November 23, 1916] 
NATURE 
227 
ee eee 
where critical, however, all these contributors are 
more or less sympathetic. 
All the articles except one (by Prof. Weren- 
skiéld on ‘The Surface of Central Norway ”’) are 
more or less connected with the United States. A 
good many come under the head of economic or 
economico-political geography. Such, for exam- 
ple, are Prof. Briickner’s on “The Settlement of 
the United States as Controlled by Climate and 
Climatic Oscillations ”; that by Prof. Demangeon 
on Duluth; that by Prof. Partsch on “ Die Nord- 
pazifische Bahn”; those by Profs. Nussbaum and 
Oberhummer on American towns, the latter on 
American towns as compared with the towns of 
Europe; that by Herbette on “The Harbours of 
the Pacific North-west of the U.S.’’; and that by 
Vacher on “Les Environs .de Phoenix et le Barrage 
Roosevelt.” Several discuss the origin of land 
forms, as Prof. de Martonne’s on “Le Pare 
National Yellowstone,”’ and that of Machatschek 
on “ Ein Profil durch die Sierra Nevada mit einem 
Vergleich mit der Schollenstruktur in Zentral- 
asien.’’ There are some interesting ‘“‘ Observations 
sur deux Petits Geysers du Yellowstone,” by Prof. 
Chaix, of Geneva; and Mr. E. de Margerie con- 
tributes an article written in excellent and even 
fascinating English on ‘‘ The Debt of Geographical 
‘Science to American Explorers.”’ Prof. Davis 
furnishes a brief note on the origin of the excur- 
‘sion, and its history is written by Prof. A. P. Brig- 
ham, of Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y. In 
addition to a map showing the route, there are 
numerous photographic, diagrammatic, and other 
illustrations, and photographs of most of the 
European members of the party as well as of Profs. 
Davis and Brigham. The guests would have 
liked to see also the photographs at least of all 
those American members who went the whole 
round. 
Ge GAC: 
OUR BOOKSHELF. 
Mentally Deficient Children: theiy Treatment and 
Training. By Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth and Dr. 
W. A. Potts. Pp. xix+284. Fourth edition. 
(London: H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1916.) 
Price 7s. 6d. net. 
‘THe mentally deficient are of considerable im- 
portance to the community; their behaviour may 
be offensive, they frequently exhibit criminal pro- 
pensities, and they are a source of expense in 
that they need special care and are deficient as 
producers and wage-earners. The disability is of 
all grades, and frequently commences in child- 
hood or may be congenital. The principal causes 
in children are maldevelopment of certain parts 
of the brain or retarded development of the brain 
and its functions from some intercurrent disease. 
The latter may be due to injury at or after birth, 
. fevers, convulsions, epilepsy, and syphilis. There 
are also certain conditions of glandular in- 
adequacy, as in the cretin whose thyroid gland is 
atrophied. 
NO. 2456, VOL. 98] 
Probably of children of school age 
some 
feeble. 
In this book the authors first detail the patho- 
logy of mental deficiency in childhood, its etiology, 
diagnosis, and prognosis. They then describe 
the methods to be adopted for the medical 
examination of mentally defective children, and 
devote considerable space to the medical treat- 
ment and educational, industrial, and moral train- 
ing and recreation of mentally deficient children. 
An important chapter deals with the results of 
treatment and training. Of the patients treated 
at the Royal Albert Institution about 50 per cent. 
do not improve or get worse, while of the re- 
mainder 10 per cent. become self-supporting, and 
the rest become of more or less value—surely a 
very encouraging record. 
The book gives an excellent summary of the 
subject, and should be of considerable service to 
the medical practitioner and to the school officer 
and teacher, by whom the lesser cases of mental 
deficiency will first be recognised, and early 
recognition and treatment are very essential if 
any good result is to be obtained. The book 
is illustrated with a number of useful plates. 
1 per cent. or thereabouts are mentally 
The Indo-Aryan Races. A Study of the Origin 
of Indo-Aryan People and Institutions. By 
Ramaprasad Chanda. Part i. Pp. xiii+274. 
(Rajshahi: The Varendra Research Society, 
1916.) Price Rs.6 8a. 
Tuis book, we are told in the preface, was in- 
tended to provide ‘“‘a monograph on the origin of 
the Bengali people,” a useful project which has 
been supported by the newly founded Varendra 
Research Society. But his “notes,” as the author 
modestly terms them, have developed into a series 
of essays on the religion, history, and ethnology of 
Ancient India. All that is provided as part of the 
original project is a short series of head measure- 
ments, published without commentary, which is 
intended to settle the question whether certain 
groups of Bengali Brahmans are, or are not, 
descendants of a few Brahmans imported from 
Kanauj. So far as we can judge from these 
scanty statistics the legend is without foundation; 
but the subject demands much more careful treat- 
ment before it can be finally settled. 
The essays, modestly written and creditable 
to the scholarship of the author, traverse well- 
trodden ground. The great “Vedic Index” of 
Profs. Macdonell and Keith has already collected 
practically all the information that the Vedic 
literature supplies on Early India. But the 
byways of Sanskrit writings can still furnish some 
facts, and much still remains to be done, for the 
interpretation of these materials. 
The author might with advantage return in his 
next venture to the original problem of the origin 
of the Bengalis. He would probably discard 
Risley’s theory of Mongoloid infusion in favour 
of some early entry of an Alpine strain. If he 
can establish this doctrine he would do useful 
service to Indian ethnology. 
