102 



NATURE 



[April io, 19 19 



(i) For example, Col. Myers, in discussing- the 

 important problem of the length of the working 

 day, does more than state the proved fact — once 

 apparently so paradoxical, to-day merely an item 

 in an alert mind's common sense — that diminu- 

 tion of hours of work may be followed by increase 

 of output ; he g'ives an analysis of the physio- 

 logical and psychological factors affecting work, 

 an account which explains convincingly how this 

 may come about. We are also reminded of the 

 necessity for helping people to realise the principles 

 underlying efficient work, and to see the distinc- 

 tion between "shorthand methods of work " and 

 "speeding-up." This education is noted as 

 urgently desirable for both employers and em- 

 ployees. 



In a condensed, but highly suggestive, form 

 such problems as the investigation of individual 

 differences, the selection of workers for special 

 tasks, and the modern conceptions of the nature 

 and treatment of nervous breakdown are discussed 

 in a way which should convert many to the study 

 of modern psychology. The success attending the 

 early treatment of cases of mental and nervous 

 disorder arising in our armies is graphically 

 described, but we are reminded that "hitherto in 

 this country, during peace-time, such neurasthenic 

 patients have had no treatment beyond a bottle 

 of medicine at the out-patient department of a 

 neighbouring general hospital. They have not 

 been admitted to a general hospital unless they 

 have shown some functional paralysis, nor to an 

 asylum until their condition has become one of 

 certifiable insanity." 



(2) In his treatment of the nervous breakdowns 

 of the war, Dr. MacCurdy lays welcome stress 

 upon a part of this subject which has tended of 

 late to become overshadowed by others. Wide- 

 spread interest has been shown in the striking 

 "objective" disturbances of the war psycho- 

 neuroses — the blindnesses, deafnesses, mutisms, 

 paralyses, and contractures — ^and by their equally 

 dramatic cures. Dr. MacCurdy, however, does 

 not forget that there exists another large class, 

 the "anxiety neuroses," whose mental sufferings, 

 although (perhaps because) they do not express 

 themselves in obvious bodily disturbances, equally 

 call for skilled treatment. He offers an interesting 

 and important speculative analysis of the causes 

 which lead to these two different groups of dis- 

 ability, the "conversion hysteria" and the 

 "anxiety;_ neurosis." The whole book is an ex- 

 pression of his sympathetic understanding of the 

 mental factors which make for success or failure, 

 not only in war, but also in peace. 



The wealth of psychological material contained 

 in these two books, and the convincing evidence 

 of its usefulness, adequately support Col. Myers's 

 plea for " institutes of applied psychology in each 

 of our largest cities, which may serve as centres 

 for attacking these practical problems with the 

 help of experts trained both in psychology and in 

 the particular branch in which its help is needed, 

 and with the active, enlightened sympathy of the 

 general public. " 



NO. 2580, VOL. 103] 



A MELANESIAN DICTIONARY. 

 Dictionary and Grammar of the Language of 

 Sa'a and Ulawa, Solomon Islands. By Walter 

 G. Ivens. With appendices. Pp. vii + 249+ii 

 plates. (Washington : Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, 1918.) 



HTHE Solomqn Islands form the racial centre 

 -*- of the Oceanic world. On the south are 

 the Melanesians, on the east the Polynesians,, 

 whilst westward the Melanesians blend with the 

 Papuans, and northward the Micronesians link 

 both Melanesians and Polynesians to the Indo- 

 nesians. In the Solomons, also, are found remnants 

 of a more primitive people who occupied the 

 islands before their present inhabitants came froni 

 the west. But, although thus important, the 

 peoples of this region have received comparatively 

 little attention from anthropologists, and there 

 are only partial records of customs, languages, 

 and folk-lore. In this dictionary Dr. Ivens has 

 put together his collections of words in repre- 

 sentative languages of one part of the Solomon 

 group. These are the Sa'a, at the southern end 

 of the large island of Malaita, and the Ulawa (Con- 

 trariete Island of the charts), about thirty miles 

 to the east of Sa'a. Both languages come from 

 a common stock, and the author has found it 

 quite practicable to adjust grammar and dictionary 

 to the same method of arrangement. The 

 language fairly represents the speech of the 

 island of Malaita, and, with the Tolo and Lau 

 spoken to the north, forms a transition between 

 the languages of San Cristoval and those of 

 Guadalcanar and Florida. 



The Sa'a-Engllsh part of the dictionary com- 

 prises 113 two-column pages of small but very dis- 

 tinctly printed type, with twenty pages of English 

 index. Several subjects of interest are dealt with 

 in the appendices. There is a combined grammar 

 of the languages and an account of Melanesian 

 linguistics, which, besides a general description, 

 deals with such practical matters as the learning 

 of the languages and translation work. Here the 

 author points out the relation between Melanesian 

 and Polynesian, and rejects the theory that Mela- 

 nesians have adopted Polynesian words and 

 forms of speech. He supports the view that the 

 languages belong to the same family, the Mela- 

 nesian being the older and less worn type. This 

 will be evident to the student using the Sa'a 

 dictionary. Though examples such as niaa, eye, 

 i'a, fish, might be thought loans from Polynesian, 

 which has the words as mata and ika, other 

 words, as, e.g., tern, bone needle, ute, rain, tala, 

 path, show no trace of borrowing from the Poly- 

 nesian equivalents an, ua, and ala, because they 

 have developed — according to fixed laws — from 

 originals which are found even in Indonesia, as, 

 e.g., jarum, ujan, jalan. Sa'a turns / into t, while 

 Polynesian loses both the / and the r. 



Another linguistic problem which this dictionary 

 may help to solve relates to the connection of the 

 Solomon Islands with New Guinea. The Sa'a 

 phonology is similar to that of New Guinea, espe- 



