Jasu.ujy, 1904.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



15 



^facaqiie monkevs are the only ropresentativos of their kind 

 whioh in Asia inhabit districts with a climate ;is cold as that 

 of England. The author's theories, too. must bo accepted with 

 reserve — notably the suggestion (p. iiiil!) that American monkeys 

 originated in Africa, seeing that not a vestige of the remains 

 of one of these creatures has hitherto been discovered in that 

 continent. 



A striking feature of the volume is formed bj' the coloured 

 plates 'reproduced from the author's own sketches), which 

 differ markedly in style from the illustrations commordy seen 

 in zoological works. As to the merits of these sketches, we 

 must, however, leave our artist friends to decide. 



'The Moon: CoNsmEUEn as a Planet, a World, and a 

 Satellite." By James Nasniyth, c.e., and James Carpenter, 

 F.R.A.s. J[urray.) — The moon is a dead and unch.-inging world. 

 As it was when tialileo looked upon it through tlie first telescope, 

 so it was when Nasmyth and Carjienter brought out the 

 third edition of the " Moon " in 187.'), and so it is to-day, 

 when the publishers have issued a verbatim reprint of the same 

 book. Perhaps it is because of its unchangeableness that so 

 little progress in our knowledge of the moon seems to have been 

 attained in the last quarter of a century or more, for the joint 

 authors raise the same problems, and give the .same doubtful 

 answers to the same questions that we do to-day. The book is 

 in fact up-to-date for all intents and purposes. In illustration 

 alone do we seem to have made a notable selinograpliical 

 .advance. When Xasmyth and Carpenter wrote, photograplij' 

 was a very unskilful assistant to the study of the moon, and 

 their lunar drawings were (as they still are to-day) incomparably 

 the finest representations made by hand of the moon's surface. 

 The re-publication of the book in a more convenient size, and at 

 tlie greatly reduced price of 5s., will meet with wide acceptance. 

 The paper and print are both pleasing. We notice one mis- 

 print on p. 79, where ^^r, is written for juW- 



'•MiNTTE Marvels of Nattri:." By John .J. Ward. 

 (London: Isbister & Co.) — The aim of the author of this book 

 is to exhibit in a popular manner some of the striking and 

 interesting subjects which are revealed by the microscope, and 

 to describe them in such a way as will attract the unscientific 

 reader. To this end the book is freely and admirably illustrated 

 by 184 reproductions, principally photo-micrographs, and they 

 cover a very large range of subjects. Bearing in mind the 

 jmrpose of the book, the critical judgment is largely suspended. 

 Errors there are, but not such as substantially weaken its 

 object. A microscopist is apt to become a little impatient when 

 he sees a group of specimens which includes Anchors and plates 

 from the skin of the Synapta included in the title of '" Diatoms.'' 

 .Several other little blemishes occur, and the description of the 

 manner of the use of the pulvUli of the fly's foot — for so long a 

 subject of controversy — might with advantage be revised. .Still 

 the book, placed in the hands of one who is unacquainted with 

 microscopical subjects, is likely to create interest and lead to a 

 desire for further information and investigation ; if it succeed 

 in this, its purpose will be achieved. 



" BciiDisT India." By Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids. Pp. xv. 

 + 'i?>2. (Fisher Un win.) Illustrated. l>s. — The rise of Buddism 

 in India has provided Prof. Rhys Davids with a theme for a 

 scholarly work. If India were subject to a nation like Germany, 

 exploration of the rich field of historical research, of which this 

 book gives us an inspiring sketch, would be made a subject of 

 national concern ; but here it is not considered necessary to 

 make inquiries into the ethnology or archajology of the races 

 which constitute our Empire, and it is left to scholars like Prof. 

 Davids to rescue such knowledge from oblivion. It is usual to 

 adopt the Brahmin idea of ancient India, with its doubtful 

 theories of castes and history, but inscriptions and other records 

 have provided material for the conatiuction of a connected 

 account of India without accepting the Brahmin point of view 

 as the final one, and equally true five centuries before Christ 

 and five centuries after. Prof. Davids describes from the avail- 

 able evidence the kings, clans and nations, social and economic 

 conditions in India in the sixth and seventh centuries i;.('. 'I'ht^ 

 Buddist influence was most early felt in tlie north of Indi;i, 

 and the picture of village life at that time shows that the 

 " ma.ss of the people, the villagers, occupied a social grade 

 quite different from, and far above, our village folk." The 



claim of the priests to social superiority was not recognized 

 and the caste system as it is now understood was unknown. 

 There were different families or clans, but the caste system, in 

 the exact use of the torni, did not come into existence until 

 long afterward. As to literat\n'o, the oldest reforei\c'c to writing 

 is in a tract dating approximately to 4.')0 li.c. The priests 

 appear to have been indill'erent and even opposed to the use of 

 writing. " All the present available evidence," remarks Prof. 

 Davids, "tends to show that tlie Indian alphabet is not Aryan 

 at all ; that it was introduceil into India by Dravidian merchants ; 

 and that it was not, in spite of their invaluable services in other 

 respects to Indian literature, to the priests, whose self-interests 

 were opjioscd to such ili.scoveiics, but to trader.s, and to loss 

 prejudiced literary circles, that India owes the invention of those 

 imjirovements in the mechanical aids to writing that enabled tlie 

 long previously existent knowledge of letters to bo applied at 

 last to the production and preservation of books." 

 liimitations of space prevent us from mentioning more 

 of the interesting points with which this volume is 

 filled. I'luddism slowly but continually lost its place 

 as a national faith and now there is .scarcely a Buddist 

 left in the land where Buddism arose, (j'hanges in the faith 

 itself, changes in the intellectual standard of the people, and 

 the influence of foreign tribes which invaded India from 

 the north-west, are suggested as causes for the decline and fall 

 of Buddism in India. Prof. David's story of the rise of the faith, 

 and the conditions of the people who professed it in India, is a 

 contribution worthy of his great learning, and of great interest 

 to every student of history. 



" OnSEKVATioNS OF A Natura[.isi' r^^ tiik Pacikio hktwhkm 

 18'Ji; AND i.H'J[)." By H. B. Gnppy, M.r.., f.r.s.e. Volume I. 

 " VanuaLevu, Fiji." 'Pp. xx., .".'.Vi. (Macmillan.) l.5s.— This book 

 is the work of one who does not shriidc from detail; and it has 

 more in common with the elaborate memoir of a State survey than 

 with the ordinary record of a traveller. In a country where the 

 annual rainfall varies from. 1(K) to 2.'i0 inches, whore the interior 

 tends to become wilder and less populous, and where dense 

 forest prevents the mapping of geological boundaries, Mr. 

 Ouppy has made elaborate notes of every rock-exposure that ho 

 could visit. He includes the tine volcanic necks that rise sheer 

 above the agglomerate layers and the marine sediments of the 

 plateaux ; and he shows how the general volcanic action took 

 jjlace in Cainozoic times beneath the sea. Inclining, evidently, 

 to a theory of U[ihcaval, rather than to the difficult hypothe'sis 

 of a recession of the level of the sea, he yet does not absolutely 

 commit himself on this important subject. His unwillingness 

 to generalise makes the book rather serious for the reader. 

 The types of lava met with are classified with what seems an 

 excess of detail, .secdng that nothing new is revealed concerning 

 their behaviour or occurrence as rock-masses. The felspar 

 crystals are carefully measured under the microscope, and the 

 presence or absence of fluidal structure in the ground-mass is 

 noted in each case. In dealing with the felspars which are 

 commonly called " laths " by workers with the microscope, Mr. 

 Ouppy prefers the fourteenth century term " lathes." His 

 phrase " lamellar extinction," moreover, does not strike us .as a 

 very happy one. Still less do we like the '' formulio " devised 

 for the comparison of one rock with another. This is all very 

 well for the note-book of one who is correlating a large series, 

 but such a system seems hardly necessary in the published work 

 This cumulative evidence as to the interstratification of marine 

 sediments and volcanic ilfbr/s throughout Vanua Levu is of 

 wide interest and imiiortance; tho minimum emergence (p. 31.5) 

 that has made the present island is valued at 2500 feet. The 

 history is one of a struggle between the forces of elevation and 

 the constant planing action of the sea. A rise of another tJDO 

 feet would connect 'V'anua Levu with its sister island, Viti Levu, 

 on the south-west. The plateau that forms a floor for the later 

 accumulations is regarded as due to spreading lava flows (p. 371-5). 

 Similar plateaux, cora|)leted in Oligocene tunes, and now buried 

 in marine sediments, would doubtless be revealed by local 

 elevation in the region between Ireland and the FariJo Isles. 

 The whole book is admirably produced, but wo cannot help 

 thinking that it would have gained by considerable excisions, 

 and by the substitution of a classified list of the localities from 

 which specimens hail been collected, in place of the detailed 

 descriptions of so many individual instances. 



