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NATURE 
[Fune 22, 1871 


morality being incorporated into religion only in the later 
stages of culture. One of the most striking points in the 
whole work is Mr. Tylor’s identification of the theory of 
“images” generally ascribed to Democritus with the 
savage theory of object-souls. Democritus explained the 
fact of perception by declaring that things are always 
throwing off images of themselves, which images, assimi- 
lating to themselves the surrounding air, enter a recipient 
soul and are thus perceived. This theory, Mr. Tylor 
adduces evidence to prove, is merely an application to the 
phenomena of thought of one of the most characteristic 
doctrines of savagery, the doctrine that every object, 
inanimate as well as animate, possesses a soul of its own. 
“Nor is the correspondence,” says Mr. Tylor, “a mere 
coincidence, for at this point of junction between classic 
religion and classic philosophy the traces of historic con- 
tinuity may be still discerned. To say that Democritus 
was an ancient Greek is to say that from his childhood 
he had looked on at the funeral ceremonies of his country, 
beholding the funeral sacrifices of garments and jewels 
and money and food and drink, rites which his mother 
and his nurse could tell him were performed in order that 
the phantasmal images of these objects might pass into 
the possession of forms shadowy like themselves, the souls 
of dead men. Thus Democritus, seeking a solution of 
his great problem of the nature of thought, found it by 
simply decanting into his metaphysics a surviving doc- 
trine of primitive savage animisra.” No more pregnant 
identification of philosophic tenets with those of earlier 
religion has been achieved since Comte traced back to 
fetishism the conception of a soul of the universe as held 
by certain pantheistic schools. 
In describing the nature of the soul as understood by 
the lower races—well indicated by the way in J. Amos 
Comenius’s “ Orbis Sensualium Pictus,” where he figures 
anima hominis as a dotted outline of a man—Mr. Tylor 
calls special attention to the spirit-voice, which is con- 
ceived as a murmur, chirp, or whistle—as it were the ghost 
of a voice. Among the Algonquins souls chirp like 
crickets ; among the New Zealanders, Polynesians, and 
Zulus, they squeak or whistle. Nicolaus Remigius, whose 
“ Demonolatreia ” is one of the ghastliest volumes in the 
ghastly literature of witchcraft, cites Hermolaus Barbarus 
as having heard the voice swé-sébilantis demonis, and, 
after giving other instances, adduces the authority of 
Psellus to prove that the devils generally speak very low 
and confusedly in order not to be caught fibbing. The 
idea of ghosts whistling is still far from extinct in England. 
In Leicestershire and elsewhere it is reckoned “very bad” 
to hear “ the Seven Whistlers,” though strict inquiry about 
them only elicits the suggestive fact that “the develin”— 
or common martin—“‘is one on ’em.” 
In his account of the doctrine of transmigration of souls, 
Mr. Tylor forbears to touch on one circumstance, which 
probably exercised some considerable influence on its de- 
velopment. When two systems of mythology, both 
originally derived from the same source, came into close 
contact after long separation, both the difference and the 
similarity between them could hardly escape attention. 
If the names of certain deities common to the two systems 
had been changed while their history and attributes had 
remained substantially unaltered, the theory of transmi- 
gration would, in some cases, satisfactorily account for the 

—— 
phenomenon. In fact, mythologically, the doctrine of 
transmigration is simply true. Mythology is just now 
demanding of history the extradition of William Tell, on 
the plea that his ghost is one which has transmigrated 
from her domain ; and the scientific detective who falls 
in with Robin Hood or King Arthur will hardly fail to 
recognise in the one the transmigrated soul of Phcebus 
Apollo, in the other, the wandering spirit of the Bear-ward 
in Béotes, returned from his long sojourn in the northern 
sky. 
Tempting, however, as are the inquiries suggested in 
this profusely suggestive work, the reviewer's limit has 
already been transgressed. We have not yet, we cannot 
have for years, or for ages, anything approaching to a 
complete science of history or exhaustive philosophy of 
religion, but the scientific student of Primitive Culture will 
at least admit that in these volumes the foundation of 
both has been “ well and truly laid.” = 

— 
BOOK SHELF 
Dr. Dobell’s Reports on the Progress of Practical Medicine 
in different Parts of the World. Vol.ii. (1871, Long- 
mans.) 
IN these reports Dr. Dobell aims at obtaining from the 
natives of different countries concise statements of the 
advances made in medicine and the allied branches o 
knowledge, which have appeared in foreign journals, or in 
amore permanent form. He has obtained more or less 
full and detailed reports from Americ # Australia, Califor- 
nia, China, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Java, 
Newfoundland, New Zealand, Portugal, Prince Edward’s 
Island, Shetland Isles, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. 
The idea is a good one. The flood of periodical literature 
is so great that itis most difficult to keep up with the 
weekly journals of this country alone, and it becomes 
almost hopeless to do so with those of France and Ger- 
many. Such reports as those before us materially lighten 
labour, and the only objection to them is that a man who 
is working at any given subject cannot rely upon their 
being complete. The report on French progress by Prof. 
| Villemin is a good one. That on German advances, by 
Dr. Alhaus is much too short. It might, with great ad- 
vantage, have been extended at the expense of the excerpts 
from English writers. Everyone has access to the leading 
English journals, atid, moreover, this part of the work is 
already well done by Braithwaite and Ranking , but com- 
paratively few have access to Virchows Archiv, the 
Deutsch Klinik, and the Wiener Medizinische Zeitung. 
Many of the English abstracts might have been condensed. 
We miss a Russian report. Yet both Russian naturalists 
and Russian physicians have journals of their own. On 
the whole the book is a useful one, and we can recommend 
it to our readers as containing a considerable mass of in- 
formation which they will not elsewhere easily find. 
Geometrische Seh-Proben zur Bestimmung der Sehscharfe 
bet Functions-priifungen des Auges. Von Dr. Boet- 
tcher. (Berlin, 1870. London : Williams and Norgate). 
THis little book, with its test objects, is intended as a sub- 
stitute for Snellen’s test types to be used by those who are 
unable to read, and has been drawn tp by Dr. Boettcher, 
with especial reference to the testing of the vision of re- 
cruits. Besides the ordinary types, it contains a number 
of figures of squares and rectangles, variously disposed 
in regard to one another at different distances, and it need 
scarcely be added of various sizes. The very smallest re- 
quire good vision to enumerate their number and disposi- 
tion at the ordinary distance of eight inches, wh Ist the 
largest should be seen at two hundred feet. They afford 

a 
