December 2, 1915] 



NATURE 



2>7^ 



ints we are inclined to reserve judgment, it is 

 K I ause his theory opens up a number of collateral 

 problems which demand independent examination. 

 But there can be no doubt that the theory as he 

 propounds it is very attractive, and it has the ad- 

 vantage of ranging- over a number of detached 

 and separate fields of study. Even for those who 

 may not go quite so far as to believe with him 

 iliat the influence of ancient Egypt ever spread to 

 'he Far East and to America, it is well to re- 

 ( xamine the grounds for scepticism, and, in the 



ocess, to take perhaps a less restricted view 

 the possibilities of intercourse in the ancient 



u-ld. 



I'he present monograph is the direct outcome 

 a paper read before the Anthropological 

 tion at the meeting of the British Association 

 .>r year in Melbourne. At the three preceding 

 meetings its author had already developed his 

 tliesis that the geographical distribution of cer- 

 tain practices, such as mummification and mega- 

 lithic building, point, on his view of the evidence, 

 to their distribution from a common centre some- 

 V, here in the neighbourhood of the eastern Medi- 

 terranean. When setting out for the Australian 

 meeting it had been his intention to develop his 

 argument from megalithic monuments, while 

 using the geographical distribution of the practice 

 of mummification merely as a subsidiary means of 



! roboration. But on his arrival at Sydney he 



imined the mummy from Torres Straits in the 

 M.icleay Museum, and studied the literature re- 

 lating to the methods of embalming in that 

 region ; and, as a result, he formed the conclusion 

 til at the methods, employed in, the Papuan 

 mummies must be of Egyptian origin. Moreover, 

 since the practices which he there noted were not 

 prevalent in Egypt until the time of the New 

 Empire, and some of them not until the time of 

 the XXIst Dynasty, he further concluded that 

 they could not have left Egypt on their long 

 journey to the Torres Straits at the earliest before 

 the ninth century B.C. 



The work before us was written as an answer 

 to one of the criticisms of the theory at the 

 British Association meeting, to the effect that 

 there were no links between Egypt and Papua to 

 indicate that the custom of mummification had 

 spread from the one region to the other. Prof. 

 Elliot Smith here replies that there are plenty 

 of links ; and he works out the course of a great 

 ' ulture-migration, which, he suggests, began a 



irld tour from Egypt, and, coasting eastward 



India and Ceylon, was carried far out into the 

 : acific, and eventually reached the American con- 

 tinent. There is, of course, no continuous chain 

 of mummification customs, or even of megalithic 

 monuments, on which this world-wide theory may 

 rest; but traces of the migration, deduced from 

 ( ommon distribution, are said to be visible also 

 in sun-worship, serpent-worship, the tradition of 

 a world-wide deluee, petrifaction myths, the use 

 of the swastika emblem, and the practices of ear- 

 piercing, tattooing, couvade, the artificial de- 

 formation of the head, etc. If each of these be- 

 NO. 2405, VOL. 96] 



liefs or practices be considered alone there are 

 many Jareaks in the chain ; but taken together the 

 gaps may l^e filled in. 



Such in outline is the theory, and in the space 

 at our disposal it would be quite impossible to do 

 adequate justice to any one of its many facets. 

 We may perhaps mention two small points. 

 Should we be on quite sure ground in assum- 

 ing close maritime intercourse between the Per- 

 sian Gulf and India from the eighth century b.c. ? 

 The evidence is surely in favour of a later date 

 by some two or three centuries. And should we 

 be justified in regarding the custom of burning in- 

 cense before the corpse, when no attempt was 

 made to preserve the body, as an indication of the 

 influence of the Egyptian custom of mummifica- 

 tion. Apart from such an influence, is incense- 

 burning so inexplicable? We may be quite sure, 

 with Prof. Elliot Smith, that it was never used 

 for "disguising the odours of putrefaction." But 

 his view surely assumes that its funerary use in 

 Egypt, to restore magically its natural odours to 

 the desiccated body, was its only possible use. 

 Whereas in Babylonia, to mention but one 

 country of the East, the ritual use of incense has 

 descended from immemorial antiquity, and was 

 doubtless present in funerary rites with quite 

 other associations. L. W. K. 



INDUSTRIAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 



UNDER the above heading the Quarterly 

 Review for October contains a timely and 

 interesting paper by Mr. T. L. Humberstone, 

 which reviews comprehensively the problem how 

 best to apply the results of physical science, as 

 studied in the universities and colleges, to the 

 requirements of the industrial world. 



At the outbreak of war the fact that this 

 country was almost dependent on Germany for 

 dyes seemed to come with the force of a rough 

 awakening to the majority of British manufac- 

 turers, who during the last forty years had been 

 deaf to the warnings which had been shouted at 

 them repeatedly by the scientific chemists. The 

 lesson of the dyes is being taken to heart to some 

 extent by other manufacturers, and the urgent 

 questions which have now to be answered have 

 aroused much discussion. The Government of 

 this country has also, at last, consented to 

 acknowledge the importance of science in a 

 national sense by appointing a committee of the 

 Privy Council, assisted by an advisory committee 

 of eminent scientific men. The functions of these 

 bodies is to discover in what way scientific educa- 

 tion can be modified, and the results of research 

 made more widely applicable, so that both may be 

 utilised to the advantage of industry and trade. 



The discussions which have already taken place 

 show how much opinions may differ about the 

 working of such a scheme, but one or two things 

 seem clear. As Mr. Humberstone properly points 

 out, our universities and colleges must in future 

 train a much larger number of students with the 

 direct object of fitting them for an industrial 



