4o8 



NA TURE 



[April i, 1922 



the benefit." A most interesting discussion followed 

 the six papers dealing with various aspects of this 

 subject. 



On the subject of technological education, four 

 papers were contributed. Lord Crewe deprecated 

 " the intellectual vulgarity that sets the scholar in 

 a different class from the workers, either for laudation 

 or contempt." In the discussion, reference was made 

 to the " great misfortune " of segregating students of 

 technology in separate " technological universities," 

 and so preventing them from mixing with the students 

 of other faculties, to their mutual loss. In the debate 

 on " The Universities and the Training of School 

 Teachers " a similar note was struck, several speakers 

 emphasising the necessity of a university atmosphere 

 for such training. 



Sir Robert Stout, Chancellor of the University of 

 New Zealand, in opening the meeting on " University 

 Finance," gave an interesting account of educational 

 finance in New Zealand. The discussion, inter alia, 

 brought into relief the different attitudes of the over- 

 seas universities and the home universities to the 

 question of State aid and university autonomy. One 

 of the most important, and certainly one of the most 

 interesting, discussions took place on the subject of 

 " Research." Lord Robert Cecil, in summing up the 

 debate, made it quite clear that at present research in 

 the universities is mainly obstructed by " want of 

 money and want of leisure." In this we may well 

 agree. In the last session, the case for the institution 

 of a Sabbatical year for the professoriate was well 

 argued, but obviously " want of money " is the rock 

 upon which such a scheme will founder. Sympathetic 

 references which were made to the death of Lord 

 Balfour of Burleigh, who should have presided at the 

 discussion on " The Training for Commerce, Industry, 

 and Administration," are duly recorded. 



The Report gives a full account of a most instructive 

 congress, and the papers and discussions bristle with 

 points which in recent years have been giving rise 

 to much thinking in university circles. Any one 

 interested in higher education cannot fail to profit by 

 reading it. 



India as a Centre of Anthropological 

 Inquiry. 



Principles and Methods of Physical Anthropology. 

 By Rai Bahadur Sarat Chandra Roy. (Patna 

 University Readership Lectures, 1920.) Pp. xiii + 

 181. (Patna : Government Printing Office, 1920.) 

 5 rupees. 



THERE is not an anthropologist in Europe 

 who will not extend a welcome to this work 

 by Rai Bahadur Sarat Chandra Roy, reader in anthro- 

 NO. 2735, VOL. 109] 



pology at Patna University, not only for what it is, 

 but also for what its appearance signifies. Anthro- 

 pology, hitherto a plant of exotic growth in India, has 

 at length taken root in the native mind. A single 

 readership in a single university is a somewhat slender 

 root for a plant which has to cover more than 300 

 millions of people, but those who have noted the series 

 of excellent researches and monographs which have 

 been published in recent years by Mr. Roy and by* his 

 colleagues and disciples will have no fear of the result 

 if a fostering hand be extended by the Government of 

 India. Our knowledge of the peoples of India has been 

 laid by those great-minded Civil Servants who realised 

 that good government must be based on accurate, 

 intimate, and sympathetic records of the mentality, 

 customs, and traditions of the governed. It was at 

 the feet of one of these great Indian servants, Sir 

 Edward Gait, now chancellor of Patna University, 

 that Mr. Roy was introduced to the methods and aims 

 of modern anthropology. 



The book under review, " Principles and Methods 

 of Physical Anthropology," is based on the first course 

 of lectures given by Mr. Roy as reader in anthropology 

 in Patna University. The lectures now published, 

 six in number, form one of the best introductions to the 

 study of anthropology in the English language. It 

 is true that many minor statements require emenda- 

 tion or qualification, but we are surprised that one who 

 has made his reputation as a cultural anthropologist 

 should have grasped so accurately the methods, aims, 

 and theories of those who study the evolution of the 

 human body and brain, as well as the rise and spread 

 of modern races of mankind. 



A mere enumeration of the titles given to the six 

 lectures or sections into which this book is divided 

 will show the scope of the author's work. The first 

 is devoted to the evidence relating to man's place in 

 the zoological scale ; the second to the evidence relating 

 to man's antiquity ; the third to the theory of evolu- 

 tion ; the fourth to the theory of evolution applied 

 to man's body, brain, and culture ; the fifth to man's 

 fiist home and early migrations ; the sixth to the 

 evolution of human races and their classification. 

 Thereafter follow appendices giving the chief schemes 

 for classification of human races, bibliographies, etc. 



Hitherto the problems of anthropology have been 

 viewed solely through European eyes ; it is well that 

 they should be seen also from the point of view of 

 those who live on the banks of the Ganges. Certain 

 it is that India is nearer the hub of the anthropological 

 universe than Western Europe. Many anthropologists 

 in looking round the world for the most likely place to 

 serve as a cradle land of mankind have selected India 

 or some neighbouring region — a belief in which Mr. 



