466 



NATURE 



[September i6, 1897 



the editor. In the first article the history, causation, 

 symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis and pathology of 

 ergotism are fully considered. Under diagnosis the 

 author discusses the identity of ergotism and Raynaud's 

 disease. Descriptions of pellagra, the disease due to 

 bad maize, and of lathyrism, that ascribed to certain 

 species of chick-pea, conclude the article. The mono- 

 graph on snake poison and snake bite is written by Mr. 

 Martin, an appendix being added by Dr. Calmette. 

 Mr. Martin discusses the chemical nature and physi- 

 ological action of several snake toxines. In his opinion 

 the albumoses, which form the active principle of snake 

 poisons, are produced by the glandular cell from the 

 albumins of the blood by a process of hydration. Dr. 

 Calmette, in his appendix, gives the latest results of his 

 antivenom treatment. He (in opposition to Martin) 

 maintains the efficacy of treatment by hypochlorite 

 of lime, and also by chloride of gold (i per cent.), 

 which he recommends when antivenom is not to hand. 

 His view is that the antivenom acts by an " insensibilisa- 

 tion " of the cells, and cannot be regarded as chemically 

 antidotal. Calmette maintains that animals rendered im- 

 mune by vaccination against a dose of Cobra or Bothrop's 

 venom many hundred times the ordinary fatal dose, resist 

 likewise inoculations of very powerful doses of the venom 

 of numerous other serpents. Readers interested in this 

 subject are referred by the editor to an article in Nature 

 (December lo, 1896), by Dr. Kanthack, which gives an 

 account of further researches by Dr. Cunningham and 

 himself upon this subject. Dr. RoUeston contributes an 

 article on alcoholism, in which the approximate composi- 

 tion of the more ordinary alcoholic drinks is considered. 

 On p. 846 of this monograph occurs an amusing mis- 

 print — the only one we have noticed — Kirschwasser being 

 written "Kirchwasser." Morphinism, hasheesh poisoning, 

 cocainism, ether drinking, and tobacco poisoning are all 

 fully treated by the editor. Dr. Thomas Oliver con- 

 tributes a monograph on metallic and some other forms 

 of poisoning, including "poisonous trades." 



The final division of the work is devoted to internal 

 parasites. It includes articles on psorospermosis, by 

 Dr. Joseph Griffiths ; on worms, by Dr. Patrick Manson ; 

 on Bilharzia hccmatobia, by Dr. Guillemard ; on hydatid 

 disease, by Dr. Verco and Prof. E. C. Stirling. 



The editor has adopted the useful System of placing 

 at the end of vol. ii. addenda containing any important 

 additions to our knowledge of the subjects already 

 written upon, since the completion of the respective 

 monographs. In this instance Dr. Sheridan Delepine 

 writes a description of Widal's typhoid serum reaction. 

 Dr. Payne summarises the ways in which the recent 

 plague epidemic has increased our knowledge of the 

 geographical distribution and therapeutics of that disease. 

 Dr. Davidson discusses Sanarelli's yellow fever bacillus, 

 and protective serum. 



It is impossible in a review such as the present one to 

 do justice to the encyclopaedic mass of information which 

 is contained in the volume before us. The editor and his 

 collaborators are, however, heartily to be congratulated 

 upon this further result of their labours, which both in 

 matter and manner may be regarded as a model of 

 what such a work ought to be. F. W. T. 



NO. 1455, VOL. 56] 



ANTHROPOLOGY versus ETYMOLOGY. 

 Modern My tholo^s^y. By Andrew Lang. Pp. xxiv -f- 213 



(London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897.) 

 TD EADERS of Nature will remember that it is not 

 J-^ many weeks ago since Prof. Max Miiller's " Con- 

 tributions to the Science of Mythology" was reviewed 

 in these columns. It is not many weeks, in fact, since 

 this work appeared, and any serious student of the 

 subject with which it deals will have hardly yet assim- 

 ilated the mass of new material and varied suggestion 

 which, so short a time ago, it presented to his notice. 

 Such a student taking up " Modern Mythology." and 

 turning to the introduction, will experience a shock of 

 surprise on finding that Mr. Lang's new book poses as 

 "a reply" to the learned Professor's portly volumes. 

 The puzzled student asks himself how any adequate 

 "reply" can have been written, printed and published 

 in so short an interval, and his surprise that such a 

 feat has been attempted changes to regret when he 

 passes from the introduction to the book itself. That 

 Mr. Lang has formulated this hasty indictment is the 

 more to be regretted as he speaks throughout as the 

 champion of the anthropological treatment of mythology ; 

 but it must be noted that he is a self-constituted 

 champion, and we may be forgiven for saying that we 

 think he has miscalculated his own importance in that 

 field of science. We willingly accept his assurance that 

 he does know Greek, but we cannot remember that he 

 has anywhere shown that he possesses the masterly 

 knowledge of oriental and other languages possessed by 

 Prof. Max Miiller, or that he has a knowledge of 

 scientific anthropology equal to that of Prof. E. B. 

 Tylor and the other great masters of the same school 

 to whom he, in common with ourselves, is really in- 

 debted for the main facts and principles of anthropology 

 which he accepts. We admit at once that the greatest 

 linguist is not always the best interpreter of the facts 

 which he has gleaned from the literatures of the various 

 nations with which he is acquainted. But we must at 

 the same time declare that a man who sets himself up 

 to interpret the facts which the linguist has collected, 

 should at least have sufficient knowledge of the language 

 to understand the facts and to discern the reasons which 

 induced the linguist to make his statements. 



It cannot be denied that to the older school of mytho- 

 logists, which counts Prof. Max Miiller its most brilliant 

 exponent, was due the first scientific treatment of the 

 subject. They were concerned solely with the mythology 

 of Greece, but they were the first to perceive that the 

 stories of gods and heroes were worthy of classification 

 and systematic study. Their conception of mythology 

 may be briefly described. The Greek gods and god- 

 desses, they postulate, were in their origin merely per- 

 sonifications of the great forces and most striking 

 phenomena in nature. Their names were originally 

 descriptive of their general character as natural forces, 

 and the myths which gathered about them were merely 

 allegories describing, in the form of stories, the working 

 of these forces in the natural world. But in process of 

 time the names of the deities ceased to be understood, 

 and the original meaning of the myths was forgotten. 



