October 27, 1923] 



NATURE 



611 



majority of the managers of the Royal Infirmary regard 

 Lister's ward only as an obstruction. 



Recently a pamphlet has been published by Mr. 

 James A. Morris (Glasgow : MacLehose, Jackson and 

 Co.), who, besides telling the story of the ward, shows 

 that if the proposals of the Lister Memorial Committee 

 were carried out, there would be practically no obstruc- 

 tion left. Actually, it is not the whole block which it 

 is desired to preserve, but only the one ward itself, with 

 three little rooms, which are an integral part of it and 

 the basement below. Providentially, it would seem, 

 this one of Lister's wards was on the ground floor. An 

 appeal is being made to the managers of the Infirmary 

 in the hope that a definite and strong expression, not 

 only by members of the medical profession, but also by 

 all those who cultivate science, as to the " historical and 

 spiritual values of this famous landmark in the history 

 of surgery," will convince them that the destruction of 

 the ward would be regarded as a breach of trust, and its 

 preservation as a simple act of respect for a memorial 

 of achievements by which all civilised peoples have 

 benefited. 



The New Anthropology. 



Tutankhamen and the Discovery of his Tomb by the late 

 Earl of Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter. By 

 Prof. G. Elliot Smith. Pp. 133. (London : G. 

 Routledge and Sons, Ltd. ; New York : E. P. 

 Button and Co., 1923.) 45. 6i. net. 



LAST year's discovery of a rich and varied collection 

 of funerary equipment and other objects of 

 Egyptian art of the time of Tutankhamen must 

 inevitably reanimate the already vigorous discussion 

 of cultural origins and the meaning of cultural symbols 

 and uses. The prediction of the late Dr. W. H. R. 

 Rivers in 191 1 that the theories then advanced by 

 Prof. Elliot Smith would be bitterly opposed by 

 ethnologists of the older school has been abundantly 

 fulfilled. Those theories attributed the creation of 

 civilisation as we know it the world over to Egyptian 

 initiative, and since their author has now himself 

 entered upon the discussion of the recent discoveries 

 in Egypt, the occasion is afforded for presenting a 

 review of at least the chief lines of the argument 

 developed with ever-increasing weight of detail during 

 the past decade. For most of them reference need 

 be made only to this admirable little volume written 

 particularly to interpret the essential features in 

 Egyptian custom and belief which found expression 

 in Tutankhamen's time. 



First, then, concerning Egyptian funerary ritual 

 and its origins m the life of the early Egyptian com- 

 munity, the achievement of the new anthropology is 

 twofold : with true imaginative power it has penetrated 



NO. 2817, VOL. 1 12] 



the veil of mystery and unintelligibility, which is the 

 obscuring work of later ages, to the naive realism of 

 the early Egyptian mind, and, allowing the proved 

 facts of early life in the Nile basin then to speak for 

 themselves, it has provided us with a complete and 

 consistent account of the rise and spread of our culture. 

 Civilisation, for the new school, began when the early 

 Egyptians invented the art of irrigation to extend 

 artificially the area of cultivation of barley. The 

 irrigation-engineer of early Egypt was the first man 

 to organise the labour of his fellows. He conferred 

 the benefits of security and prosperity upon the 

 community and upon every individual member of it. 

 He personified every subsequent idea of kingship. 

 The life of the community flowed from him in a sense 

 as real and actual as that in which the Nile was subject 

 to his control. To identify him with these subtle 

 forces was less an act of metaphysical ingenuity than 

 one of unsophisticated realism. He became the 

 incarnation of the life-giving powers which he bestowed 

 upon his people. He became a god, assimilating to 

 himself attributes of the shadowy Great Mother, and 

 was apotheosised after death as Osiris. Eventually 

 his powers were extended and transferred to his 

 successor, Horus, himself credited with the immortalisa- 

 tion of the dead king. The whole of the elaborate 

 equipment of Tutankhamen's tomb is inspired by 

 this same motive : identification with Osiris and 

 participation in his immortality and deification. 



Funerar)"" couches such as the three discovered last 

 year, one representing a cow, the second a lion, and 

 the third a hippopotamus, have been known previously 

 from fragments and are among the most familiar 

 objects represented in wall-paintings and upon papyri. 

 In themselves they shed a flood of light upon the 

 essential natveti of the Egyptian mind at work upon 

 the elaboration of our human beliefs ; but also they 

 focus attention upon an important chain of evidences 

 concerning the migration of culture. The cow in 

 Egyptian belief was not only the giver of milk, main- 

 taining life in childhood and adult age, a foster-mother ; 

 she was also, even sixty centuries ago, the Divine 

 Cow, identified with the actual mother of mankind, 

 the Great Mother, Hathor, who was at one and the 

 same time a cowrie, a grain of barley (both symbols 

 of life-giving), a cow, and the moon. If the great giver 

 of life and immortality were both a cow and the moon, 

 she was then the appropriate vehicle to transport 

 the earthly king heavenwards. The representation of 

 this occurrence is a commonpljice of Egyptian painting, 

 and realism could scarcely be carried further than rhe 

 representation in some cases of the very stars upon the 

 belly of the animal. The lion-headed couch of the tomb 

 is inspired by a like moti\( . The lion was Horus, the 



