August. 1929 



E\'OLUTION 



Page Thirteen 



m NEW BOOKS m 



MODERN SCIENTIFIC KNOWL- 

 EDGE, edited bj^ Frederick A. 

 Cleveland. Ronald Press, $4.50. 



This one-volume Outline of Modern 

 Science deserves reading. Unlike that 

 otherwise excellent "Outline" by 

 Thomsorf (adequate only as an "Out- 

 line of Biology"), it really covers the 

 whole field. Written originally by a 

 number of authors, its several sections 

 vary in excellence, but remain popu- 

 lar throu.ghout. One would expect 

 marked gaps and duplications in a 

 symposium of this sort, but it has 

 been so well edited and obviously re- 

 written that it has the continuity and 

 coherence of single authorship. 



The introductory section deals ap- 

 preciatively with the scientific method 

 and the place of science in modern life 

 and thinking. The contrast with the 

 unscientific thinking of the theological 

 and other "absolutists" is forcefully 

 set forth in a way that leaves little to 

 be desired. 



Much of the material is necessarily 

 "old stuff," but very properly emphasis 

 is placed on recent scientific develop- 

 ments. The chapters on atomic physics 

 and chemistry, on the colloidal state 

 of matter and on genetics are note- 

 worthy. Especially so are those on 

 Psychology, in which the viewpoint is 

 illuminatingly evolutionary and be- 

 havioristic, as is suggestively indicated 

 by each of several chapter headings 

 containing the words "adjustive 

 mechanism." It is to be regretted 

 that the inconsequential chapters on 

 Personality and especially those on 

 Sociology do not continue this key- 

 note, but lapse into a static and legal- 

 istic treatment that fails completely in 

 outlining the really basic achieve- 

 ments in social science, and so finish 

 most weakly a valuable book other- 

 wise excellently conceived and done. 



The text is sparingly, yet adequate- 

 ly, illustrated with well chosen and 

 pertinent drawings from a wide range 

 of sources. Nearly every chapter is 

 followed by bibliographies and review 

 questions for the benefit of the more 

 thorough student. Each question is 

 stated suggestively and followed by a 

 brief list of references. In addition 

 there are two general bibliographies 

 with each chapter, one for popular 

 reading, the other technical. These 

 special features add much to the value 

 of the volume as a textbook and as a 

 busy man's guide to the basic facts 

 ^ and principles of modern scientific 

 ▼ knowledge. A. S. B. 



WHO WOULD? 



No wonder science puzzles us. 

 Such noble names it plies; 

 Who'd ever dream ichneumondes 

 Were tiny, tiny flies? — Ex. 



OLD CIVILIZATIONS OF THE 

 NEW WORLD. By A. Hyatt 

 Verrill. Bobbs-Merrill Company, 393 

 pages. Illustrated. $5. 



The most fascinating and at the same 

 time the most perplexing field of ar- 

 chaeology is the study of the pre-his- 

 tory of Central and South America. 

 Henry George's words, "Behind dead 

 empires, dim ghosts of empire loom," 

 were never more aptly applied than to 

 the vast ruins and remains of Mexico, 

 Panama, Colombia, Honduras, Ecua- 

 dor, Bolivia, and Peru. The casual 

 reader who fancies that all of Ameri- 

 can archaeology is comprised in a sur- 

 vey of the Mayas, the Aztecs, and the 

 miscalled Incas, with a side glance at 

 the Mound Builders, the Clifif Dwell- 

 ers, and a few other extinct peoples of 

 our own continent, is due for both a 

 shock and a thrill in Dr. Verrill's ab- 

 sorbing and enlightening book. 



Who were the Code dwellers, whose 

 city Dr. Verrill himself discovered? 

 Who were the Chimus? The Chibchas? 

 The Tiahuanacans? The Pre-Incans? 

 The Toltecs — if such a race ever ex- 

 isted? The Nascas? The builders of 

 the pink porphyry cities of Peru? 

 Where did these various peoples come 

 from? When did they flourish? Why 

 was their empire destroyed in each 

 case, and when? Why is there in no 

 instance any gradual development of a 

 culture, but utterly dissimilar civiliza- 

 tions appear full-grown, without an- 

 tecedents? Why were the tropics, 

 where progress is usually slowed up, in 

 .America the scene of the greatest civil- 

 izations, whereas temperate South and 

 North America displayed no such phe- 

 nomenon? Were any of these peoples 

 related or culturally connected, and if 

 so, which? 



These and many other questions Dr. 

 Verrill can answer only by saying, 

 "We do not know. In a day or a year 

 we may discover the answer, but at 

 present the problem is insoluble." One 

 thing he does know, however, and 

 gives the evidence for — the vast an- 

 tiquity of man, and of civilized man, in 

 America. 



"Old Civilizations of the New 

 World" is written by a man who is 

 not only a real authority on his sub- 

 ject, but also a rarely interesting 

 writer. In dealing with the better 

 known civilizations, those of the Az- 

 tecs, the Mayas, and the Inca dynasty 

 nf Peru, he is no less enthralling in his 

 narrative than when he is revealing for 

 the first time in popular form the 

 knovi-n facts of the still more mysteri- 

 ous and obscure peoples of South Am- 

 erica. Discoverer not only of Code, 

 in Panama, "the Pompeii of America," 

 l)ut also of the only wheels known in 

 the remains of prehistoric America, 

 and, in his earlier work as a zoologist, 

 of the supposedly extinct Solcuodoti 

 I'liradoxus, in Santo Domingo, and of 

 the strange bearded Indians of Bolivia, 

 he seems to have a genius for bringing 



to light new and pregnant finds in two 

 distinct branches of science. 



Diffidently I suggest a possible ex- 

 planation of one of his minor mysteries 

 in this book. In commenting on the im- 

 possibility that such work as must 

 have been done by several of these 

 extinct races could have been accom- 

 plished with the very crude stone im- 

 plements which alone are found with 

 them — work which ranges from abso- 

 lutely true fitting of massive stone 

 building blocks, or intricate lacework 

 designs cut out of solid rock, to en- 

 graved gold beads smaller than the head 

 of a pin — Dr. Verrill states that he 

 finds no possible explanation why, 

 granting that metal instruments might 

 have disappeared (though this is im- 

 probable if they were deposited with 

 the finds, for even feather-work and 

 textiles are preserved in that dry at- 

 mosphere), the badly made stone tools 

 and weapons should be there at all. Is it 

 not possible that they were left just 

 because they were useless — because 

 they were ancient, or imitations of the 

 ancient, and had a religious signifi- 

 cance? Most of these ruins are of 

 temples, and we know to this day how 

 outworn customs and implements are 

 still retained in church ritual. The 

 workers, in other words, took their de- 

 veloped tools home with them; but the 

 stone axes used by their remote an- 

 cestors had a place of honor at the 

 altar. 



Be that as it may, a book like this 

 fires one to wonder and contemplation. 

 "Old Civilizations of the New World" 

 is literally a truly inspiring work. 



Maynard Shipley. 



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