October 25, 1894J 



NA TURE 



61^ 



give the student very little idea of the plant he is sup- 

 posed to be studying. 



The second part of the work deals with the Phanero- 

 gams. A very fair account is given both of the Gymno- 

 sperms and the Angiosperms. The major portion of this 

 part of the book, however, is taken up with a description 

 of the natural orders of the Angiosperms. 



Though there are a few new illustrations in the book, 

 the majority of them are the old familiar ones referred 

 to in the foregoing. We notice that the author has 

 sometimes forgotten to acknowledge the source from 

 which his illustrations have been taken. 



In conclusion, it may be said that the book is very well 

 suited to those students who wish to pass a somewhat 

 advanced examination, such as that of the Science and 

 Art Department. We cannot help regretting, however, 

 that there should be so large a demand for this kind 

 of text-book. Harold Wager. 



LIFE IN AXCIENT EGYPT. 



Life in Ancient Egypt. Described by A. Erman ; trans- 

 lated by H. M. Tirard. (London : Macmillan and 

 Co., 1894.) 



THE appearance of an English translation of Prof. 

 Erman's work on the manners and customs of the 

 ancient Egyptians is most opportune, for it comes at a 

 time when the Egyptological world is still smarting 

 under the loss, by death, of Prof H. Brugsch, the last 

 and probably the greatest of the little band of German 

 Egyptologists of which Lepsius was such a brilliant 

 member, and proves to us that there is in Germany, 

 besides Dr. Wiedemann, one at least who may bt 

 expected to continue the great and good work which that 

 veteran did so much to promote. Prof. Erman is well 

 known to Egyptologists by his papers and books on 

 Egyptian grammar, of which from the time of his appear- 

 ance at the Congress of Orientalists in 1874 until the 

 present year he has never ceased to labour. In 187S he 

 published some important observations on the formation 

 of the plural in Egyptian (" Die Pluralbildungdes Aegyp- 

 tischen," Leipzig, 1878), which was followed in 18S0 by 

 his " Xeuaegyptische Grammatik"; in 1S90 he edited, 

 with translation, commentary, &c., the stories from the 

 Westcar papyrus (" Mittheilungenans den orientalischen 

 Sammlungen — Die Marchendes Papyrus Westcar "), and 

 last year he published a good little Egyptian grammar. 

 A portion of his time he has devoted to contributing 

 articles to the Acgyptisclie Zeitschrift, of which he is now 

 the editor, and to the Zeitschrift of the German Oriental 

 Society. His work on the life of the Egyptians, which 

 in an English form we owe to Mrs. Tirard, appeared in 

 parts, which formed two volumes, between the years 1884 

 and 1887, and was then, and is now the only work of the 

 sort in Germany. The large work by Ebers, " Aegypten 

 in Bild und Wort," which appeared at Stuttgart in 

 1879-Sl, and of which an English translation by Clara 

 Bell was published in London in 1SS1-S2, attracted the 

 popular mind chiefly by the many beautiful illustrations 

 which it contained ; references to original authorities 

 were few and far between, but it nevertheless appealed 

 NO. 1304, VOL. 50] 



to a large class of readers successfully. Our own countr)- 

 man, Wilkinson, the author of the first guide-book to 

 Egypt, was perhaps the first to recognise that the only 

 trustworthy descriptions of the manners and customs of 

 the Egyptians must be derived from the native records of 

 sculptor, artist and scribe, and he spent many years in 

 compiling his monumental work on the subject, which, as 

 Mrs. Tirard says in her preface, has formed one of the 

 main sources of supply for Prof. Erman. Wilkinson's 

 knowledge of the inscriptions was somewhat hazy accord- 

 ing to modern views, and the defects which occur in his 

 work from this cause are conspicuous by their absence in 

 Prof Erman's book, which is of course, as was to be ex- 

 pected, a record of the Egyptians compiled from their own 

 monuments and books. On many points we should like 

 to have had his opinions, as for example, on the Hyksos, 

 and on the E.xodus ; as for the Hittites, on which nation 

 more than one reputation has been wrecked, he holds 

 no strong view, but thinks they may have been identical 

 with the Kheta of the hieroglyphics. In matters of 

 chronology Prof. Erman differs greatly from Mariette and 

 Maspero, for he places the sixth dynasty as late as B.C. 

 2500, while they date it at B.C. 3700 and 3300 respec- 

 tively. There is no doubt that serious modifications in 

 Egyptian chronology must shortly be made, and though 

 they may take the form of reducing the antiquity of the 

 periods of the dynasties from the twelfth downwards, 

 yet it seems perfectly clear that the effect of the re- 

 arrangement ought to be either to lengthen the period of 

 the duration of the earlier dynasties, or to admit boldly 

 a more recent date for the beginning of historical 

 Egyptian civilisation, and to proclaim a lengthy period 

 of prehistoric civilisation which in all probability ex- 

 tended over thousands of years. Such considerations, 

 however, affect Prof Erman's book very little, for the 

 reader will rely upon him not for speculations as to the 

 original home of the Egyptians and the history of their 

 descendants who are known to us, but for the descriptions 

 of their life as depicted on their works ; in this respect 

 no more careful guide than Prof. Erman could be found. 

 The tasteful form in which his book is printed and bound 

 will, we believe, add to its intellectual attraction. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



La Gi'ographie litloralc. Par Jules Girard, Secretaire- 

 adjoint de la Sociiftc de Geographic (Paris). (Paris : 

 Socidie d'Editions Scienlifiques, 1S95 [1S94.]) 

 M. Girard says very justly in his preface that geo- 

 graphers have not as yet given the coast lines of the 

 world the attention to which these features are en- 

 titled. He accordingly prepared the present little book, 

 which has appeared, chapter by chapter, in the Rci'ite 

 de Geographic. It is unquestionably a useful compila- 

 tion, but it is far from complete in any part ; and it 

 has been so carelessly revised, that a number of printer's 

 errors remain unnoticed. In the names of places out- 

 side France the letters u and n are frequently trans- 

 posed. Bab-el-mandeb appears as Bal-el-Mandel, and 

 an extraneous r creeps into several names beginning 

 with G, e.g. Granges for Ganges, and Griippy or Griipy 

 for Guppy. More serious are blunders in statements of 

 facts, such as describing the whirlpool of Corryvrechan 

 as being near the island of " Scabra," dans Ics lacs 

 d'£cosse, the transference of the Grey Man Path from 



