290 



NA TURE 



[January 27, 1898 



which has been adopted from the example set by the 

 Linacre Professor, is an excellent one, and cannot but 

 help to keep alive the public interest in the work of the 

 department. With the lapse of time and the arrange- 

 ment and coordination of the collections we may look 

 for further contributions from Prof. Poulton himself in 

 those branches of insect bionomics with which his name 

 is so widely connected. R. M. 



WEAPONS OF EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. 

 The Ancient Stone I)nple7nents, Weapons, and Ornaments 

 of Great Britain. By Sir John Evans, K.C.B. Second 

 edition. Pp. xviii + 747. (London: Longmans, Green, 

 and Co., 1897.) 



FOR some years past it has been felt by students of 

 anthropology that the limits of their science were 

 being pushed so far in every direction by various 

 enthusiastic workers in almost every country of the 

 inhabited world, that it was high time for some com- 

 petent hand to gather together the facts which lay 

 scattered broadcast in the publications of learned 

 societies and private students, so that they might be 

 available for general use in a collected form. It seems 

 that this idea also filled the mind of one, at least, of our 

 veteran teachers, and the result of its existence is the 

 second edition of Sir John Evans' famous work on the 

 " Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments 

 of Great Britain." It is now some twenty-five years 

 since the first edition of this valuable book saw the 

 light, and the accuracy and plain statement of facts, 

 which were its chief characteristics, secured for it at 

 once a place of high authority. In those early days of 

 the history of British stone-lore scientific collectors of 

 facts were few, and men like the late Sir Wollaston 

 Franks, the Rev. William Greenwell, and Mr. J. Anderson 

 of Edinburgh, who attempted to arrange their specimens 

 with a proper regard to hard facts, were looked upon 

 with suspicion by a large mass of collectors and " anti- 

 quaries " whose chief interest in antiquities lay not in 

 the objects themselves, but in the wonderful stories 

 which they could tell about them. A visit to certain 

 local museums not many scores of miles from London 

 will to this day show what measure of learning was 

 possessed by those who labelled and arranged them 

 about thirty years ago, and we make bold to say that 

 general ignorance and specific blunders in such matters 

 can only be cleared away by the publication of good 

 works, such as that before us, written in plain language 

 and published at a reasonable price. 



Sir John Evans' book is so well known that it would be 

 a waste of the reader's time to attempt to describe it here, 

 but it will not be out of place to note wherein the second 

 edition differs from the first. Many of the excellent illus- 

 trations by Mr. Swain have been retained, but a number 

 of new ones have been added ; the text, which filled six 

 hundred and twenty-two pages in the first edition, now 

 fills seven hundred and nine. The indexes, which formed 

 such a useful part of the first edition, are more than 

 double as large, and many a reader will thank Mrs. 

 Hubbard, who is responsible for them, for lightening his 

 labours. In general form, size of type, &c., both editions 

 are alike. 



NO. 1474. VOL. 57] 



But in the quarter of a century which has passed 

 since Sir John Evans issued the first edition of his 

 work, many striking discoveries of stone weapons and 

 other objects have been made. Excavations which 

 have resulted in " finds " of great value have been 

 carried on in many parts of England, whilst diggings in 

 Egypt and elsewhere in the East have brought to light 

 facts which in some cases have upset our most cherished 

 and most ancient convictions. With new facts coming 

 to hand continually. Sir John Evans has found it 

 possible to generalise and to make deductions such as 

 would, a few years ago, have been impossible ; and a 

 perusal of some of the chapters of his book reveals the 

 startling fact that the inhabitants of parts of Asia, Africa, 

 and Europe, situated at very remote distances from 

 each other, made their weapons of the same materials, 

 in the same shape, and in the same way. Indeed, it is 

 very hard not to assume that such peoples either came 

 from the same stock, or had some means of communi- 

 cation which until now has remained unsuspected. 



In addition to well-known collections such as those 

 of the Rev. W. Greenwell, General Pitt-Rivers, and 

 certain public museums. Sir John Evans has drawn 

 his facts from the examination of other collections in 

 this country and on the continent which, fortunately, 

 he has had time and opportunity to visit ; besides 

 these, he has been in communication with scholars 

 and students in many parts of the world who have 

 forwarded him antiquities which they have found or 

 come across, and he has thus been in an excellent 

 position to read, mark, and note the results of his 

 observations for the benefit of the readers of the second 

 edition. For the collector pure and simple the section 

 of the book which ends on p. 639 will be more important 

 than the rest, but for the general student who interests 

 himself in the questions of the antiquity of man and the 

 date of his appearance upon earth, and in theories of 

 river-drift and flood-deposit, the chapters which follow 

 will prove the greatest attraction. In only a few 

 small points, in obedience to the authority of new 

 information. Sir John Evans has modified the views 

 which he expressed in his first edition ; this fact, taken 

 together with the number of discoveries made in the 

 realm of British stone-lore during recent years, shows 

 how carefully his work was conceived and executed. 

 Our thanks are due to him for making available to each 

 and all the stores of his mature learning and wide 

 experience, and we can only hope that at some future 

 period he may see his way to put on record some of the 

 deductions which he must have made on many points, 

 and the theories on difficult problems which he must 

 have formed. Coming from him they would have a 

 special value. 



CLIMATOLOGY OF THE GLOBE. 

 Handbuch der Kliniatologie. Von Julius Hann. Second 

 edition. 3 vols. Pp. 1360. (Stuttgart : Engelhorn, 

 1897.) 



THIS work, which belongs to the series of "Geo- 

 graphischer Handbiicher" issued by Dr. Ratzel, 

 will be welcomed by all meteorologists. It is the second 

 edition of the work under the same title which appeared 

 in 1883. That it has been entirely rewritten and enlarged 



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