346 
tion. We ought to have from British East Africa 
and Uganda, from British Central Africa (Rhodesia 
and Nyasaland) and each separate colony or pro- 
tectorate of British West Africa, works similar to 
that under review, giving in the leading native 
language or languages the designation of the 
striking and commercially important trees and 
plants, and side by side the correct botanical 
identification. 
Dr. Dalziel’s book is the model to be followed. 
It possesses an excellent index which reverses the 
process of identification by supplying a long list 
of the botanical names of trees and plants with 
the number of the page on which they are dealt 
with. It also throws much light on native drugs, 
poisons, and aphrodisiacs, and is further a useful 
catalogue of the outstanding features in the flora 
of Eastern Nigeria. 
Hitherto botanical research—and linguistics— 
have not been sufficiently encouraged by the 
Colonial Office in our African possessions. Per- 
haps after the war—if those of us now writing and 
working live to see an after—we shall be wiser. 
We shall realise that Africa is as important to us 
and the rest of the world for its flora as it is for 
its minerals, and do everything we can to increase 
native and European knowledge of the same. 
H. H. Jounston. 
A GERMAN PSYCHOLOGIST ON THE 
EVOLUTION OF CULTURE, 
Elements of Folk Psychology: Outlines of a 
Psychological History of the Development of 
Mankind. By Wilhelm Wundt. Authorised 
translation by Prof. E. L. Schaub. Pp. 
xxlii+532. (London: George Allen and 
Unwin, Ltd., 1916.) Price 15s. net. 
ROF. WUNDT has been a voluminous writer 
on psychological and philosophical subjects, 
and has had a profound effect in Germany and to 
a large extent also in the United States of 
America, but of the real value of his psychological 
investigations this is not the occasion to form an 
estimate. The “Elemente der Vdélkerpsycho- 
logie” (1912), of which the book under notice is 
a translation, breaks new ground, and we have 
to thank Prof. E. L. Schaub for rendering it 
available to the English-speaking public. 
The book gives a synthetic presentation of 
various stages of human civilisation and of the 
mental products which are created by communi- 
ties of human beings at these several stages. The 
author divides the development of civilisation into 
four stages: Primitive Man, the Totemic Age, 
the Age of Heroes and Gods, and the Age of 
Natural States and Religions—the first three being 
alone dealt with at length. Prof. Wundt makes 
certain deductions from the data which he 
adduces, but before framing hypotheses it is as 
well to make sure of the premises, and it has 
been a surprise to the present writer to find upon 
what inaccurate data—one can scarcely term them 
“facts”—the superstructure is in many cases 
reared. : 
NO. 2462, VoL. 98] 
NATURE 
[JANUARY 4, 1917 
When dealing with primitive man we find 
various astonishing statements, thus: “If one 
were to connect the discovery of this primitive 
man with any single name, the honour would 
belong to a German traveller and investigator, 
George Schweinfurth. He was the first to dis- 
cover a really primitive tribe.” “When the 
Veddah enters into marriage, he binds a cord 
about the loins of his prospective wife. Obviously 
this is nothing else than a form of the widely 
current ‘cord-magic’ . . . to secure the faithful- 
ness of the wife.” As a matter of fact, “the 
bride gives her spouse a waist string of her own 
making ” (Seligman), which may or may not have 
the significance Prof. Wundt attributes to it—we 
simply do not know. The Veddas do not use 
poisoned arrows, as he states they do. “Even 
marriage between brother and sister was origin- 
ally not prohibited’; but, as Dr. and Mrs. Selig- 
man point out, Hugh Neville said in 1886: 
“Much nonsense has been written by persons 
who ought to have known better, about marriage 
of Veddas with their sisters. Such incest was 
never allowed and never could be.” He goes on 
to explain that “the mistake arose from crass 
ignorance of Vzedda usages.” 
Further on we read that the Australian 
spear-thrower is a “grooved board,” but of the 
numerous varieties of this implement in Australia 
not one has this construction. Again, “the shield 
of the Australians is long, and usually raised 
toward the centre. It covers the entire body.’” 
There are several kinds of shields in Australia, 
the most widely distributed being little more than 
a parrying stick. We are told that “the Papuans 
are the first to change the digging stick into the 
hoe . . . it is the man who makes the furrows 
with the hoe . . . and the woman follows with 
the seeds, which she scatters in the furrows.’” 
But the hoe as derived from the digging stick 
was unknown, and seeds were never sown in New 
Guinea until the arrival of civilised people. 
Another misleading statement is that “to the 
bow and the lance they [the Polynesians] have 
added the knife and sword; to the long shield, 
the small round shield.” If Prof. Wundt had 
stepped across from his laboratory to the excel- 
lent Museum fiir Vélkerkunde he need not have 
made these blunders. The, statement that the 
Malays came from “the mainland of India” is 
incorrect; if he meant Further India he should 
have said so—but that, in any case, is a foolish 
term. There is no evidence that “the Malayans 
were the first to create a perfected form of boat.” 
It is unnecessary to give further examples of 
misstatements. There are also a considerable 
number of statements of the origin or evolution 
of customs and objects of material culture which 
are given with all the assurance of ascertained 
facts, though they are merely the unsupported 
statements of the professor. 
there are many valuable suggestions and infer- 
ences which are worthy of the attention of 
| students. 
A. C. Happon. 
On the other hand, - 
