DISCOVERY 



163 



The principle in the physiology of the senses alluded 

 to here is the well-known one of the inability of the 

 retina to perceive so feeble a light as that, for instance, 

 of a star in broad daylight. Hence, too, the light of the 

 fire viewed in sunlight makes so feeble a visual im- 

 pression that the popular belief is that the fire actually 

 goes out on account of the sunlight. The explanation 

 of the invisibility or feebleness of lesser lights in pres- 

 ■ence of greater is that the retina, already being fully 

 stimulated, is not able to yield any additional response. 

 A? it is already doing so much, it is, relatively to any 

 additional stimulus, in the state known as functional 

 inertia. 



One more fact in the physiology of the eye is illus- 

 trated in the same play when Achilles says : 



" Eye to eye opposed 

 Salutes each other with each other's form. 



This probably alludes to the seeing of oneself reflected 

 in the eye of another. The images so produced are 

 known in physiology as the Purkinje-Sanson images : 

 the cornea of each eye acts as a convex mirror for the 

 other person. 



Let us close with three allusions of much interest to 

 surgeons. 



It is well known to surgeons that a broken bone 

 healed by the callus which grows between the two ends 

 at the fracture is much stronger than it was before. 

 This is alluded to in Henry IV (Part II, Act IV, Sc. i), 

 where the Archbishop of York says : 



" If we do not make our atonement well. 

 Our peace will, like a broken limb united, 

 Grow stronger for the breaking." 



The lines from Othello (Act II, Sc. 3)— 



'■ How poor is he that hath not patience, 

 What wound did ever heal but by degrees " — 



■show that the chief characteristic of a healthy healing 

 wound had been appreciated by lago. 



The lines in Hamlet's speech (Act III, Sc. 4) — 



(Mother, for love of grace. 

 Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, 

 That not your trespass, but my madness speaks). 

 It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, 

 Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, 

 Infects unseen " — 



could hardly describe better the condition of a certain 

 kind of wound, troublesome to the surgeon at all times, 

 but particularly to-day when nothing is allowed to 

 remain septic. 



Reviews of Books 



A NEW ACCOUNT OF THE PAT,.^iOLITHIC PERIOD 



A Text-book of European Arclueology. By Prof. R. A. S. 

 ]VUcALisTER, Litt.D., F.S.A. Vol. i. : " The Palaeo- 

 lithic Period." (Cambridge University Press, 30s.) 



Professor Macalister has written one of the best books 

 on Archsology in any language. No one could possess 

 better qualifications for the task he has set himself and in 

 part accomplished. He is a Scotchman, whose practical 

 experience was gained in Palestine, and who now lives in 

 Ireland ; and he combines brilliant imagination with 

 sound judgment. 



The first volume consists of 610 pages. 1S4 illustrations, 

 and a good index. The first chapter is introductory ; the 

 next two deal with geology and palaeontology, so far as 

 these concern the student of human evolution. Chapter 

 IV is an admirable and most readable summary of the 

 methods of his science. The next four deal with the 

 pateolitliic period. Chapter IX is called " The Psy- 

 chology of Pateohthic j\lan." Chapter X concludes tlie 

 descriptive part of the volume with an account of the 

 Mesolithic Period — that shadowy border-line between the 

 Old and the New. The last chapter is a summary of 

 '■ The Paleolithic Period as a Whole." In some ways 

 the first four chapters are the best in the book ; they 

 certainly make the best reading, for in writing them the 

 author has been able to give free rein to his literary 

 powers. They have obviously been written with enjoy^- 

 ment ; that is doubtless the secret of their success, for 

 there is no pleasure in reading what has obviously been 

 written only from a sense of duty. They reveal the 

 author as an original thinker, whose point of view is 

 essentially sane, but not always orthodox: and as one 

 who has little use for the mere collector, the " tea-party " 

 archaeologist, or the crank. 



The author passes his many tests with flying colours. 

 One of these is that of the Galley Hill skeleton — a " vic- 

 tim," as he says, " of the eager competition of collectors." 

 To base important conclusions on a skeleton whose 

 " gisement " was imperfectly observed is unscientific ; 

 and Professor Macalister is rightly sceptical as to the great 

 age attributed to it by some authorities. This discovery, 

 made in 1S88, is a crucial instance of the principle that in 

 archnsology it is not what is found that is of value, but 

 how and where it is found — in what kind of soil, disturbed 

 or undisturbed, and so on. 



It would be tedious in a review to follow our author 

 down the chilly corridors of the Ice Age, though his 

 account of them is fresh and stimulating. The earlier 

 part of the Palaeolithic Period — from the Chellean to 

 the Mousterian — seems to have been rather a " dull " 

 time in human history. At any rate we confess to finding 

 the latter part more attractive — the cave paintings, the 

 tine flint craftsmanship, and the men themselves who 

 mark the dawn of a new epoch. StiU more fascinating is 

 that earliest glimpse of modern times, which reveals new 

 races beginning to arrive from the mysterious east, bring- 



