80 



DISCOVEKY 



sliown tlial I'Veud wa-i wronj; in one esscnlial — sex 

 does not necessarily underlie all neuroses. Any primary 

 instinct may do so ; and in war it is the conHitt 

 between fear and the higher centres which is by far 

 the commonest cause of conflict, but in a still more 

 fundamental matter, I-'rcud was right. lie drew attention 

 for the first time to the mental mechanism by whicli these 

 abnormal states arise. The concept of suppression, cf 

 active but instinctive forgetting of the unpleasant, with 

 subsequent formation of complexes, is. as Dr. Rivers 

 rightly says, one of prime importance to the theory and 

 practice of psychology. 



We hope that Dr. Rivers will give us a continuation of 

 his essay. Case-records analysed from his particular 

 standpoint, with detailed parallels from biological sources 

 would be immensely interesting. So, too, would be a 

 consideration of neuroses in savage peoples — a task which 

 Dr. Rivers would be peculiarly qualified to undertake. 

 A new " Golden Bough " on psychological lines . . . we 

 close in pleasurable anticipation of such a possibility ! 



J. S. Huxley. 



Miscellany 



A REVISED edition of the famous Greek Lexicon known 

 to all students as Liddell and Scott is shortly to appear. 

 The last edition was revised in 1897 and published at two 

 guineas ; the forthcoming edition will be sold at four 

 guineas, or in separate parts at a slightly higher figure. 

 The need for a revision has long been appreciated by the 

 Oxford University Press. The discovery, since the last 

 substantial revision of the Lexicon, of the Constitution of 

 Athens, the poems of Bacchylides, the mimes of Herodas, 

 and a large number of fragments of classical literature, 

 both from the works of authors such as Hesiod, Pindar, 

 Sappho, Alcaeus, and Callimachus, and from those of 

 other writers who were previously little more than names 

 to us, has added a considerable number of new words and 

 early examples, or new uses of known words. The study 

 of the numerous non-literary papyri has immensely 

 widened our knowledge of Hellenistic Greek, and has 

 introduced us to a new technical vocabulary in connection 

 with the administration of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. 

 During the same period the discovery of fresh inscriptions 

 and the correction of the text of those already known have 

 been constant. The science of Comparative Philology has 

 been transformed and the history of the Greek language 

 more fully explored. It is good, therefore, that the 

 Lexicon should include all the necessary additions and 

 modifications, and drop out (as it is doing) words from 

 late or ecclesiastical writers whose place is more properly 

 in a lexicon of Patristic Greek. 



• * * • * 



The Cambridge University Press hope to publish by 

 next October the first of a series of monographs on recent 

 developments of physics which shall serve as supplements 

 to Dr. N. R. Campbell's Modern Electrical Theory. It is 

 difficult to keep such a book abreast of the times by 

 means of new editions ; accordingly the plan is proposed 

 of issuing monographs, each corresponding roughly to a 



chapter of the book, the collection of which will in due 

 course replace the book. 



The monographs will be edited by Dr. Campbell, but 

 he will not write all of them. The authors will not be, 

 however, experts in the branches of physics concerned, 

 for it is felt that a critical survey of a subject such as is 

 appropriate to a textbook is more easily adopted by 

 those who have not made important contributions 

 towards it. 



The first three monographs of the series will deal with 

 Spectra, the Quantum Theory of Energy, and the Con- 

 stitution of Atoms and Molecules. 



This is extremely sound sense. The problem of keeping 

 a scientific book reasonably up-to-date is a difficult one. 

 One way is by the method described above ; another is 

 by issuing the book in a loose-leaf form. In the latter 

 case those pages containing statements which subsequent 

 work has rendered out-of-date may be easily removed, 

 and pages, issued to purchasers of the book by the pub- 

 lisher, containing the latest and most acceptable views 

 inserted in their places. 



***** 



Pessimists must be having a bad time of it at present. 

 So many people are giving them nasty knocks. Pub- 

 lishers, for example, will persist in bringing out the most 

 excellent books, carefully edited, nicely printed, and 

 pleasantly bound, as though they were completely in 

 ignorance of the pessimist's view that the world has gone 

 completely to the dogs. The Cambridge University Press 

 is going to bring out a new edition of Shakespeare's works. 

 Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch is joint-editor with Mr. Dover 

 Wilson, the well-known authority on the text of Shake- 

 speare. It is quite evident that the series will be a most 

 valuable one. It is true that editions of Shakespeare 

 multiply ; but it is now many years since the last attempt 

 was made at a complete recension of Shakespeare's text, 

 based upon a study and comparison, line by line, of the 

 existing materials. And it is refreshing, after a study of 

 Shakespeare at school, to read through an edition con- 

 taining the text as near as can be discerned to that given 

 by the author to his printer under the well-informed, 

 clear, and accurate guidance of " Q " and his collaborator. 

 The first of the series — The Tempest — has already been 

 published. 



The Oxford University Press is issuing a series of little 

 books dealing with international, financial, industrial, and 

 educational problems of to-day. Each book deals with 

 a subject in a simple but authoritative manner. Instead 

 of getting anybody to write these books, Mr. Victor 

 Gollancz, the editor of the series, hit upon the excellent 

 idea of asking men to write who really knew what they 

 were writing about. The result is a series which one 

 may confidently recommend to our readers. Sir Harry 

 Johnston writes of the Backward Peoples and our rela- 

 tions with them ; Mr. Baumann, of The Saturday Review, 

 is writing on The Press, Mr. A. G. Gardiner on the Anglo- 

 y\mcrican Future, and Professor Pigou, of Cambridge, on 

 A Capital Levy and Levies on War Wealth. About 

 twenty volumes have been, or shortly will be, issued. 

 Each has about seventy pages and costs half a crown. 



