?o8 



NATURE 



FNOVEMBER 4, 1920 



civilisation at a high level are generally formed 

 from the blending of several peoples of superior 

 natural endowments, when social institutions are 

 free from the feeling of caste. This last condition 

 is important, because the concentration of natural 

 endowments in a privileged order inevitably leads 

 to atrophy and decline. Men and nations are both 

 free to choose and pursue their course towards 

 higher ends, and anthropology, studied as a branch 

 of history, will suggest the means by which this 

 progress can be attained. 



The Journal of the Institute of Metals. Vol. xxiii., 

 No. I, 1920. Edited by G. Shaw Scott. Pp. xii + 

 644 + XXX plates. (London: The Institute of 

 Metals, 1920.) Price 31s. 6d. net. 

 The large size of this volume, as compared with 

 that of previous issues, is an indication of the 

 growing interest in the metallurgy of the non- 

 ferrous metals. Sir George Goodwin's presidential 

 address demonstrates the importance of those 

 metals to the Navy, an importance which would 

 in itself justify the existence of the institute. The 

 fifth report to the Corrosion Committee carries 

 this valuable investigation a stage further, and 

 succeeds in throwing light on the problem of the 

 corrosion of condenser tubes, the new facts con- 

 cerning the skin on the surface of a drawn tube 

 being of distinct value to the discussion of the 

 possible methods of lessening corrosion. A similar 

 subject is dealt with in a paper by Dr. Seligmau 

 and Mr. Williams on the action of hard waters on 

 aluminium. Mr. Vivian's paper on the alloys of 

 tin and phosphorus is an excellent piece of thermal 

 analysis, dealing with a system of which one com- 

 ponent is highly volatile, thus introducing great 

 experimental difficulties. The alloys of zinc with 

 less than 15 per cent, of aluminium and copper 

 respectively are described in a paper from the 

 National Physical Laboratory, and Dr. Haughton, 

 of that laboratory, also contributes a preliminary 

 account of the investigation of alloys by deter- 

 mination of the thermo-electromotive force. Some 

 remarkable results obtained a few years ago by 

 Mr. Alkins in the drawing of copper wire, which 

 indicated a discontinuous change of properties at 

 a certain stage of reduction, are now confirmed by 

 very careful further experiments. The results con- 

 tained in another paper in the same volume, on the 

 properties of rolled copper, make it clear that 

 rolling affects the metal much more irregularly 

 than drawing, so that definite conclusions are not 

 easily reached. Other subjects dealt with are the 

 casting of brass of high tensile strength, and the 

 production of idiomorphic crystals of copper. 



C. H. D. 



Dead Towns and Living Men: Being Pages from 

 an Antiquary's Notebook. By C. L. Woolley. 

 Pp. viii + 259. (London : Oxford University 

 Press, 1920.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 



This is a lively account of a digger's life on 

 ancient sites, mainly describing hobnobbing with 

 Kurds and other amiable ruffians, or bluffing 

 NO. 2662, VOL. 106] 



Turkish officials, revolver in hand. The methods 

 may have been effective, but could scarcely be a 

 settled mode of living. The first half of the title 

 is rather neglected, as there is but little archae- 

 ology, and only five views of Carchemish, which 

 is the bait of the book. A dozen pages give a 

 welcome account of the remains of the Hittite 

 capital, of which as yet only a small part has been 

 opened. The complete clearance of this capital of 

 a scarcely known civilisation will take years to 

 finish. When done, there are several other cities 

 one beneath another, and the clearance of each 

 of them will mean the removal of everything of 

 later age. Obviously there should be a museum 

 to hold all the Hittite sculptures, and the site bared 

 to study the cities beneath, which descend 30 ft. 

 below the level of four thousand years ago. 



A different point of interest is the sketch of 

 Egyptian mentality (pp. 39-44) when natives 

 imagine that fine buildings are known, and offer 

 to show them. This is a painfully frequent fail- 

 ing ; here the view is taken that this is auto-sug- 

 gestion really believed in, and capable of being ex- 

 tended to the minds of other people, who all 

 become convinced of what does not exist. If we 

 can take this view it will, perhaps, explain the 

 Indian conjuring feats as being such suggestion on 

 the minds of spectators. Can it also be the true 

 view of the sights well known in Egypt, of men 

 holding red-hot iron in the hands or mouth, which 

 show no trace of blistering or burning after it? 

 Is there a power of suggestion to compel hallucina- 

 tion on cool English observers? It is at least as 

 likely as a power of resisting burns. 



A Manual of Practical Anatomy: A Guide to the 

 Dissection of the Human Body. By Prof. 

 Thomas Walmsley. With a Preface by Prof. 

 Thomas H. Bryce. In three parts. Part i.. 

 The Upper and Lower Limbs. Pp. viii -I- 176. 

 (London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1920.) 

 Price 95. net. 



Prof. Walmsley, in this manual, ranges himself 

 with those teachers of anatomy who think that 

 the subject should be studied almost exclusively 

 in the dissecting-room, and that the student should 

 be encouraged to build up his knowledge of the 

 subject from personal observations. In his text, 

 therefore, the author confines himself to the de- 

 scription of what any average student can readily 

 discover for himself, and in his illustrations to 

 simple line drawings such as any average student 

 can easily reconstruct and supplement. The purely 

 descriptive parts are also everywhere subordinate 

 to the instructions which are given as to the 

 manner of dissection and as to what may be 

 observed in the actual process of dissection. The 

 text is singularly accurate for a first edition, but 

 certain of the diagrams are not quite so satis- 

 factory. In Fig. 2 the cutaneous nerves of the 

 back (cervical region) are in excess ; in Fig. 4 

 the median part of the front of the leg is not 

 shown supplied by cutaneous nerves ; in Fig. 7 

 the formation of the median nerve takes place on 



