JuLy 13, 1899] 
NATCRE 
24 3 
But we must not prolong our review of this able essay 
on these familiar lines. Suffice it to say that to those 
who enjoy this sort of discussion, and who appreciate its 
‘serious significance, this last utterance from the renowned 
biologist of Freiburg—though somewhat more discursive 
than is his wont—will afford, as the saying is, both 
pleasure and profit. 
The second part of the essay contains an attempt to 
show, not merely that regenerative phenomena are 
adaptive, and presumably the outcome of selection, but 
that they are interpretable, on the ontogenetic theory 
of “anlagen,” “determinants,” “neben-Determinanten,” 
“reserve germ-plasm,” and the like. This is quite 
another affair, and altogether too complex to be dealt 
with in a few lines. But we would venture to insist that 
the evolutionary or phylogenetic interpretation of re- 
generation phenomena as adaptive is independent of the 
subtler developmental or ontogenetic theory of the manner 
in which the capacity may be supposed to organise and 
express itself. 
It seems to us regrettable that Prof. Weismann should 
condescend to notice the “invectives, sarcasm, and de- 
rision which have been showered upon” him, and that he 
should regard 
“Such utterances as a not exactly desired, but yet not 
altogether unsatisfactory, sign that the less noble emo- 
tions of human nature—envy and ill-will—have found 
cause to direct themselves against the results of my work.” 
No doubt criticism without knowledge is exasperating, 
but it is also humbug ; no doubt invective without appre- 
ciation is irritating, but it is mere pettifogging ; and why 
should the immortals concern themselves about either ? 
A more philosophical temper, which we should regard 
as more deeply habitual, is indicated in one of the 
paragraphs towards the end of the pampzlet. 
“One of my critics has compared my ‘theories’ to 
“towns in the Far West,’ the houses of which are barely 
erected when they are taken down again to be rebuilt 
further out in the unknown land. I accept the simile, 
provided it be not forgotten that the first house of the 
advancing pioneer must remain standing and in use for 
a time before the region beyond becomes accessible to 
further colonisation.” 
* We would respectfully commend to the illustrious 
author a motto from a northern University, “They have 
said, What say they? Let them say.” For the author of 
the “Germplasm” and “Germinal Selection” is surely, 
among living biologists, the foremost pioneer. J. A. T. 
WEST AFRICAN FETISG. 
West African Studies. By Mary H. Kingsley. With 
illustrations and maps. Pp. xxiv + 639. (London: 
Macmillan and Co., 1899.) 
FOR the last three years Miss Kingsley has been 
known to the scientific world as a careful collector 
of facts relating to West Africa, while to the unscientific 
public interested in works of exploration and travel she 
is known as a writer with an original and very entertain- 
ing manner. Her book entitled “Travels in West 
Africa,” which was published in 1896, was the result of two 
journeys to West Africa, where she had devoted herself 
to the study of fetish and fresh-water fishes. In the 
NO. 1550, VOL. 60] 
preface to her present volume she tells us that her 
previous work, which she rather unjustly refers to as 
““a word-swamp of a book,” was of the nature of an 
interim report. She there confined herself to facts, and 
eliminated as far as possible any inferences that might 
be drawn from them, distrusting at the time her own 
ability to make theories, and intending that ethnologists 
should draw from her collections of material such facts 
as they might care to select. The use that has been 
made of the volume since its appearance has certainly 
justified Miss Kingsley’s method of publication. But 
there was obviously room for another work on the same 
subject from her pen. No one was better qualified than 
herself to form opinions with regard to the beliefs and 
practices she studied, and we are glad to find that in the 
present work she has formulated the conclusions at which 
she has arrived. We welcome the book as a valuable 
supplement to the first volume of her travels. 
The book contains a good deal or very varied in- 
formation, and while some portions of it appeal to the 
anthropologist and student of religion, others deal with 
purely scientific observations, and others again are of a 
political nature. Miss Kingsley’s criticism of the Crown 
Colony system will doubtless receive the attention it 
deserves at the hands of those who are responsible for 
the methods we adopt as a nation in dealing with our 
tropical possessions. Her chapter entitled “ Fishing in 
West Africa,” which has already appeared in the Vationaz 
Review, explains the means by which she was enabled to 
form the collections which won Dr. Giinther’s admiration ; 
while in the same connection we have an interesting 
account of the little fishes (A/est/s Kingsleyae) which have 
the honour to bear their discoverers name. The most 
interesting part of the book, however, which Miss Kingsley 
herself regards as of greatest importance, is the section 
which deals with the subject of fetish im West Africa. 
The word fetish is used by Miss Kingsley in a much 
wider sense than that in which it is generally employed 
at the present day. The word was adopted into scientific 
literature from the writings of the old Portuguese 
navigators, who were the modern discoverers of West 
Africa. These men noticed the veneration paid by 
Africans to inanimate objects, and called these things 
Feitico, a term they applied to their own talismans and 
charms. The word is nowadays generally employed in 
a rather similar sense as a general term for the doctrine 
of spirits embodied in, or conveying influence through, 
material objects. Miss Kingsley, however, in spite of a 
protest from Prof. Tylor, has thrown over this established 
usage, and employs the word as a convenient synonym 
for the religion of the natives of the West Coast of 
Africa where they have not been influenced either by 
Christianity or Mohammedanism. Using the term with 
this extended application, Miss Kingsley classifies West 
African fetish into four main schools: the Tshi 
and Ewe school, which is mainly concerned with 
the preservation of life; the Calabar school, which 
attempts to enable the soul to pass_ successfully 
through death; the Mpongwe school, which aims 
at the attainment of material prosperity; and the 
school of Nkissi, which chiefly concerns itself with the 
worship of the power of the earth. These schools of 
fetish are not sharply defined, and many of the same 
