August 10, 1882] 



NA TURE 



!4i 



that, according to their own showing, the Commissioners 

 on Accidents have stated nothing that has not been well- 

 known for many years, the Government could not very 

 well be "convinced of the folly of sanctioning the use of 

 Davy, Clanny, and all non-extinguishing lamps in mines," 

 unless it is favoured with some new reasons for doing so 

 in addition to those that have failed to convince so many 

 generations of its predecessors. The Government could 

 not very well retain its dignity, and at the same time shift 

 its ground at the instance of every comer who thinks he 

 possesses the long-sought-for panacea ; but there are some 

 eager spirits in our midst who appear to be for ever bent 

 upon goading it into a hare-like speed, forgetful, evi- 

 dently, of the moral of the fable which gives the final 

 victory to the more slowly travelling tortoise. 



We have only one more remark to make, and then we 

 must conclude this already too long notice, namely, that 

 a book which is written ostensibly for the education and 

 information of even a section of the community ought not to 

 contain recommendations of different kinds of apparatus 

 which are apparently made and sold for the pecuniary 

 benefit of the author. Mr. Bagot can have plenty of 

 opportunities for advertising his improved and patented 

 appliances without scattering notices of them through the 

 pages of his books ; and we would fain hope and believe 

 that he was unaware of the gravity of his fault at the time 

 he was in the act of committing it in the present 

 instance. William Galloway 



OUR BOOK SHELF 

 Thcogonie und Astronomic. By A. Krichenbauer. 



(Vienna: Carl Konegen, 1881.) 

 Dr. Krichenbauer believes that he has discovered a 

 new key to ancient mythology. With the help of the 

 Iliad and Odyssey, the gods of Greece are resolved into 

 stars and constellations, and the facts of astronomy are 

 made to explain their nature and attributes, as well as 

 the myths that were told of them. In the deities of 

 Egypt, of Babylonia, of India, and of Iran, Dr. Krichen- 

 bauer finds fresh confirmations of his views. The deve- 

 lopment of this early astronomical theogony falls into two 

 periods, the first period being one of creation and growth, 

 the second of fixit) and nationalisation. The first period 

 has its " climacteric " in B.C. 21 10, when the Ram already 

 ushered in the year. But its real history belongs to that 

 earlier age when the Bull took the place of the Ram, and 

 it is the Bull, accordingly, which stands at the head of 

 the religious system, and breaks in sunder the egg of the 

 universe. The second period begins with the change of 

 the summer solstice from the Lion to the Crab in conse- 

 quence of the precession of the equinoxes, and thus 

 falls about 1462 B.C., when the commencement of the 

 year was transferred from the summer solstice to the 

 vernal equinox. The equal division of the path of 

 the sun into the twelve signs of the Zodiac took place 

 about seven centuries later. This, briefly put, is the 

 substance of Dr. Krichenbauer's work. His interpreta- 

 tion, however, of the passages of Homer upon which his 

 the'Ty is based, is purely subjective, and is not likely to 

 commend itself to others. Homeric scholars, at any 

 rate, will not admit that any portion of the Iliad or 

 Odyssey is anything like so old as he would make them, 

 or can contain traditions of anything like so old a period. 

 His acquaintance, again, with the facts that modern re- 

 search has recovered from the monuments of Egypt and 

 Babylonia, is of the most meagre kind. Hence he is 

 quite unaware that we happen to know a good deal 

 about ancient Babylonian astronomy, and the history of 



the Zodiacal signs, as has lately been pointed out in 

 Nature, and that what we know is altogether inconsistent 

 with his statements and conclusions. Thus the year began 

 with the vernal equinox, and the heaven was divided into 

 twelve equal portions at least as early as B.C. 2000, and 

 probably much earlier, while it was in Babylonia that the 

 constellations and Zodiacal signs were first named. On 

 the other hand, there was not the remotest connection 

 between the theology and mythology of Babylonia and 

 Egypt. Before Dr. Krichenbauer again writes on this 

 subject it would be advisable for him to be better ac- 

 quainted with the results of modern Oriental research. 



Atlantis : the Antediluvian World. By Ignatius Don- 

 nelly. (London : Sampson Low, Marston and Co. 

 1882). 



OUR only reason for noticing this curious book is that 

 the names of writers of authority which constantly appear 

 in its pages may lead some readers astray. But the 

 author, while quoting them, has neither assimilated their 

 method nor understood the bearing of their facts. In 

 spite of the patient labour bestowed upon the work, and 

 the numerous illustrations with which it is adorned, it is 

 merely another contribution to that mass of paradoxical 

 literature which awaits the "Budget" of a second De 

 Morgan. 



The Early History of the Mediterranean Populations, 

 &*c, in their Migrations and Settlements. By Hyde 

 Clarke. (London : Triibner and Co., 1882.) 

 Dr. Hyde Clarke has compared together the devices 

 found on the coins and gems of various ancient cities and 

 countries, in the hope of proving the connection of the 

 populations to which they belonged. The list is a useful 

 one, though defective, but it proves no more than that in 

 a very late period of the history of the Mediterranean 

 peoples certain obvious objects were selected in different 

 places alike as emblems and devices upon coins. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor dots not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so gr*ai 

 that it is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even 

 of communications containing interesting and novel facts. ] 



Speechless Man 



In his notice of my work on "Asia," in Inst week's issue of 

 Nature, Mr. Sayce finds fault with me for rejecting the modern 

 doctrine that " man was speechless when the leading races were 

 differentiated from one another." I certainly do reject that doc- 

 trine, but not 011 the ground that he supposes. I reject it as in 

 itself to the last degree improbable, and as utterly inadequate to 

 account for the conditions which have suggested it. Seeing that 

 there are many more radical forms of speech in the world than 

 there are radical physical types, if indeed any of the physical 

 types can be regarded as radical, anthropologists have somewhat 

 ra-hly concluded that these forms Of speech must have sprung 

 up independently of each other after the dispersion of an as-umed 

 speechle.-s human race throughout the world. We are in fact 

 asked to believe that the continents were first peopled, here by a 

 black, there by a white, elsewhere by a yellow, a brown, or a 

 red species, all possibly sprung of one sti ck, hut all still ignorant 

 of any except perhaps a sign-language at the time of the dis- 

 persion. Then there came a time or times when the-e diverse 

 species began all of them to babble independently of each other 

 in their diverse independent settlements. Consequently, while 

 the races may have been originally one, the stock languages had 

 each a separate starting-]: oint, and therefore were never originally 

 one. Hence this sufficiently violent assumption is made in 

 order to explain the present diversity of speech on the globe. I, 

 on the contrary, hold that it is a useless assumption, that it 

 explains nothing, that it is an all but incredible hypothesis, and 



