124 



NATURE 



[Decemukr 8, 1S92 



among whom (as our author shows) the Jesuit mis- 

 sionaries found and did not make a system of com- 

 munism (pp. 42 seq.). In nearly all the instances of this 

 class the sense of property was most strongly developed 

 in regard to the hunting ground of the tribe, though (in the 

 case of the Iroquois, &c.) it embraced the Long Houses 

 of the clans of the tribe, an anticipation of Fourier's 

 phalansteries. The differentiation of the clan from the 

 tribe is ascribed to the growth of the taste for property 

 itself (cf p. 365). Letourneau would explain the present 

 universality of human sympathy as a bequest to us from 

 the days when all property was common (p. 57). The 

 republican organization passed into the monarchical,where 

 the tribe was governed by its chief (pp. 56 seq). This 

 political change was rather an effect than a cause of 

 coincident industrial changes, especially the introduction 

 of private property in slaves and women. " A comparison 

 of the American tribes, placing them in a graduated series 

 from the primitive system of communistic equality up- 

 ward, plainly shows that, at least in this part of the 

 world the establishment of aristocracy and here- 

 ditary monarchic power has merely crowned an 

 economic evolution, whereof the point of departure 

 was the institution of slavery, and the consequent de- 

 velopment of agriculture, whence arose the rupture of 

 primitive equality, creation of exchangeable values, 

 development of private property, contrast between rich 

 and poor, foundation of castes, and hereditary succes- 

 sion " (p. 61). This passage, amongst others, betrays the 

 tendency — fashionable in some quarters at the present 

 time— to regard all social development as due mainly, if 

 not wholly, to economic causes. Not that economists 

 by profession are gratce personal to our author. On the 

 contrary, they are only mentioned to be rebuked, and 

 their doctrines only to be caricatured (see pp. 91, 96, cf. 

 120, 124, &c.). But, as by some sections of German 

 Socialists, so by Letourneau, wc are given to understand 

 that the politics, religion, and general character of a 

 society are determined by the conditions of industry and 

 the terms of property therein prevailing, while no sufficient 

 allowance is made for the reaction of the former set of 

 phenomena on the latter. 



To sum up : at this third stage in the development from 

 savagery (the early monarchical system), the idea of per- 

 sonal property is extended from weapons and tools which 

 a man has made, to the trees which he has planted, and 

 then to the plot of ground he has cleared and sown. 

 After that the idea of private property may be considered 

 to be full formed and definitely launched on its modern 

 career of development (p. 7f ). The great cause of private 

 property is agriculture. Where there was only pasture, 

 as with the Hottentots, the private property was only in 

 cattle, women, and children (p. 79). Agriculture brings 

 us to extended forms of slavery, and to forms of property 

 and modes of valuing and exchanging it that approach 

 more and more to modern ideas. 



We need not follow our author into the ininutice of his 

 account of " primitive monarchies " and empires. He 

 gives a survey of mankind from China to Peru, and from 

 the earliest limes to the period of Roman, feudal, and 

 modern civilization. The earliest stages of the develop- 

 ment are (rightly enough) treated more fully than the 

 later, the later being the more generally known. The 

 NO. I 206, VOL. 47] 



differentiation of clan from tribe and of family fromclan^ 

 the formation of village communities for the purpose of 

 agriculture, the introduction of inheritance, and of private 

 property in estates, are all traced out in chapters that are 

 full of interest even when not above cavil. 



Prof. Letourneau has perhaps been too ready to point 

 a moral for the benefit of his own generation. But 

 after all he gives his readers the facts, and they may find 

 their own moral, which may or may not be his. One of 

 the best instances where the materials presented seem to 

 justify a different moral than the one drawn from them 

 is that of the dessa ox village community of Java. It is 

 pronounced to have excellent results, particularly in 

 increasing population (p. 121), and is contrasted with " the 

 selfish African system" (p. 122) ; but by our author's own 

 account it is a combination of private and collective pro- 

 perty, not an example ofthelatterby itself (cf. pp. 114,115). 



The book is, we may presume, translated from the 

 French ; and this will account for the use of "alienist" for 

 "lunacy doctor" (p. 370)," disengaging " for " analyzing "^ 

 (p- 373)) and "salaried" for "wages-earning" (p. 375). 

 But, as a rule, the language is correct and clear English. 



J. B. 



LEA PER' S ''OUTLINES OF ORGANIC 



CHEMISTRY/' 



Outlines of Organic Chemistry. By Clement J. Leaper,. 



F.C.S. Specially written for Schools and Classes 



connected with the Department of Science and Art. 



(London : Iliffe and Son, 1892.) 

 ' pHIS little work is intended, as the title states, for the 

 J- use of beginners. But the author has made the 

 way of beginners hard, by leaving in his pages the largest 

 collection of misprints and other slips which we recollect 

 to have met with in so small a compass. 



On the very first page, in the opening lines, there oc- 

 curs a wrong formula for urea ; and the book ends with a 

 wrong formula for aldehyde-ammonia. We do not pro- 

 pose to convert this notice into a table of errata ; but the 

 following may be given as illustrating the sort of guid- 

 ance which the beginner may expect. On p. 75, in the 

 brief space of three lines, we meet with "(COOH2)," 

 "C3H5(OH3)" and " C3H5(OHo)COOH," as represent- 

 ing respectively oxalic acid, glycerin, and — monoformin ! 

 The blunder, in each case, consists, of course, in placing 

 a coefficient inside instead of outside the bracket ; but we 

 doubt whether, even with this correction, the last expres- 

 sion, with its carboxyl-group in place of the group 

 O.CHO, would be recognized, even by an experienced 

 chemist, much less by a beginner, as representing mono- 

 formin. 



Blunders, due to carelessness, are not confined to for- 

 mulas. Thus we find : " Pure white precipitate of silver 

 oxide (p. 13), whereas the context shows that silver 

 chloride is meant ; '' ethene dichloride, C.^HgCla" (p. 37) ; 

 "lead the gas into lime water, and note the formation of 

 insoluble carbon dioxide (p. 51) ; "by the further chlorin- 

 ation of methyl chloride we get ethylidene chloride" 

 (p. 67) ; whilst, on p. 99, "grains " is twice given instead 

 of "grams." But the worst blunder we have met with 

 occurs on p. 109, where, possibly owing to a transposition 

 of the pages of the author's manuscript, the explanations 



