REVIEWS 529 



More Minor Horrors. By A. E. Shipley, Sc.D., F.R.S. [Pp. xiv 4- 163, with 

 49 illustrations.] (London : Smith, Elder & Co., 1916. Price 2s. net, cloth; 

 is. 6d. net, paper cover.) 

 THIS volume forms a continuation of the author's Minor Horrors of War, reviewed 

 last year. It is written in the same easy and pleasant style. There are fourteen 

 chapters devoted to accounts of the anatomy, life-history, and economics of various 

 insects and of rats. The subjects dealt with are cockroaches, the bot or warble 

 fly, the mosquito (at considerable length), the yellow-fever mosquito, the biscuit 

 weevil, the fig-moth, the stable fly, and rats and field mice. 



The trouble caused to our sailors by cockroaches on board ship, both by the 

 annoyance they cause and by the consumption of food supplies, is related. The 

 ravages of the bot or warble fly in leather, in meat, and indirectly in the milk 

 supply are set forth. The attacks of this insect may cause cattle to stampede. It 

 is the larva which is harmful, as the mature fly is rarely seen. Anopheles macirfi- 

 pennis is described in detail, and its harmfulness as a transmitter of malaria is 

 pointed out. When camping in the tropics, it is always well to keep to the wind- 

 ward of a native village, as the insects may be blown for some distance by the 

 wind. Anti-mosquito measures are clearly stated. 



The larva of the so-called biscuit " weevil " burrows into and attacks the dried 

 biscuit — the " hard-tack" of the Navy. Again, it is the larval stage (or " worm") 

 which is so harmful in the case of the fig-moth, Ephestia cautella. The stable fly, 

 Stomoxys calcitrans, spreads trypanosomiasis or " surra " among horses and cattle 

 in the tropics. The spreading of acute epidemic poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis 

 is also attributed to this fly. The book concludes with an interesting account of 

 rats and field mice. Plague may be conveyed by the former, and the latter are a 

 nuisance in the cornfields. 



F. 



ANTHROPOLOGY 



The Men of the Old Stone Age. Their Environment, Life, and Art. The 

 Hitchcock Lectures of the University of California for 191 4. By Henry 

 Fairfield Osborn, Sc.D. [Pp. xxvi + 545, with 8 plates and 269 other 

 illustrations.] (London : G. Bell & Sons, Ltd. New Edition, 1916. Price 

 2 1 s. net.) 

 The Palaeolithic Period is evidently a favourite subject with the educated public, 

 for the number of English books dealing in a popular manner with fossil men is 

 now considerable. Within the last three years, large treatises have been written 

 by Profs. James Geikie, W. J. Sollas, and Arthur Keith, and we have now to 

 welcome this massive monograph by Prof. Osborn, who is, of course, one of the 

 leading American authorities on palaeontology. In 191 2 the author went for a 

 tour through that region in Southern France, Northern Spain, and Northern Italy 

 which has long been famous for its palaeolithic relics, and he had the advantage of 

 being shown round the various prehistoric sites by distinguished French archaeolo- 

 gists — Henri Breuil, Emile Cartailhac, and others. The book was first published 

 in June 191 5, and before the end of the year it became necessary to print a second 

 edition. 



The scheme of the book is strictly chronological, and it deals exclusively with 

 the ancient men of Europe and Java, not with the American finds. The greater 

 part of the work is a compilation of well-known facts, such as has often been 

 published before. The usual descriptions of the Javan, Piltdown, Heidelberg, and 

 Neandertal species are given, but on the anatomical points raised the author has 



