REVIEWS 679 



mental and physical instability and disharmony," one does not discover ele- 

 phants and whales to be neurasthenic ; while his further assumption that the 

 human brain is so " highly specialised " that " intellectual evolution has virtu- 

 ally come to an end " will scarcely find universal acceptance. 



The analysis of Evolution and Democracy is from the teleological stand- 

 point of " the larger freedom of society," based, however, " on reason and 

 ethics, rather than upon tropisms and instincts." Yet the author's attitude 

 to so-called " instincts " is not clear. " Instincts and emotions," in one case 

 (p. 153), are causative of class, racial, and national hatred ; while elsewhere 

 (p. 155) they afford " the firm foundation upon which democracy rests." 



Conventional too, is the author's insistence that "reason and consciousness" 

 are the " most distinctive of human traits " — " they have revealed to us a 

 world of evil as well as good, a world of struggle and failure, of suffering and 

 sorrow . . ." ; — and that " religion answers to a real human need." The chap- 

 ters on Science and Religion expand these conceptions. No attempt is made 

 to examine critically the basal postulates ; first, whether man's consciousness 

 does differ fundamentally from that of other animals ; or, second, what is the 

 origin of the " good and bad " antithesis to which religion provides the answer. 



The series of essays is dominated by an expectant and open spirit of inquiry. 

 Their keynote is the liberal doctrine that " love of man is more fundamental 

 than love of country." The work is to be welcomed, not only as the state- 

 ment of the attitude of mind of one of the foremost of American embryo- 

 logists, but also because it responds to the call for pertinent biological know- 

 ledge in the attempted solutions of human problems. 



Raymond A. Dart. 



Exploration of Air. Out of the World North of Nigeria. By Captain Angus 

 Buchanan, M.C. [Pp. xxiii + 258.] (London : John Murray, 1921. 

 Price 1 6s. net.) 



This book is a narrative of a journey to Air, an unknown region lying some 

 600 miles due north of Kano. Although visited by Dr. Barth seventy years 

 ago, the flora and fauna were quite unknown until Captain Buchanan went there 

 on behalf of Lord Rothschild. The value of the collections made on this 

 journey is evident from the large number of species and subspecies, new to 

 science, of mammals, birds, butterflies and moths, lists of which are given in 

 the Appendix at the end of the book. 



The surprisingly large number of new things discovered in and around 

 Kano itself shows that little interest can be taken by the Nigerian officials in 

 Natural History ! 



Captain Buchanan gives us an excellent description of the country, which 

 appears to be not unlike the coastal regions of the Horn of Africa and the Red 

 Sea littoral, and this is further borne out by the mammals, practically all of 

 which have their local prototypes and representatives in the coastal regions of 

 East Africa. 



I do not think that many British officers will agree with Captain Buchanan 

 when he says on p. 147 that the mess-room at the fort at Agades, with its fur- 

 niture made of packing-cases, and cigarette tins serving as salt and pepper pots, 

 and drinking glasses made from wine bottles cut down, is " a fair sample of 

 the humble extent that civilised people can improve upon " the natives' ideas 

 of comfort " when thrown entirely on the scant resources of a wilderness." 



The Tuareg's knowledge of the birds and beasts and plants of his country 

 is shared by most of the nomadic races and not a few of those tribes who live 

 mainly by agriculture. This faculty has astonished more than one traveller, 

 who knows only too well the complete ignorance of the subject among the 

 majority of his own countrymen. It is, however, not surprising that a native 

 shepherd who spends the day out in the bush with his herds of camels, sheep, 

 and goats must soon begin to recognise and know by heart the habits of the 



