January 26, 191 1] 



NATURE 



40- 



animal remains, and least of all on the productions 

 of man's industry. 



He deals mainly with evidence which has come to 

 light since 190 1, when he discussed the whole sub- 

 ject at the International Zoological Congress. 



After describing the distinctive features of the two 

 main cranial types found in diluvial times — the higher 

 or Cro-Magnon type, '" which still persists in Europe," 

 ind the lower or Neanderthal type, "which still per- 

 sists in Australia " — he describes specimens from 

 Cheddar, Terra d'Otranto, Monteferrand-Perigord, 

 Mentone, and Galley Hill as examples of the former, 

 and those from Krapina, Vezere, Heidelberg, and 

 Correze of the latter, but makes a third (intermediate) 

 group to include some of the Mentone crania. 



There is no reference to the Gibraltar skull or to 

 any recent English writings, except those of Mr. 

 Macnamara; but he quotes at length from Rutot's 

 memoirs on the Galley Hill skull, which assign to it 

 a singularly great importance as "the geologically 

 oldest diluvial human remains," taking care to add 

 •if M. Rutot is right." 



After a destructive criticism of Ameghino's supposed 

 Tertiary remains of man found in South America, he 

 discusses the question whether the inferior type of 

 diluvial European cranium is older than or ancestral 

 to the higher type, and comes to the conclusion that 

 there are many difficulties in the way, including the 

 possibility that the higher type of skull may be older 

 than the lower type. 



He argues against the derivation of man from any 

 such anthropomorpha as the existing man-like apes. 

 There is an interesting chapter on fossil anthropoid 

 apes, great stress being laid, and quite justiv so, on 

 Schlosser's recent discovery in Egypt of a diminutive 

 Oligocene anthropoid — Propliopithecus Haeckeli. 



Startling surprises await the reader as he approaches 

 the close of this sober, critical, and characteristically 

 thorough teutonic analysis of the state of our know- 

 ledge of fossil man, for he finds a chapter devoted to 

 the serious discussion of whether Pithecanthropus 

 may not be the bastard offspring of the union of a 

 woman and a male Gibbon ! And no sooner has he 

 recovered from the effects of this speculation than the 

 author launches into a polemic against what he calls 

 " the fanatics of the Church and monism " — the chief 

 ""clerical fanatic" being the genial and popular ento- 

 mologist, Father Wasmann, and the "monistic fana- 

 tic," Prof. Haeckel. He ends the work with a con- 

 fession of his attitude towards the Christian religion ! 



G. Elliot Smith. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Schopetihauer-Daru'in: Pessimismiis oder Optimis- 

 mus. By Gustav VVeng. Pp. 189. (Berlin : Ernst 

 Hofmann and Co., 191 1.) Price 2 marks. 

 The author desa-ibes the " struggle for existence " in 

 somewhat lurid language, as a preparation for the 

 Introduction of the doctrine of his master, Schopen- 

 hauer. The weak go to the wall, the fit survive. In 

 a few millenniums there will be nobody but the happy 

 strong. Life is a game, a gladiator-fight, and the 

 survivor is the best. The process is unmoral or im- 

 moral, but " the end justifies the means." 

 After some clever cut-and-thrust at the progress-enthu- 



NO. 2152, VOL. 85] 



siast, in the style of Carlyle's remark that it may be 

 progress backward, towards the devil and the pit, Herr 

 Weng indicates his own opinion as follows : — "The 

 exact sciences confirm Schopenhauer's Pessimism in 

 every detail. Therefore can he alone of all philo- 

 sophers satisfy our Reason and our indestructible meta- 

 physical needs, without denying nature-knowledge, or 

 forcing on us religious fairy-tales . . . this philosophy 

 knows no continuance of individuality after death. 

 For it, the individual is a form of objectification ot 

 the Will to Live." This will to live must be denied ; 

 thus only can the contradiction which has arisen 

 between moral law and natural law (struggle for life, 

 immoral survival of the strong) be resolved. The end 

 of the scientific progress-philosophy — Darwinian 

 evolution — is pessimism : the choice is between a 

 scientific pessimism with no redemption, and a philo- 

 sophic pessimism which does admit of putting things 

 right. 



The foregoing condensation will give an idea of this 

 rather one-sided yet readable little book. Its criticism 

 of the evolution theory is itself open to criticism, for 

 though that theory issues in pessimism from the purely 

 materialistic point of view ('" nature red in tooth and 

 claw with ravin," cruel, pitiless of suflfering) it does 

 not follow that the point of view is the right one. 

 There may be meaning and purpose in all suffering, 

 and an optimistic philosophy may be possible by ex- 

 tending the principle of development into a spiritual 

 world. The assumption that the world exists for our 

 education, says Emerson, is the only sane solution of 

 the enigma. J. A. H. 



Die experimentelle Grundlegung der Atoniistik. By 



W. Mecklenberg. Pp. viii+143. (Jena: G. 



Fischer, 1910.) Price 2.50 marks. 

 This book is an extended reprint of articles which 

 have recently appeared in Die yaturiuissenschaftliche 

 Wochenschrift and were written with the purpose of 

 giving an account of the recent additions to our know- 

 ledge about molecules, their mean free path, radius, 

 mass, &c., It is intended in the first place for 

 chemists and physicists who have not time to consult 

 original papers, but as the mathematics are exceed- 

 ingly simple, the author hopes it may be suitable for 

 a semi-popular audience. 



There is first an account of the different means of 

 obtaining molecular data from the kinetic theory of 

 gases. Also, it is shown how the radius of the mole- 

 cule may be calculated from the molecular refraction 

 or from the constant of Van der Waals's 

 equation. Then follows a section on the 

 Brownian movement, in which the recent work 

 of Perrin and Svedberg is described. There is also 

 an account of the ultramicroscope and the continuity 

 of suspensions and solutions. Finally, we have a 

 section, which is fully up-to-date, on the more hack- 

 neved subject of electrons and the atomic theory of 

 electricity. At the end of the book there is a list of 

 references and an index of names. The book is thus 

 very complete, and gives a large amount of informa- 

 tion for its size, and the style is clear and interesting. 



.According to the author, it has been the chief 

 fimction of the recent physics and chemistry- to prove 

 the existence of atoms by direct experiment, the word 

 atoms being used in the widest possible sense ; be- 

 fore, it could only be inferred indirectly. Hence the 

 title of the book, "The Experimental Founding of 

 the Atomic Theory." In this his point of view appears 

 to us somewhat artificial. While we have now no 

 doubt a much stronger faith in atoms, yet that has 

 come only in the train of other ideas, and does not 

 accurately describe the change in our outlook. 



The table mentioned on pp. 25 and 40 as being at the 

 end of the book is really at p. 64. 



