May 27, 1920] 



NATURE 



385 



the scope of anthropolog-y conceived as the study of 

 man in evolution, he proceeds to sketch the evi- 

 dence relating to the side of somatology. Con- 

 sidering the limitations of space, his account seems 

 fairly complete. A few slips occur. Trogon- 

 therium will scarcely do as the name of a kind of 

 elephant. Rhinoceri reminds us of octopi. More 

 important, it is a pity to adopt Klaatsch's term 

 "Aurignacian man" to describe a physical type 

 (Combe Capelle), seeing that to do so is to 

 correlate a race with a cultural type which may or 

 may not have been confined to that race — nay, 

 probably was not. Next, the characteristic forms 

 of industry are described. We note that Mr. 

 James is inclined to accept the Sub-Crag flints as 

 of genuine human workmanship. He also takes 

 the view that the Mousterian industry is inferior 

 to the Acheulean, representing a set-back in culture 

 and not an advance as effected by a labour-saving 

 device. Mr. James is entitled to judge at first 

 hand, inasmuch as he has worked on a Mousterian 

 site (Jersey), where material was plentiful. Per- 

 haps he does not sufficiently allow for the fact that, 

 if finely wrought pieces were but as one in every 

 hundred fragments forming the workshop refuse, 

 these masterpieces were of a very high quality, 

 symmetrical in outline and smoothly and deli- 

 cately finished off. 



The book then goes on to try to construct some 

 picture of the social organisation and magico- 

 religious beliefs prevailing during the prehistoric 

 period, and especially among the later cave-men. 

 Necessarily the treatment is somewhat speculative, 

 but the analogies provided by modern savages 

 are put forward without dogmatism and so as to 

 invite the student of archaeology to equip himself 

 for his special task by acquiring the elements of 

 anthropology as a whole. Mr. James has already 

 written on the subject of primitive religion, with 

 special reference to the Australian aborigines. The 

 latter, then, naturally provide him with most of his 

 clues, but here he has the support of most writers 

 on this branch of the subject, from M. Salomon 

 Reinach onwards. Certainly it is hard to resist 

 the impression that the drawings found in the 

 deep recesses of caverns, as at Niaux, served a 

 magico-religious purpose; art for art's sake would 

 surely have craved a good light. What, then, 

 more natural than to compare the Australian 

 intichiuma ceremony with its rock-drawings demon- 

 strably designed to further the multiplication of 

 animals and plants fit for human consumption? 

 It does not follow, of course, that every institution 

 of the Australians can therefore be fathered on 

 the men of Pleistocene Europe. Totemism is more 

 doubtful than intichiuma ; delineations of embryonic 

 spirits (inapertwa) are more doubtful than either; 

 NO. 2639, VOL. 105] 



while churingas and Azilian coloured pebbles are 

 not to be identified offhand. Mr. James, however, 

 steers his way warily among these tempting possi- 

 bilities, and the result is a manual which will 

 make the student think without professing to 

 supply the thought ready-made. R. R. M. 



The Problem of Clean and Safe Milk. 



The Modern Milk Problem in Sanitation, 

 Economics, and Agriculture. By J. Scott 

 MacNutt. Pp. xi + 258+16 plates. (New 

 York : The Macmillan Co. ; London : Macmillan 

 and Co., Ltd., 1917.) Price 10s. 6d. net. 



THE purpose of the author of this volume is 

 to provide a convenient survey of the prac- 

 tical, economic, and sanitary factors of the milk 

 problem, so as to meet the needs not only of 

 health officers and milk inspectors, but also of 

 dairymen, city milk dealers, agricultural authori- 

 ties, consumers, physicians, and all others who 

 are interested in the problem. 



This survey is almost entirely based upon the 

 experience gained in the United States as set 

 forth in official reports or publications which have 

 appeared in America, mostly since 1910. 



The author knows that the milk question has 

 also received the attention of some European 

 workers, and refers in a few words (p. 66) to the 

 communication made by Mr. Ernest Hart at the 

 International Medical Congress held in 1881, in 

 which mention is made of sixty-nine epidemics of 

 disease attributable to milk. The only other 

 English writer specifically mentioned in the text 

 is Smollett (p. 32) ; the very realistic description of 

 the milk consumed in London introduced by that 

 author in a letter of Mr. Bramble to Dr. Lewis 

 ("The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker") is cer- 

 tainly very interesting, for it shows that the milk 

 problem already exercised the minds of thinking 

 men some 150 years ago. 



Although European observers have little to 

 learn from their American colleagues regarding 

 the causes of the deplorable state of the milk 

 consumed in large and other towns, and its seri- 

 ous consequences, it must be acknowledged that 

 greater enterprise has been shown in the United 

 States in the devising of methods and regulations 

 having for their object the improvement of the 

 milk supplies. 



It is specially on that account that the book will 

 prove useful to British readers, who will find in it 

 a comprehensive and critical summary of many of 

 the results obtained in America by sanitary and 

 agricultural authorities, as well as by various 



