel 

 between the symptoms of what are called " compulsion neurotics " and the 

 superstitions of savages cannot be regarded as other than most striking. 

 The same inner anxiety and dread, the same meticulous observance of mean- 

 ingless rules, are to be found in both cases. And the instances of savage 

 superstitions given in this chapter bring home forcibly to the reader what a 

 painful mass of illusions, what a mountain of dominating conceptions that 

 bear no relation to objective reality the savage carries about with him 



