SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



273 



from this to have patience with the 

 imperfect usages of the heathen of 

 our day, and not insist on their ris- 

 ing at once to the full height of an 

 advanced Christian morality. It is 

 impossible to doubt that the address 

 of Prof. Petrie will have a powerful 

 effect in promoting rational views 

 on the important questions with 

 which he dealt. It was not the ut- 



terance of a partisan, a zealot, or a 

 narrow specialist, but of a man who 

 spoke from well-matured conviction 

 and a broad basis of knowledge. 

 Had the meeting of the British As- 

 sociation given us nothing more 

 than this, it would have made 

 no slight contribution to the cause 

 of enlightenment and true civiliza- 

 tion. 



& titntitit 



SPECIAL BOOKS. 



MAN has ever been curious about the origins of things. In the child- 

 hood of the race he wondered where the wind came from and the water in 

 the streams, how the sun and moon were made, what caused the thunder 

 and the lightning, and how the first plants, the first animals, and the first 

 human beings came to be. Later the origin of arts and customs, the rise 

 of tribes and peoples, the production of material substances, and a host of 

 similar problems engrossed his attention. Two ways of answering these 

 questions have been relied upon by him at different times. The first was 

 by speculation, and produced beautiful myths, fantastic cosmogonies, 

 quaint folklore, or pseudo-sciences, according as the genius of one people 

 differed from that of another. The second way depends upon research, 

 and has reached its highest development in the investigations of modern 

 science. Its inquiry into the past has given us a wealth of archaeological 

 lore such as is embodied in two volumes now before us. In one of these 

 Prof. Mason * has set forth the results of a study of industry among prim- 

 itive peoples, revealing the manner in which the tools, devices, and 

 processes used in the arts must have originated. The arrow and spear 

 heads, knives, hammers, and axes of primitive man are the precursors of a 

 host of striking and cutting implements. Several kinds of drills have been 

 found in use by savage tribes. The screw, the pulley, and the wheel and 

 axle are known to savages only in a rudimentary way, but the lever and the 

 wedge are largely used by them. Modes of kindling and caring for fire 

 make an interesting chapter, a notable feature in which is the evolution of 

 the bellows. The use of stone is commonly thought of as characterizing 

 primitive arts, and this idea is embodied in the name " Stone age." This 

 is a misconception, for, as Prof. Mason points out, where one tool of stone 

 was used there were many constructed of the more easily worked materials, 

 wood, bone, shell, horn, and hide. We do not find them in ancient graves 

 and mounds, simply because their materials are much more perishable than 

 stone. Hence, while stone-working furnished wide scope for invention in 



* The Origins of Invention. By Otis T. Mason, Curator of the Department of Ethnology in the 

 United States National Museum. Pp. 419, crown 8vo. London : Walter Scott, Ltd., 3s. 6d. New 

 York : Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, $1.25. 



VOL. XLYIII. 20 



