July 1, 1887.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



211 



While the interest of his book is primarily local, it wiU be 

 found serviceable as presenting in compendious form the 

 materials of our knowledge of palaeolithic man gathered 

 since !M. Boucher des Perthes' renowned discoveries in the 

 Somme Valley. The lithographs of stone tools and weapons 

 in use among existing savages enable the reader to deduce 

 what was the condition of the races which have left like 

 relics in N.-W. Europe. 



The Ancient Cities of tlm New World. — By Desire 

 Charnay. Translated by J. Sonino and Helen S. Conant. 

 (Chapman and Hall.) — The glamour which long hung 

 around the ruined cities of Central America, their vast and 

 highly-ornamented palaces and temples, their pyramids and 

 statues, and the great dynasties of the Aztecs and Incas, all 

 invested with a mythic antiquity, has faded away before the 

 " dry light " thrown by sober exploration and common-sense 

 interpretation. The Marquis de Nadaillac's " Prehistoric 

 America " did good service in this direction, and although 

 M. Charnay ventilates questionable theoiies of " origins " 

 in this book, he admits their small importance. His 

 explorations, the means for which were supplied by France 

 and a wealthy American (JNIr. Lorillard), range over thirty 

 years, and form an extremely interesting though somewhat en- 

 tangled record, through M. t'harnay mixing up his adventures 

 as a traveller with his work as an explorer. Following earlier 

 theorists, he contends that the American ci^nlisations, the 

 relics of which are described and amply illustrated, are 

 comparatively modern, and due to a pre-Aztec people, the 

 Toltecs, who founded their empire in Mexico, and, after its 

 disruption, transmitted their industries and mechaniail arts 

 to the people who succeeded them. Comparing the ai-chi- 

 tectural remains and the evidences as to the modes of life 

 with analogous materials scattered over the East, M. Charnay 

 inclines to the theory of Toltec migration from Asia. But 

 this convenient reference of all arts and civilisation to 

 Oriental origin is somewhat played out : the generally 

 uniform mode of develojiment of I'aces that have emerged 

 from barbarism is fatal to precise theories of localLsation of 

 origin, and we may dismiss the question by advising the 

 reader to study and form his own conclusions from the facts 

 which ]\I. Charnay has narrated in a style that appears to 

 h.ave lost nothing in its transfer from French to English. 



The Western Avernus. By Morley Roberts. (Smith, 

 Elder, & Co.) — We fear that this remarkably interesting 

 book, with its intense humanness, pathos, brightness and 

 beaut}^ of style, is in danger of being overlooked in the 

 crowd of ephemeral stuff that cumbers the reviewer's table 

 and the circulating libraries' counters. The author puzzles 

 us. Here is a refined and highly educated man, who with 

 dyspepsia in his body, Emerson, Virgil, and Carlyle in his 

 wallet, and apparently only enough money in his puree for 

 the voyage, makes tracks from London to Texa-s, then to 

 British Columbia, and finally to California, hiring himself 

 out as bull-puncher, navvy, dock labourer, miller — in short, 

 for any job to keep body and soul together; makes himself 

 at home by his cheery tact and good humour, whatever his 

 company ; tramps weary miles in search of work, sleeps in 

 railway trucks, and, after two years of roughing it, returns 

 to England, to find, we earnestly hope, a large circle of 

 appreciative and grateful readers of his adventurous and 

 thoughtful narrative. 



Arcadi/ : For Better J or Worse. By Arc.vsTUS Jessopp, 

 D.D. (Fisher Unwin.) — The e;vrnest and sympathetic essays 

 which compose these sketches of the life and general condi- 

 tion of the East Anglian peasantry well deserve rescue from 

 the oblivion of the magazine in which they appeared. The 

 Arcady which the learned author describes with shrewd 

 insight, humour, and pathos, is no ideal state. The picture 



is charged with shadows ; yet, on the whole, brighter than 

 one might expect in these days of low prices, vacant farms, 

 and general rush of the more able-bodied and intelligent 

 villagers to the towns. The book raises and discusses 

 temperately many economic problems, and to the treatment 

 of every topic Dr. Jessopp brings a well-stored and sym- 

 pathetic mind, which should secure his book serious atten- 

 tion from social reformers. 



A Manual oj our Mother Tongue. By H. Marmaditke 

 Hewitt, M.A., LL.M., late Assistant Examiner in the 

 University of London, ic, &c. (London : Joseph Hughes. 

 1887. Price 7s. 6d.)— This work, one of " Hughes's Matri- 

 culation Manuals," we cordially welcome. It seems to us 

 to supply a want — a very diflferent thing from being written 

 to meet one, as so many school books profess to be. We 

 know of no other book that we could so cordially recommend 

 to students preparing for the London Examination. The 

 subject as treated by the examiners has always been wide 

 and the syllabus vague ; so that the numerous candidates 

 have been compelled to read widely to cover the ground, with 

 sei-ious results to the depth of their knowledge. The work 

 is evidently the product of a practised teacher. Where he 

 has thought compilation better than original matter or 

 treatment, large quotations are given and acknowledwed. 

 Alford, Abbott, Cobbett, Angus, Mason, Trench, and others 

 are authorities behind whom there is no need to go, and 

 their lucid exposition of principles is admirably made use of 

 by the author in their appropriate place. The book is well 

 arranged. Difierent type is used to accentuate important 

 lists, divisions, sections, &c., etc., and at the end of the book 

 are the examination-papers for the last ten years set at 

 London University Matriculation. Blank pages are bound 

 in for additional notes ; and specially to be commended are 

 a large number of Answered Questions upon various por- 

 tions of the work. These may, and doubtless will, be taken 

 as models by the student with advantage. We think the 

 book will have a good sale. 



Life of Danoin. By G. T. Bettany. (Walter Scott.)— 

 There is nothing new in this brief sketch of the gre:it 

 naturalist's life and work. The man himself is not brought 

 vividly before us, and the book reads more like a magazine 

 article than a biography. But it has an especially vahiable 

 feature in the bibliography of Darwinism prepared by Mr. 

 Anderson, of the British Museum. j\Ir. Bettany's proof- 

 sheets have been looked over by Mr. Romanes, who therefore 

 endorses the author's description of him as "Darwin's 

 prominent disciple," and as " an undoubted authority in 

 mental science." 



Notes of a Naturalist in South America. By John Ball, 

 F.R.S. (Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.).— The modesty and 

 thoroughness of thLs book are what might l)e expected from 

 the cultured observer who gives us the record of his five 

 months' tour round a continent where one sees the Southern 

 Cross standing high in the firmament, while its scenery, 

 north of Terra del Fuego, with its snow-covered peaks and 

 huge glaciers, blended with foreground of dense forest and 

 luxuriant vegetation, Ls described by Mr. Ball as unlike any- 

 thing else in this world. Apart from much that is of special 

 interest to the naturalist, the book adds to our knowlodo-e of 

 the social and political condition of the difierent countries 

 visited, and has practical as well as scientific value for those 

 whom Mr. Ball's pleasant experiences may induce to under- 

 take the journey. 



Through Masai Land. By Joseph Thomson, F.E.G.S. 

 (Sampson Low .fc Co.)— Whilst all the world is reading Mr. 

 Rider Haggard's African fictions, this new edition of Mr. 

 Thomson's African facts, as to which no " strange case " can 

 arise, is opportune. Young as Mr. Thomson happily still 



