November 29, 1900] 



NA TURE 



105 



"Such a muddle as that respecting the boundary of 

 Alaska, and futile suggestions like those which were 

 made for the boundaries of British Guiana, before the 

 final settlement, could never have been made if the 

 statesmen who were responsible had consulted geo- 

 graphers, and had acted on their advice." 



Related to this is the subject of topographical surveys. 

 It ought to be a political axiom that a Government 

 should know its country ; but we are all aware how fre- 

 quently this duty is neglected, and the war in South 

 Africa has brought the deficiency into unpleasant 

 prominence. Even the "man in the street " is now in a 

 state of mind to agree that 



" If the survey of British South Africa had been begun 

 years ago, or even as late as 1880, and pushed forward 

 with an ample supply of trained surveyors, the war of 

 1899-1900 within its borders would have been simpler, 

 safer and immensely cheaper." 



In addition to topographical surveys, there should be 

 geological surveys, hydrographic surveys, cliraatological 

 surveys, biological surveys, and other official determina- 

 tions of the features, fauna and flora of the country, with 

 a view to possessing trustworthy information for future 

 as well as present service. The fundamental value of a 

 knowledge of rainfall in determining the value of 

 colonisable countries is not often recognised, though so 

 much depends upon it. How important an extensive system 

 of rain measurement is in some new countries is shown 

 by the fact that Australians in their calculations often 

 convert inches of rain into numbers of sheep or ev.n 

 pouii -.0 of wool per acre. This and other similar cases 

 justify Dr. Mill's remark that 



" in almost every case it will be found that the crux 

 of a new land is the water supply. Water, as rain or 

 rivers, is indeed the very life-blood of the habitable 

 world, and the phenomena of its circulation are often 

 complicated, and require much study to elucidate." 



It is unnecessary in these columns to give further 

 instances of the dependence of the success of the colonist 

 upon the scientific information available concerning his 

 adopted country. The difficulty is to relieve practical poli- 

 ticians of the thought that knowledge for which there is 

 no immediate use is useless ; they have no sympathy with 

 purely scientific work, therefore they are unwilling to 

 encourage it. Let us hope that in the course of time 

 our statesmen will receive an early training in scientific 

 method and foresight, sufficient to enable them to con- 

 sider colonisation as a study in anthropogeography 

 nstead of a haphazard system of settlement. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 The Child : a Study in the Evolution of Man. By A. F. 

 Chamberlain, M.A., Ph.D. Pp. i— xii -f 495. With 

 Illustrations. The Contemporary Science Series. 

 (London: Walter Scott, Ltd, 1900.) 

 This book is intended as a study of the child in the light 

 of the literature of evolution ; an attempt to record and, 

 if possible, interpret some of the most interesting and 

 important phenomena of human beginnings in the in- 

 dividual and in the race. Anthropology, as a science 

 embracing many aspects of the human race, is concerned 

 with inquiry as to the evolution of man, and applies fresh 

 knowledge, gained by scientific methods, to the correlation 

 of ascertained facts. The book refeis more to the psycho- 

 logical aspect of human development than to the physio- 

 logical causes of evolution ; dealing in a philosophical 



NO. 1622, VOL. 63] 



spirit — not always by strictly scientific processes — with 

 the several subjects dealt with, evidence is afforded by 

 the collection of data and the opinions expressed by 

 many writers rather than based upon the author's own 

 observations and arguments. 



In the opening chapter on " the helplessness of infancy" 

 the results that follow from early weakness and the pro- 

 longed period of dependency are shown by numerous 

 quotations, while explanation is afforded by reference to 

 Mr. Fiske's view that this has led to the lengthened 

 association of children with their parents and thus 

 developed social habits. The comparative adolescence 

 and longevity of man and animals is shown, and the dictum 

 of Schleiermacher, " Being a child must not hinder be- 

 coming a man ; becoming a man must not hinder being 

 a child," suggests application to education. 



The periods of childhood suggested as distinctive of 

 stages in development are numerous, and definitions from 

 Pythagorus downwards are given. Dr. Chamberlain 

 says, "not only does the child seem to recapitulate 

 physically and mentally the chief points of the race's his- 

 tory, but his own development is fairly teeming with 

 epochs and periods, isolated spots sometimes, the inter- 

 pretation of which is not yet at hand." The examples 

 given are very interesting, but do not convince us that 

 there is sufficient evidence of any standard by which 

 normal psychological development can be judged. The 

 successive manifestations of mental growth in children 

 form a promising field in child-study ; the account given 

 of the linguistic periods in the advance towards speech 

 forms one of the most interesting chapters in this book 

 Other chapters are explanatory of the relations of the 

 child with the savage and criminal showing certain 

 analogies, but do not afford much guidance in studying 

 child-evolution or explain why the children are such as 

 we find them to be. 



The desire to explain the evolution of infancy has 

 sometimes led the author wide of the teaching of scien- 

 tific views, as when he says, p. 442, " The moment Nature 

 decided that, with man, the struggle for existence was 

 ultimately to be altruistic, rather than selfish, she was 

 forced to make man weak in order to ensure his later 

 strength in the right direction." Such teaching leads the 

 student to neglect the facts of physiology and the effects 

 of physical environment. 



The book presents much of interest to the philosophical 

 reader, and maintains the contention that the teaching of 

 evolution and child-study should go hand in hand as 

 mutually instructive. 



The value of this volume would be increased by a table 

 of contents ; this want is accentuated by the brevity of the 

 index. Eighteen illustrations afford useful explanations 

 of^types of manhood and the artistic productions of 

 children. 



Sieroterapia e Vaccinazioni preventive contro La Peste 



Bubonica: Dott Alessandro Lustig. Pp. vi -f- 150. 



(Torino : Rosenberg and Sellier, 1899.) 

 This book gives an account of the preparation of anti- 

 plague serum by the authors method. 



According to Prof Lustig, a considerable degree of 

 immunity against plague is obtained by inoculating 

 animals with a nucleo-proteid contained in the bodies of 

 the bacilli. A culture of plague bacilli grown on solid 

 media is scraped off and dissolved in a i per cent, solution 

 of caustic potash. After washing and passing through a 

 Chamberland filter, the substance is used for inoculating 

 horses. 



.After repeated inoculations the horses are bled, and 

 the serum is used for treatment of plague patients. 



Or a solution of the nucleo-proteid may be used as a 

 prophylactic, as advocated by Prof. Lustig and Galeotti 

 {British Medical Journal., February 10, 1900). The 

 curative treatment was tried for a period at the .Arthur 

 Road Hospital, Bombay, but the results were not very 



