September 12, 1901] 



NA TURE 



46/ 



of the then Duke of Buckingham. Another fell in 1797, 

 owing to the action of the weather upon its foundations. 



The entrance to Stonehenge faced the N.E., and the 

 road to it, or "Via Sacra,'' called the Avenue, can be 

 traced by banks of earth which fall into those of the 

 circumscribing circle of the earth bank which surrounds 

 the whole structure, and which has a diameter of about 

 200 feet. 



Prof W. M. Flinders Petrie's account is cited as 

 arriving at a date very much later than that given by 

 Mr. Maskelyne, viz. as between 500 and goo a.d. ! 



Lady Antrobus' book concludes with an account of the 

 objects met with on the picturesque road which leads 

 from Amesbury to Salisbury along the banks of the 

 Avon. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Polyp/tern ein Gorilla. By Dr. Th. Zell. Pp. 1S4. 



(Berlin : W. Junk, 1901.) Price Mk. 2.50. 

 A BOOK of nearly two hundred octavo pages of close 

 print, discussing the subject above mentioned, may, 

 without e.xaggeration, be termed exhaustive. It should 

 be at once added, however, that in his preface the author 

 refers e.xpressly to those of the fifteen chapters (viz. Nos. 

 xiii and xiv) which contain the essential arguments in 

 support of his views. Otherwise the reader should be 

 prepared to find himself involved in the consideration of 

 the behaviour of animals in relation to changes in the 

 weather, or engaged in the study of the relative keenness 

 of the special senses of the walrus. The effects of 

 meteorological changes on animals are discussed in 

 reference to the story, not of Polyphemus, but of Proteus, 

 in the course of a general disquisition on the interpret- 

 ation of Homeric myths, while the subject of the special 

 senses appears in subtle connection with important 

 questions raised by the peculiar cyclopian eye of Poly- 

 phemus. The author's enthusiasm and his desire to 

 examine all sides of the question have led him to burden 

 his work with a large amount of detail, which could have 

 been largely avoided, without diminishing the value of 

 the book, by the substitution of reference for quotation 

 in extenso. 



The contributions to Homeric literature consist, firstly, 

 in the exposition of the view expressed in the title of the 

 book, viz., that the story of Polyphemus is not, as Grimm 

 and others believe, a mystic account of the strife of the 

 elements or a solar myth, but rather the reminiscence of 

 an encounter of early civilised man with a pre-human 

 ancestor. To this ancestor Dr. Zell prefers to refer as a 

 "gorilla-mensch," reminding one of Win wood Reade's 

 implied suggestion that Caliban was a gorilla. 



In the second place, Dr. Zell suggests that the term 

 cyclopian indicates that the person or animal so desig- 

 nated had simply eyes of rounded appearance and was 

 not necessarily the possessor of a single median organ of 

 sight. 



While agreeing with Dr. Zell that the explanation of 

 the story of Polyphemus is to be sought in the actual 

 adventures of early voyagers, rather than in an appeal to 

 the unaided inventive faculty of a poet, it is thought that 

 the term " gorilla-mensch," as well as the title of the book, 

 are distinctly unfortunate, as lending to revive the now 

 discarded view that the particular ape in question should 

 be regarded as figuring in the line of human ancestry. 

 If the large gorilla mentioned on p. 112 is that which 

 has been recently represented in certain publications in 

 England and Germany, it is thought that Dr. Zell has 

 been misled ; for the attitude of the specimen referred to 

 is not warranted by the structural anatomy of the 

 gorilla. 



NO. 1663, VOL. 64] 



With regard to the explanation of the term kxikKo^-^, it 

 must be admitted that this is a subject for inquiry on the 

 part of philologists rather than students of natural 

 science. Two remarks may be made here. The ordin- 

 arily accepted significance is one of very ancient standing. 

 At the same time it is far more essential to Grimm's 

 explanation than to that of Dr. Zell. W. L. H. D. 



The Evolution of Consciousness. By Leonard Hall, 

 M.A. Pp. 152. (London: Williams and Norgate, 

 1901.) Price y. net. 

 This is one of those well-meaning but futile books which 

 it is almost impossible to criticise. To write a history of 

 the evolution of consciousness an author should be 

 thoroughly well informed of the latest results in both 

 psychology and physiology. Mr. Hall seems to depend 

 for his knowledge of the two sciences principally on the 

 late J. S. Mill, with an infusion of Mr. Herbert Spencer. 

 His account of psychological development is, no doubt 

 unconsciously, entirely at variance with the results which 

 have been won in recent years by careful experimenta- 

 tion, especially in the important domains of animal 

 psychology, the analysis of spatial perception and the 

 investigation of the processes by which meaning is 

 acquired. The physiological explanations in which the 

 writer indulges most frequently amount to nothing more 

 than the reiteration of the blessed words ''integration'' 

 and "differentiation." His grand thesis is that human 

 consciousness is the property of a dominant cell or 

 monad, but he seems not to be aware of the practical 

 dethronement of the cell by the neuron as the unit of 

 nervous action, nor does he offer any valid reason for his 

 belief that the sub-cortical and medullary cells have a 

 minor consciousness of their own. The actual "trans- 

 ference of consciousness ' from one cell to another of 

 which he talks freely is, of course, nonsense. Like most 

 writers whose knowledge of psychology is of the same 

 kind as his own, he is a very dogmatic and determined 

 adherent of the merely mechanical theory of human 

 action. 



The Self-Educator in Chemistry. By James Knight,. 

 M.A., B.Sc, F.C.S., F.G.S., F.E.I.S. Edited by John 

 Adams, M.A., B.Sc. Pp. xxiv -I- 162. (London : 

 Hodder and Stoughton, 1901.) Price is. 6d. 

 The intention and hope of the series to which this book 

 belongs is that " the most isolated student will be able, 

 without other aid, to ground himself in the various 

 subjects dealt with." It is much to be doubted whether 

 Mr. Knight's book will achieve any such purpose. 

 Grounding in a subject is usually held to mean the 

 laying down of substantial foundations, whereas this book 

 is calculated rather to give superficial and miscellaneous 

 information. It will give the reader no idea of the 

 methods by which the principles of chemistry have been 

 established, how chemical knowledge grows, or how 

 chemists work and think. Within the first four pages 

 the reader is introduced to atoms and molecules, graphic 

 formula; and the mysteries of the nascent state, whilst on 

 the fifth he is told, " the statement that the atomic weight 

 of oxygen is 16, means that a cubic inch, say, of oxygen 

 is 16 times as heavy as a cubic inch of hydrogen. The 

 atomic weight of substances like copper and carbon, 

 which are not gases at all, are got in a more round-about 

 fashion." 



The most that can be said for the book is that it aims 

 at showing chemistry in its relation to the things and 

 phenomena of daily life. But it is neither thorough nor 

 accurate, and doubts must arise as to the claims of a 

 populariser who, besides propounding theory in the 

 manner illustrated above, gets so far wrong in matters 

 of fact as, for example, to state (p. 42) that hydrogen i-; 

 liberated when steam is passed over red-hot copper, and 

 that water gas and producer gas have the same com- 

 position. A. S. 



