364 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 14, 1907 
' A suggestive treatment, too, may be found of the 
different effects produced by portrait and statue 
(p. 274), and of the reasons that may be given for 
the differing shapes of Egyptian and Greek temples, 
In dealing with song, the author contests the view 
of Preuss that all work-songs were originally charm- 
songs. He strongly opposes the theory of Jacob 
“Grimm that the fairy-tale is a degenerate nature- 
myth; his own view with regard to the relative posi- 
tion of the fairy-tale, the nature-myth, and the epic 
appears to be that the epic has two sources, tradi- 
tions of actual heroes on the one hand, and the 
despised fairy-tales on the other, and that it has not 
as its immediate preparation any such high-flown 
theogony and cosmogony as the supporters of the 
Grimm theory allege. He discusses, too, the views 
of Usener, the foremost representative of the nature- 
myth hypothesis, who regards Thersites, for example, 
as being originally a god, and who sees in the 
struggle between Thersites and Achilles a variation 
of the old story of the struggle befween summer and 
winter. 
The third and last chapter opens with a contrast 
between the historical and the psychological treat- 
ment of mythology, and the author claims that 
psychology is of more importance in dealing with 
myth than in dealing with speech, which after all 
is, in the narrower sense, a psychophysical function. 
His discussion of the various types of theory, the 
naturalistic, the animistic, the theory of analogy and 
the like, if full and adequate, is a little hard to 
follow. The author is strongly opposed to the hypo- 
thesis that myths have all arisen in one period and 
one country. 
“Tf Anthropology has established anything,’’ he 
writes, “*it this, that the qualities of human 
imagination and the feelings and emotions that in- 
fluence the working of the imagination agree in their 
essential features in the men of all zones and coun- 
tries, and that therefore no migration-hypothesis, 
going far beyond the bounds of possible proof, is 
needed to explain the similarity of certain funda- 
mental ideas in mythology, while on the other hand 
the perpetual differences of these products of the 
imagination, depending they do on natural 
surroundings, race and degree of civilisation, in many 
ways point directly to an autochthonous origin.” 
The cream of Wundt’s own psychological theory 
on the matter seems contained in p. 579; mythological 
personification he regards as only a heightened form 
of what writers on zsthetics call Einfiihlung, “a 
form in which the whole personality in its momentary 
condition of consciousness, together with the after 
effects of earlier experiences which enter into this, 
passes over to the object.”” So we have only to do 
with a modification of that general function without 
which the object could not exist for us at all, namely, 
apperception. : 
Space fails us to discuss the topics of the closing 
pages, the distinction drawn between myth and 
poetry, the mutual influence of myth and poetry, their 
relations to speech, and so on. The second part of 
NOM 1946, VOL. 75 
is 
as 
this volume will be concerned with the problems that 
surround the connection between myth and religion. 
The full significance of Wundt’s contribution to his 
present subject can hardly be realised until that part 
has appeared, and for this and many other reasons 
its speedy publication will be welcome to the numerous 
readers whom this instalment has doubtless interested 
and attracted. 
COAL MINING. 
The Principles and Practice of Coal Mining. By 
James Tonge. Pp. viii+363. Illustrated. (Lon- 
don: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price 5s. 
net. 
(ieee the year 1866, when Sir Warington Smyth 
wrote, for Weale’s excellent series of rudi- 
mentary handbooks, his little bool on coal-mining, 
the art of mining was in the trammels of empiricism ; 
but since that date progress has been rapid. Indeed, 
the tendency of the times is now towards a higher 
standard in mining as in all branches of technical 
education. Greater efficiency is consequently now 
demanded of candidates for the Board of Education 
examination in the principles of mining, and for the 
examinations for certificates as colliery managers and 
under-managers. In order to meet these conditions 
there has been of recent years a steady output of new 
elementary mining text-books. Many of these are 
excellent, but not one of them is presented in so 
attractive a form as the latest addition to the list by 
Mr. James Tonge. Well printed, tastefully bound, 
and copiously illustrated, it gives in concise form an 
accurate view of the subject of coal-mining, together 
with such information regarding collateral science as 
is essential for the elementary student. 
In his treatment of the subject, the author wisely 
has followed closely the logical and natural order laid 
down by the late Sir Clement Le Neve Foster for 
the Board of Education syllabus. General ideas are 
first given regarding the occurrence of coal and the 
methods of search. The sinking of shafts and the 
working of coal then receive attention. The means 
of supporting the roof and sides of underground 
excavations, and the conveyance of the coal to the 
shaft and thence to the surface, come next. Other 
chapters are devoted to the important operations of 
keeping the workings free from water, and of supply- 
ing them with fresh air and light. The volume con- 
cludes with chapters on the preparation of coal “for 
the market, and on the accidents and diseases inci- 
dental to the miner’s calling, with some brief notes 
on the laws regulating mining in this country. 
These varied subjects are dealt with in a thoroughly 
practical manner, and although necessarily brief, the 
descriptions are well up to date. We note, for 
example, an interesting account of the Parsons turbo- 
fan. A screw fan, used in conjunction with a com- | 
pound steam turbine, at a colliery at Wylam-on-Tyne 
exhausts air from the pit and discharges it into the 
atmosphere through a conical outlet. The diameter 
of the fan is 5 feet, and it passes 120,000 cubic feet 
per minute at 2-inch water gauge, running at a speed 
