52 



NATURE 



[May 20. 1897 



"Origin of Exogamy" has hitherto been printed. The 

 reader will find during the course of his perusal of this 

 volume that he is already familiar with a large number 

 of the facts, and will be inclined to wonder why they 

 are reproduced here without reference to the works in 

 which they have already been printed ; but it must be 

 remembered that the works of W. R. Smith, Frazer and 

 others have been published since the death of M'Lennan, 

 and to add references of this kind was clearly outside 

 the duties of the editors. Again, some of his views are 

 given more fully, and others are disproved by an over- 

 whelming mass of evidence in the splendid publications 

 of the American Bureau of Ethnography which the 

 Government of the United States have issued during the 

 last fifteen years ; but we cannot blame the editor for 

 being silent on these points. M'Lennan began to work 

 and to collect materials when the study of comparative 

 ethnography was in its infancy, and he endeavoured to 

 study everything for himself and at first hand. As other 

 workers entered the field, and studied to specialise their 

 knowledge, his task became greater and greater, until 

 at length he was unable to cope with it ; still in many 

 respects his work is thorough, and even when his im- 

 pressions and deductions from facts are wrong, they 

 bear an honesty about them which is lacking in the 

 work of more modern investigators. In a book dealing 

 with so many peoples and countries it would be easy 

 to pick holes and to raise an argument with tolerable 

 frequency ; and although we do not propose to do either 

 the one or the other, still we must protest against the 

 quotation on p. 520. Here it is gravely stated that the 

 Zodiac was known in Egypt as early as B.C. 5800, but 

 there is no evidence whatever extant on which to found 

 such a decision ; the home of the Zodiac was the country 

 lying to the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula, and 

 though it may have been known to both the Semitic and 

 non-Semitic inhabitants of this region at such an early 

 period, there is no proof that it was. Finally, we can- 

 not help regretting that Mr. M'Lennan's " Studies " are 

 without an index, for, in our opinion, one-half of their 

 usefulness and value is lost thereby. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Ferrets., their Management in Health and Disease; with 



Remarks on their Legal Status. By Nicholas Everitt. 



1 2mo, pp. XV -f 209. Illustrated. (London : A. and C. 



Black, 1897.) 

 Probably many of our readers who have not been 

 brought up in the country would be shy of handling a 

 ferret ; but if they attend carefully to the directions given 

 in this little volume, they may set aside their fears for the 

 future. Admirable instructions are also given as to the 

 management of these animals in health and in sickness, 

 and likewise how to use them in the field ; while a 

 rdsumi of the legal status of ferrets will probably be 

 useful to many. So far, indeed, as the breeding and 

 management of these little mustelines are concerned, we 

 may say, to use an expression of the author, that " what 

 he does not know is not worth knowing." 



Unfortunately, in common with many writers of works 

 of a similar kind, the author has thought it necessary to 

 give a preliminary chapter on the natural history of the 

 ferret. Here he is in hopeless confusion. Although he 

 describes the ferret as a species of Mttstela, he says that 

 it belongs to the genus Putorius; and further informs us 



NO. [438, VOL. 56] 



that it is a natural species, whose native home is Africa. 

 He also states that the beech, or stone marten, is a British 

 species, and makes several remarkable assertions con- 

 cerning other members of the group. The author may 

 be reminded that there are writers on natural history 

 since BufiFon ; and should the work reach a second 

 edition, he would do well to engage the services of a com- 

 petent naturalist to rewrite the first chapter. R. L. 

 Catalogue of the African Plants collected by Dr. F. 

 Welwitsch in 1853-61. Part i. Dicotyledons. By 

 W. P. Hiern. Pp. xxvi -I- 336. (London : Printed 

 by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 1896.) 

 Dr. Welwitsch, although an Austrian by birth, occu- 

 pied the position of curator of the Lisbon Botanic 

 Garden and Museum, when he was selected, m 185 1, by 

 the King of Portugal as naturalist to an expedition for 

 exploring the Portuguese possessions on the West Coast 

 of Africa. Between this date and 1861, he made very 

 large collections, chiefly of plants. Although Dr. 

 Welwitsch died in 1872, his collections have till recently 

 remained unedited, partly owing to a dispute as to their 

 ownership between his Trustees and the Portuguese 

 Governmeni, which ended in the Court of Chancery, 

 partly owing to the difficulty in finding a compiler and 

 editor. This office was finally placed, by the Trustees 

 of the British Museum, as far as the flowering plants 

 are concerned, in the very competent hands of Mr. 

 W. P. Hiern, who has now brought out the first part, 

 comprising the natural orders of Dicotyledons from 

 Ranunculaceae to Rhizophoracea?. The work has been 

 one of great labour, a large number of new species 

 and some new genera being described ; and we may 

 congratulate the systematic botanist on so important an 

 addition to our knowledge of the flora of Tropical Africa. 



A. W. B. 

 Pioneers of Evolutio7i from Thales to Huxley j with an 

 Lntermediate Chapter on the Causes of Arrest of the 

 Movement. By Edward Clodd. Pp. x -I- 250. (London : 

 Grant Richards, 1897.) 

 Mr. Clodd has produced an interesting book, in which 

 is told '• the story of the origin of the Evolution idea in 

 Ionia, and, after long arrest, of the revival of that idea in 

 modern times, when its profound and permanent influ- 

 ence on thought in all directions, and, therefore, on human 

 relations and conduct, is apparent." The volume is 

 divided into four parts, which deal successively with the 

 Pioneers of Evolution from Thales to Lucretius, the Arrest 

 of Inquiry, the Renascence of Science, and Modern 

 Evolution. It should be read by the great body of 

 science students in our University Colleges and technical 

 schools, who, too often, in following special branches of 

 science, lose sight of the great generalisations which 

 have, during the latter part of this century, so completely 

 altered the complexion and tendency of i,deas on every 

 subject of thought. 



The author sketches the chief results which have come 

 from the recognition of the principles of evolution, not 

 only in biological provinces, but in all departments of 

 human knowledge ; and he has, in so doing, produced an 

 attractive and wonderfully clear little volume. 



It may be worth while to point out that the statement 

 that nebulae are "masses of glowing hydrogen and 

 nitrogen gases "(p. 164) needs correction; for nitrogen, 

 as a nebular constituent, is now relegated to the limbo of 

 departed ideas. Mr. Clodd should have verified his 

 statement by himself taking the advice which he offers 

 Lord Salisbury on p. 165. The reference to "the complex 

 jelly-like protoplastn., or, as some call it, nuclein or nucleo- 

 plasm " (p. 103), also needs to be made accurate, for in its 

 present form it will give readers the idea that the three 

 words we have italicised are synonymous. The book 

 contains good portraits of Darwin, Russel Wallace, 

 Herbert Spencer, and Huxley. 



