62 



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September 26, [918 



i n ,], ,1 ilisalion of the influence 



:.i.n 1 ill peoples and the difl usion 

 /hen he recognised that the gei m i 

 of (■] H culture of Melanesia had been 



.in the wesl it was clear thai the 

 problem For investigation was to deteri 

 mim ther the Malay Archipelago, the scattered 

 1 which convert the greal waterwaj link- 

 ing the Indian and Pacific Oceans into a sorl oi 

 1, had preserved anj records of the earliesl oi 

 the cultural streams which musl have been filter- 

 ing through it for twenty-five centuries. He 

 therefore recommended Mr. W. J. Perry (who had 

 been sent by Dr. A. C. Haddon to seek his advice 

 .is in the choic-i of a subject for investigation in 

 ethnology) to Irani the Dutch language and 10 

 search the voluminous, though scattered, literature 

 of Indonesian ethnology foi any evidence oi the 

 easterly diffusion of megalithic culture. 



I In book before us is the first substantial instal- 

 ment of the results oi this investigation; and it is 

 certain to become a landmark in the historj o) 

 ethnology. For it represents a noteworthy ad- 

 vance in the process of introducing the true 

 methods of exact science into a domain of know- 

 ledge which for fifty years has been rendered 

 increasingly chaotic by the misuse of biological 

 terms and the misunderstanding oi psychology. 



An incursion into this maze of confusion by a 

 man fresh from the severe discipline of the Mathe- 

 matical Tripos might be expected to produce sur- 

 prising results and this expectation is fully justi- 

 fied in Mr. Perry's hook. For he has impartially 

 collected all the available facts, and based his ex- 

 planation of them on the evidence they provide, 

 without attempting to force them into any ready- 

 made scheme, such as Waitz, Bastian, and Tylor 

 have constructed, or to evade the issues so raised 

 by taking refuge behind the blessed phrases 

 "animism," " totcmism," "intertribal barter," 

 "sympathetic magic," "similarity of the working 

 of the human mind," or any of the other catch- 

 words that the modern ethnologist has been taught 

 to use as substitutes for inquiring into the real 

 ining of things. 

 Mr. Perry was able not only to realise Dr. 

 I expectations by rinding the megalithic 



culture-complex in Indonesia, but he has also 

 made wholly unexpected discoveries of far-reach- 

 ing 11 ; nee to the student of human nature 

 and for the interpretation of the history of civil- 

 isation oi tl hole world. 



With quiti eptional skill and insight he has 



been able to i pathway through the amaz- 



ing jungle oi 1 customs and beliefs, and 



to arrive at cert ral conclusions which are 



of fundamenta! it 



The most striking generalisations is the 



recognition of the Fa< I tha ie irregular distribu- 

 tion of megalithic mom plained bv their 

 association with the 1 i e ancient gold- 

 mines or pearl beds are Fou This discovery 

 made it plain that it was th< i h for special 

 ■ .! w ealth which attrat I - I miners 

 trl-divers to i ei tain plai i I not to 



' 552, Vi it.. t02 



othefSi in Indonesia (and throughout the world). 

 These immigrants introduced .1 distinctive group 



of customs and beliefs wherever they settled not 

 merely peculiar methods of burial, but also ter- 

 raced cultivation and irrigation, a system oi chief- 

 tainship and a priesthood, tin- belief in a sky? 

 heaven, habits oi warfare and head-hunting, and 

 a host of other peculiar practices which will enable 

 the investigator to determine whence the wan- 

 derers came ano 'he dates nl the diffusions of cul- 

 ture of which the) were the hearers. 



Bui the magnitude of Mr. Perry's achievement 

 is not to he measured merely by his demonstra- 

 tion of the motives which prompted the spreading 



abroad of the elements of civilisation twenty-live 

 centuries ago and his explanation of the 

 graphical distribution of certain phases of culture. 

 The searching analysis in his book reveals the fact 

 that before the coming of the stone-using people 

 the indigenous population of Indonesia was lead- 

 ing an unexpectedly simple and idyllic life of peat I 

 and contentment singularly free from any display 

 of inventiveness. It sheds a new light upon the 

 factors which determine material and intellect- 

 ual progress and upon the meaning of civil- 

 isation. 



The work of Dr. Rivers and Mr. Perry is trans- 

 forming ethnology from an incoherent jumble of 

 fairy tales into a real science. 



G. Elliot Smith. 



WAR WORK OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL 

 SERVICES. 



British Medicine in the War, 1914 17. Being 

 Essays on Problems of Medicine, Surgery, arid 

 Pathology arising among the British Armed 

 Forces engaged in this War, and the Manner 

 of their Solution. Collected out of the British 

 Medical Journal, April-October, 1917. (Lon- 

 don : Rritish Medical Association, 1917.) Price 

 25. 6d. 



THIS reprint of collected papers from the 

 British Medical Journal is of very greal 

 interest, demonstrating as it does the rapid pro- 

 gress made in the medical services ol the Navy 

 and Armv during the war. Although the articles 

 were published at various dates between April and 

 October, i<M7, the .methods described in some in- 

 stances prove less than a year later to be only of 

 historical interest : conditions and disease pro- 

 blems .lie discussed which are no longer confront- 

 ing the armies in the field. The editor's preface 

 eloquently directs the reader's attention to these 

 points, so that we never lose sight of the view 

 that medicine and surgery in this war are not, 

 and cannot he allowed to become, stationary. 

 Used as a guide and handbook of practice in 1 In- 

 field, this collection of articles would soon be 

 found out of date, but, carefully read, one can 

 trace clearly the landmarks on the road that has 

 been trav ersed. 



The medical departments of the Navy and Army 

 have, fortunately, been characterised by broad- 

 minded elasticity. Innovations have been wel- 



