3B 



NATURE 



[November 9, 191 1 



teachings, and the student is led to rely on the 

 authority of the teacher rather than on any process 

 of reasoning; of such works we must sadly confess 

 " the trail of the examiner is over them all," 



But for those who would learn to love geology for 

 itself,. Prof. Cole has supplied a charming, and at the 

 same time trustworthy, introduction to the science. 

 He has wisely adopted what may be called "the re- 

 capitulation method " of teaching, that is to say, he 

 introduces new facts and ideas in the order and by 

 the reasonings through which they were originally 

 discovered, and by which the present position of the 

 science has been gradually attained ; knowledge is 

 made to grow in the individual mind along the same 

 lines as it can be shown to have done, though far 

 more slowly, in the history of our race. It is needless 

 to add that such a mode of presentation must be, to 

 a great extent, biographical. 



.\fter some preliminary considerations, the author 

 sliows, in the first place, the steps by which 

 William Smith, "the father of English geology," was 

 led to his epoch-making discoveries of a stratigraphical 

 succession, based on the evidence of fossils. Then 

 turning from southern England to the Paris Basin, 

 the labours of Lamarck and Deshayes, of Cuvier and 

 Brongniart are indicated as affording useful aids to 

 Charles Lyell in proving that, in the latest formed 

 geological deposits, life-forms gradually replaced one 

 another, thus lending support to the more general 

 conclusion that the same continuity becomes manifest, 

 as we trace the succession to the remotest past. 



In succeeding chapters, the effects of running water, 

 as taught by Hutton, and of moving ice, as shown 

 by Agassiz, are well described, with illustrations 

 drawn from the author's own observations and those 

 of his contemporaries. "The Throat of a Volcano," 

 "The Giant's Causeway," "The Making of Moun- 

 tains," and "A Year of Earth Storms," are the head- 

 ings of other chapters of this entertaining and in- 

 structive book, in which the labours of the pioneers 

 of research are in all cases described with warm sym- 

 pathy and just discrimination. The numerous illus- 

 trations of the book are, for the most part, from 

 photographs taken by the author, and if any further 

 evidence were needed that his descriptions are based 

 on actual visits to the districts, it will be found in 

 many a picturesque phrase. The hardest working 

 college student, no less than the general reader, will 

 find it an advantage to peruse this bright little book, 

 for he can scarcely fail to catch some sparks of the 

 enthusiasm of the author, which glows on every page. 



J. W. J. 



BANTU MYSTICISM. 

 Notes on West African Categories. By R. E. Den- 

 nett. Pp. xi + 68. (London: Macmillan and Co., 

 Ltd., 1911.) Price 15. net. 

 T N this small book or enlarged pamphlet, Mr. R. E. 

 J- Dennett recurs to his theories regarding for- 

 mulae, religious categories, and transcendental sym- 

 bolism which he has believed himself able to trace 

 in the employment of prefixes and word roots, more 

 jspecially amongst the Bavili, a Congolese tribe of 

 NO. 2193, VOL. 88] 



the Loango coast, and also in a lesser degree amonicrst 

 the Yoruba and Bini peoples of the Niger Delta. 



Mr. Dennett cannot fail to write interestingly 

 any .African subject with which he is persoi 

 acquainted, since whether one agrees or not with 

 theories one is certain to find new and true fact 

 his compilations. But the reviewer is still q :•■ 

 unable to endorse from his own experience the pr. h- 

 ability that the Bavili (more especially) could ! 

 developed such an elaborate mathematical cosmc)^ 

 and theology as Mr. Dennett places to their cr^ 

 and bases on the forms of their prefixes and of i; .. 

 word roots. As happens all too often, to the sorr .w 

 of the universal student of Bantu languages, " 

 Dennett has made a study of one particular B 

 dialect and deduces from his study theories ^^ 

 fall to pieces directly one compares that dialect 

 another of the same group, or one Bantu lang' 

 with another. He strives to show that in the n 

 of this particular coast Congo people certain ;. 

 categories of thought exist. For instance, he a\ 

 devise a category which should contain four visibl' 

 four invisible parts, or another which should r. 

 from o to q, and should correspond with cti 

 classes of Bantu prefixes ; and again others v 

 correspond with ideas of God, the procreation of 

 human species, abstract qualities, such as recepti 

 originality, order, manner, action, quality, &c. 



To anyone who knows the negro as well as th(| 

 present reviewer may claim to do, much of this ap- 

 pears impossibly fantastic and unreal ; and when suet 

 theories are based on a misunderstanding (sometir 

 of the original form and purport of prefixes in ton. 

 closely related to the Bavili and similar corresponc 

 of word roots, they reduce one to something 

 despair; for Mr. Dennett, who, as regards his rect 

 facts, is often so accurate and so helpful to stuc 

 of Africa, wastes his time and thoughts on ] 

 theories which seem to be devoid of any sciei 

 foundation. If, as he says in the beginning o: 

 book, he has won over that notable student of 

 Bantu tongues, Miss Alin \\ erner, to a belief ii 

 even a toleration of, his theories given in "At 

 Back of the Black Man's Mind " and in the pr- 

 pamphlet, it can only be deeply regretted that I > ti 

 of them should be following a will-o'-the-wisp. Thi 

 opinion, most regretfully written, does not prevenj 

 "Notes on West African Categories" from beirc 

 work of considerable interest, and containing r 

 new observations of value which seem to the revi' 

 perfectly sound as statements of fact. 



THE VOICE OF LYELL. 



The Student's I.yell : the Principles and Method 

 Geology, as applied to the Investigation of the 

 History of the Earth and its Inhabitants, 

 Historical Introduction. Edited by Prof. J. W 

 Judd. C.B., F.R.S. Second edition, revised an' 

 enlarged. Pp. 645. (London : J. Murray, igiJ-jj 

 Price 7s. 6d. net. 



IT is most fitting that the revision of L\ 

 " Students' Elements of Geology " should 

 again carried out by Prof. J. W. Judd, who brin^ 



