550 NATURAL SCIENCE. sept., 



must be artificial because they occur on other kinds of rock beside 

 granite — would be all very well if he could find them on slate or 

 limestone ; but as he can elsewhere only quote them from the coarse 

 grits of the Peak and similar rocks, which weather in exactly the 

 same way as granite, they really support the view of their natural 

 origin. The same explanation no doubt applies to the " ringed 

 stones," for which the author adopts the term "tolmens"; and so 

 many authors accept this word as synonymous with "dolmens," as 

 does the Ordnance Survey in its map of Dartmoor, that a few words 

 of explanation might well have been inserted. 



The easy demolition of the " Druids' basins" encourages Mr. Page 

 to run a tilt against the whole order of those holy men : he repeatedly 

 denies all evidence for the existence of Druids anywhere on Dartmoor. 

 If the author merely wishes to throw discredit on the fables of the 

 burning wicker cages, which were probably invented for the edification 

 of the ladies in Rome, and were no more reliable than the missionary 

 stories of a later age, no one is likely to quarrel with him ; but he 

 seems to mean more than this. It is quite clear that the Bronze age 

 people had a firm belief in immortality and some sort of religious 

 ritual ; this inevitably meant priests and collections. So long as one 

 calls these priests " Druids" there seems to be little objection to the 

 use of the term. To be consistent, Mr. Page must also deny the 

 existence of Druids in Wiltshire, for the Drewsteignton Spinster's 

 Stone is as fine a trilithon as the Fyfield Devil's Den ; in that case 

 he might as well deny the existence of Druids anywhere and invent 

 a new name for the ancient British priests. 



In spite of a constant tendency to feel dissatisfied with our 

 author's treatment of the scientific part of his subject, we must con- 

 gratulate him on having produced by far the best general sketch of 

 Dartmoor. The book is well printed, and is illustrated by a series of 

 etchings and photographic reproductions, several of which are the 

 work of Mr. Alfred Dawson. The map, however, is very inadequate, 

 and is of interest mainly as a sad example of amateur map-making. 

 This will, we hope, be improved in the next edition, which should 

 also be more carefully revised than the present. A very sanguine 

 man might have been excused, in i88g, for saying that the prospects 

 of the Postbridge Mine were promising : Mr. Page was certainly not 

 a shareholder or he would have followed its later history more closely: 

 nor is the Vitifer tin mine still working, as he tells us it is on p. 26. 

 The work of the Devonshire Barrow Committee is also not mentioned. 

 There is, in fact, little evidence in the book of any close acquaintance 

 with the work of the younger school of archaeologists, whose methods 

 have not been as yet much adopted on Dartmoor. So far the excava- 

 tions there have been conducted in a most casual manner, and not until 

 the theodolite, chain, and spade have been applied with modern pre- 

 cision and thoroughness can we hope to make the stone avenues, rock 

 circles, clapper bridges, and trilithons of Dartmoor yield their con- 

 tributions to the prehistoric history of our land. 



The Anatomy, Physiology, Morphology, and Development of the Blow- 

 Fly (Culliphora erythro-cephala) : A Study in the Comparative Anatomy and 

 Morphology of Insects. By B. Thompson Lowne, F.R.C.S., F.L.S. Vol. i., 

 pp. X. and 350. With 21 plates and 47 figures in the text. London: R. H. 

 Porter (for the author), 1890-2. Price £1 los. 



In 1870 Mr. Lowne published a small book on the Anatomy and 

 Physiology of the Blow-fly. The present volume is by no means a 



