390 



NATURE 



[August 26, 1897 



from 3 per cent, to 47 per cent. Indeed, iron is now 

 "being imported from the United States into this 

 •country ; and, incredible as it may seem, the railway 

 •station at Middlesbrough, the centre of the iron trade, is 

 "built of iron brought from Belgium. Surely, then, the 

 author is hardly right in thinking that British coal and 

 iron still hold their own. He argues that other countries 

 of Europe are exhausting their coal supplies just as Great 

 Britain is, yet the figures he gives show that Germany 

 lias in reserve, within a depth of 3000 feet, 109,000 million 

 tons of coal, as compared with our 81,683 million tons 

 within a depth of 4000 feet. And this estimate does not 

 include brown coal, of which Germany raises twenty-five 

 ^million tons annually. 



Slight errors in the spelling of names of persons and 

 places suggest that the volume has been hastily written, 

 4is does the reference on p. 121 to "the second edition of 

 this work." Moravia (p. 133) is included in Germany, 

 Sir Courtenay Boyle is styled Mr., and among the names 

 anisspelt are Baron von Berlepsch (p. 151), Teruel (p. 

 134), Pocahontas (p. 135), and Ural (p. 133). These, 

 however, are insignificant blemishes in an excellent 

 •work that may, without hesitation, be warmly recom- 

 cnended to all desirous of studying the questions of 

 aiational importance upon which it throws so much Hght. 

 Bennett H. Brough. 



CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF MAN. 

 /Prehistoric Problems. By Dr. R. Munro. Pp. 371. 

 8vo. 150 figs, and 8 plates. (Edinburgh and London : 

 W. Blackwood and Sons, 1897.) 



DR. MUNRO has done well to reprint and extend 

 the essays which form the greater part of his 

 <newly-published " Prehistoric Problems," as anything 

 that comes from his pen is sure to be sound in manner 

 and matter. 



The chief feature of interest in the first chapter on 

 >the rise and progress of Anthropology is a discussion 

 concerning the gap between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic 

 periods, upon which so much stress has been laid, and 

 -^vvhich several archceologists are now endeavouring to 

 >bridge over. Undoubtedly in most parts of Europe this 

 .■hiatus is well marked, and as analogous gaps in syste- 

 raatic zoology and palaeontology are acknowledged to be 

 due solely to the " imperfection of the record," so the 

 i5ion-discovery of intermediate finds in archeology is a 

 logical explanation of the apparent break. The transition 

 must have occurred over large areas, and, indeed, M. Ed. 

 <Piette claims to have discovered this transition in the 

 deer- and snail-shell layers of the cave of Mas-d'Azil ; 

 and MM, Cartailhac and Boule have found similar 

 -evidence in the cave of Reilhac. Mr. Arthur J. Evans 

 also ascribes the famous remains of the Balzi Rossi 

 'caves of Mentone to an earlier Neolithic stratum than 

 any of which we have hitherto possessed authentic 

 •records. Dr. Munro takes up the running with a de- 

 scription of the bone and deer-horn harpoons found in 

 •various European caves. He finds that a particular type 

 of these implements occurs from the Pyrenees to 

 .Scotland (Oban), and though all the records are not very 

 satisfactory, yet they indicate a stage of culture which 

 appears to belong to this transitional period. 

 NO. 1452, VOL. 56J 



In the second, third, and fourth chapters the author 

 attempts "to correlate the phenomena of man's environ- 

 ments with the corporeal changes necessitated by his 

 higher intelligence, and to place a summary of the 

 results before general readers." Dr. Munro emphasises 

 the mechanical and physical advantages accruing from 

 the erect posture and from the differentiation of the limbs 

 into hands and feet ; these facts have long been recognised 

 by anatomists, but it is well to have them clearly stated 

 in non-technical language for the general public. 



"With the advantage of manipulative organs and a 

 progressive brain (which was rendered possible only by 

 the attainment of the erect position and the evolution 

 of the limbs), the precursor of man became Homo sapiens 

 and gradually developed a capacity to understand and 

 utilise the forces of nature." 



Neither in his physical structure nor in his mental or 

 moral attainments does Dr. Munro recognise any other 

 process than a gradual transformation. The evolution 

 of bipedal locomotion 



"being mechanically advantageous and readily effected 

 according to the laws of morphological adaptation had a 

 short duration. The transformation during which his 

 mental organisation developed to the extent of becoming 

 a new governing force in the organic world was an 

 extremely slow process, and consisted of infinitesimally 

 small increments of knowledge, acquired by repeated 

 experiences of reasoning from cause to effect and from 

 means to ends." 



Dr. Munro brings osteological and craniological 

 evidence in support of his views, notably that supplied 

 by our now old friend Pithecanthropus erectus. 



In the archaeological portion of the book are four 

 chapters on " Prehistoric trepanning and cranial 

 amulets," " Otter and Beaver traps — a strange chapter 

 in Comparative Archaeology," " Bone-skates and their 

 archaeological range in Europe," and " Prehistoric saws 

 and sickles," all of which exemplify Dr. Munro's sound 

 archseological methods of investigation. 



The essay on trepanning is of considerable interest, as 

 it illustrates how craniology may throw light upon the 

 surgical and religious practices of prehistoric folk. Quite 

 a large number of skulls have now been found which 

 exhibit artificial orifices, usually rounded or ovoid, which 

 were made either when the patient was alive, as is proved 

 by the healing that has occurred on the cut edges of the 

 bone, or after death ; in some cases it can be proved that 

 the patients did not survive the operation, or perhaps 

 died from the illness that the trepanning was intended to 

 cure. The trepanning was probably performed in most 

 cases by scraping the head with a piece of flint ; some- 

 times a fragment of bone was cut out bodily. Any part 

 of the cranium, except the forehead, was operated upon. 

 It is supposed that, in the majority of cases, the primary 

 object of the operation was to cure or alleviate " some 

 mental disorder of an epileptiform character." 



Undoubtedly relief was obtained as so many people were 

 operated upon, and since the pieces of the skull so ob- 

 tained were worn as amulets by the living and sometimes 

 buried with the dead. It is not absolutely proved that 

 all cranial amulets were exclusively derived from tre- 

 panned skulls ; one or two pieces of bone, evidently used 

 as amulets, have been found made from other human 

 bones. It is worthy of notice that most of the trepanned 

 skulls belong to the Neolithic or Early Bronze age, and 



