338 



DISCOVERY 



one centre, and that centre is Egypt. One of the first 

 cultural features to which the theory was applied was that 

 of mummification, which he pointed out occurred in 

 New Guinea in a form identical in a number of respects 

 with that employed in ancient Eg\'pt, yet not such as was 

 likely to be developed independently. The theory was 

 also advanced as an explanation of the distribution of 

 megalithic monuments (which Professor Elliot Smith 

 derived from the Egj-ptian mastaba or tomb), and certain 

 cultural features associated with them. IVIr. Perry then 

 pointed out that this distribution coincided with the 

 occurrence of gold and other precious or useful metals 

 and of pearls, and suggested that those who were re- 

 sponsible for the diffusion of the megalithic culture were 

 pioneers in search of these objects of value to early 

 man. 



This part of Mr. Perry's theories has been somewhat 

 severely criticised, and it has been pointed out that the 

 coincidence is not always exact. 



In an earlier volume. The Megalithic Culture of 

 Indonesia, 'Mi. Perry has studied the distribution of the 

 culture-complex of which the Megalith is the most pro- 

 minent feature in one special area. In this work he has 

 extended his inquiry to cover the whole area of North 

 America, Oceania, Indonesia, and India. Taking these 

 areas as one whole, the problem they present to Mr. 

 Perrv is this : They contain many communities of a 

 lowly culture which, in some areas, have not advanced so 

 far as agriculture, and yet they also possess traces of an 

 ancient and relatively high civilisation. Mr. Perry's 

 method of sohnng the problem has been to study the data 

 for evidence of a succession of cultures, and by comparison 

 to trace their modification in the presence or absence of 

 certain features. In other words, he has applied the 

 method of the geologist, who in stud>^ng stratification 

 looks to the presence or absence of certain fossils, and of 

 the archaeologist, who in excavation estabhshes liis 

 sequence dates by the presence or absence of typical 

 implements, tools, or weapons. 



As a result of his comparison on these lines, Mr. Perry 

 has satisfied himself of the existence of an archaic civilisa- 

 tion in the areas he has under consideration, of which 

 the characteristic features, among others, are agriculture 

 b}- means of irrigation, the use of stone for megalithic 

 monuments and tombs, pottery-making, and the use of 

 polished stone implements. Mr. Perry, however, does 

 not confine himself to material culture, and by further 

 analysis shows that the archaic civilisation also implied 

 a ruling class of two divisions, the dual organisation 

 which is a characteristic feature of so many primitive 

 peoples, a sun cult, a Mother Goddess, human sacrifice, 

 totemism, and exogamy. Not all these features are to 

 be found in every area in which the archaic civilisation 

 is to be found, for fission was a characteristic of this 

 culture, and the separating body did not necessarily 

 carry with it or perpetuate all the features of the culture. 



As to the origin and means of diffusion of the archaic 

 culture, Mr. Perry suggests a migration of adventurers 

 whom he calls " The Children of the Sun," adventurers 

 whose wanderings were actuated by their desire — an 



important point in ilr. Perry's theory of archaic psycho- 

 logv' — to find and control the sources of supply of raw 

 material for weapons and implements and of precious 

 objects, gold and pearls, valued in the first instance for 

 their magical properties. 



The source of this archaic civilisation Mr. Perrv holds 

 to have been ancient Egypt, and he pictures the process 

 of the gradual building up of civilisation until its com- 

 pletion by about the time of the Vlth DjTiasty. Hence 

 it spread gradually until it reached Central America and 

 gave rise to the remarkable civilisation of that area about 

 the beginning of the Cliristian Era. 



In this somewhat summary account of the scope of 

 ^Ir. Perry's book it has not been possible to do full justice 

 to the care with which he has analysed a vast mass of 

 material, the extent of which may be gauged from the 

 fact that his list of authorities runs to twenty-two pages. 

 Tribute must also be paid to the skill with which he has 

 applied the principles which Dr. Rivers formulated as 

 the result of his Melanesian investigations on the dis- 

 appearance of useful arts, in his theory of degradation 

 as applied, for instance, to the elucidation of the culture 

 of North America. 



Mr. Perry has a skilful knack of meeting and antici- 

 pating explicitly or implicitly possible objections to his 

 theories. However they may stand the fire of criticism 

 after mature consideration, and however they may need 

 modification owing to the results of further research, 

 there can be no question that they will have a permanent 

 effect in the development of anthropological method 

 and theory. 



Interfacial Forces and Phenomena in Physiology. By 

 Professor Sir William M. Bayliss, F.R.S. 

 (Methuen & Co., -js. 6d.) 



The fundamental interdependence of the \arious 

 branches of Natural Science is to-day admitted as a 

 theoretical proposition, but is only too frequently left 

 out of consideration in the arrangement of courses of 

 scientific study. In the concluding sentence of the 

 Herter Lectures, delivered in New York in 1922, and since 

 published under the above title. Sir William Bayliss 

 bewails the lack of adequate preliminary training in 

 general science in the English student of physiology. 

 The whole book may serve as a text to this theme, for it 

 is full of examples, not only of the great importance of 

 physical and chemical principles to the proper under- 

 standing of physiological processes, but also of the in- 

 adequacy of our present knowledge of the interrelations 

 of these tbiee subjects. Admittedly the chemical doctrine 

 most required by the physiologist is itself in its infancy 

 (the very name of " colloid " was only invented in 1861), 

 but one feels that if more physiologists had, like Sir 

 William Bayliss, the determination to base their work 

 on sound physico-chemical principles, and if more physical 

 chemists realised the enormous field open to them in 

 physiology, it would be to the enormous advantage of 

 both sciences. 



In discussing first the physics and chemistry of surface 

 phenomena, and then the manifestations of these in the 



