Feb. 23. 1888] 



NA TURE 



!87 



his lifetime the earlier parts would be out of date before 

 the last were published. 



What is wanted is something like Stainton's " Manual 

 of British Lepidoptera," together with a serial publica- 

 tion which would give such a medium to entomologists 

 for publishing their discoveries as Stray Feathers gave to 

 Indian ornithologists. When such a journal has been 

 going on for twenty years or so, it will be time to think 

 of a Catalogue of the moths of India really worthy of 

 the name. At present such an ambitious scheme as that 

 proposed by Mr. Moore seems to me only likely to stand 

 in the way of something better hereafter. 



It is a great pity that no references are given in this 

 Catalogue to the descriptions of the very numerous genera, 

 so many of which are the creation of Mr. Moore. How 

 many of them will eventually stand, time alone can show, 

 but certainly many of them will merge in genera known 

 in other parts of the world besides India. 



I think also that if the authorities for the localities given 

 for the various species were stated, as has been done in the 

 case of specimens in the Calcutta Museum, this would be a 

 great addition to the Catalogue. It is quite as important to 

 know who collected a particular species as to know in 

 whose collection it exists ; and many localities are given 

 without any good authority. 



Another improvement in the form of the work would 

 be an abbreviation of the references, in the same way as 

 is done in Standinger's " Catalogue of European Lepido- 

 ptera"; a short bibliography of works cited, and their 

 abbre viated citations, will take away any possibility of 

 doubt, and save innumerable repetitions of such 

 references as 



" Walker, Cat. Lep. Het. B. M.," 

 " Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond.," 

 " Felder, Reise Novara Lep.," 

 " Butler, 111. Typ. Lep. Het. B. M.," 



which might be reduced with advantage to 



"Walk., B.M.," 

 "Moore, P.Z.S.," 

 " Feld., Nov.," 

 " Butl., B.M." 



But notwithstanding the imperfections of this Cata- 

 logue, its publication will be a real blessing to naturalists 

 if only by saving them an immense deal of the most 

 tedious, troublesome, and unsatisfactory work— the hunt- 

 ing up of descriptions and references. How far these are 

 correct, I have not as yet been able to prove ; but the 

 few omissions which I have discovered may easily be 

 forgiven. H. J. Elwes. 



PROLEGOMENA TO THE STATISTICS OF 

 THOUGHT. 



Die Welt in ihrcn Spiegeltingen imter dein Wandcl ties 

 Vdlkergeda7ikens. Prolegomena zu eincr Gedanken- 

 statistik. (" The Universe as reflected in the Move- 

 ment of Thought among the Races of Mankind. Prole- 

 gomena to the Statistics of Thought.") By A. Bastian. 

 One- vol. in 8vo, with an Atlas or Ethnographical Pic- 

 ture-book in oblong folio. (BerUn : E.S.Mittler, 1887.) 



DR. BASTLA.N'S idea is that the new science of 

 ethnology supplies materials from which it is 

 possible to construct a system of psychology on the 



inductive methods of natural science. The inductive 

 study of the material universe has given us our modern 

 science, and with it modern materialism. But material- 

 ism, says Dr. Bastian, i 5 but a one-sided expression of 

 the legitimate tendency of the age towards induction and 

 natural science. It overlooks the fact that the world of 

 ideas offers as legitimate a field for the application of 

 scientific method as the world of material phenomena. 

 Ethnology, which considers man not as an individual, 

 but in his social aspects, teaches us that the universe 

 of thought also obeys laws, and can be studied by the 

 genetic method. And therefore Dr. Bastian desires to 

 see the statistics of thought put together in a way that 

 will exhibit the whole range of ideas about the universe 

 and its contents which have been prevalent among the 

 various races of men. These statistics will form the basis 

 for a psychology constructed on inductive principles. 



The description of a science which has still to be 

 created must necessarily be vague and hazy, and in 

 the present case the vagueness is increased by the fact 

 that Dr. Bastian writes in a very involved and enigmatic 

 style, so that his meaning cannot be read, but must be 

 divined. But so far as we have been able to follow him 

 we gather that in his " Prolegomena to the Statistics of 

 Thought " he designs something different from what is 

 given in ordinary Prolegomena, and that the volume 

 should rather be called a provisional collection of 

 materials for the comparative study of the ideas enter- 

 tained by different races, or in ditferent stages of culture, 

 as to the universe and the leading matters of human 

 interest that it contains. It would seem that Dr. Basti m, 

 whose great range sf knowlege in matters ethnological 

 is well known, and who is also a voracious and somewhat 

 undiscriminating reader of books on all possible subjects 

 connected with the history of human thought, has accu- 

 mulated huge commonplace-books to illustrate his 

 favourite project. The small-type sections which make 

 up a large part of the volume are simply chunks from 

 these note-books, to all appearance entirely undigested. 

 Commonplace-books have always a tendency to become 

 chaotic, especially in the hands of a man who reads so 

 widely and miscellaneously as Dr. Bastian has done ; 

 but we have never seen anything quite so formless 

 as these pages. In themselves many of the extracts 

 given are interesting or curious, but the disorder ia 

 which they stand is simply bewildering. Moreover, 

 there are no exact references to chapter and verse of 

 the authors quoted, and verbal excerpts stand side by 

 side with brief jottings and condensed indications such 

 as a man may make for his own use, but which are so 

 many enigmas to the reader. There has evidently been 

 no verification and no revision of the notes originally 

 made by the author for himself, and many of them, there- 

 fore, are not only obscure, but not quite accurate; while 

 others were not worth printing at all. The last remark 

 is specially applicable to a vast number of quotationi. 

 from ancient and modern metaphysicians, into whonij 

 Dr. Bastian has evidently dippei at hazard, without; 

 having any clear conception of the history of philosophy 

 as a whole. On half a page we find Proclus, Anaxim- 

 ander, Philolaus, Aristotle, the Pythagoreans, ¥. A. 

 Miiller, Spencer, Schelling, Samuel ben Clebirol, ami 

 Anaxagoras. Who can hope to be instructed by such a 



