February 4. 1909] 



NA TURE 



593 



\vf remember that Haeckel has always been pre- 

 eminently the godfather of the nomenclature of 

 phylof^^eny. 



Turning- directly to his " phylema primatum," which 

 is the main theme of the work, he believes that even 

 in Cretaceous times there was a succession of small 

 " mallotheria " (primitive placenta-bearing mammals 

 or prochoriata), from the earliest of which the 

 ancestors of the Marsupialia were derived, while the 

 later members of the series became the progenitors 

 of the Prosimiae — the Lemuravida. The facts eluci- 

 dated by the study of the comparative anatomy and 

 embryology of the apes favour the hypothesis that the 

 earliest (Oligocene or Miocene) platyrrhine monkeys 

 constitute the connecting link between the Eocene 

 I'rosimiae — Lemuravida — and the catarrhine phylum. 

 He speaks of the phyletic unity of the latter (catarrhine 

 phylum), and looks upon man as its highest branch. 

 His succession of catarrhine ancestors of Homo 

 .v<i/)it')jx consists of (i) the oldest cynocephali (Papio- 

 morpha), represented to-day by such forms as the 

 baboon; (2) the later cynocephali (Presbytomorpha), 

 such as Nasalis ; (3) the oldest man-like apes, such as 

 the gibbons; (4) the later man-like apes, such as the 

 orang and chimpanzee; (5) ape-men {Pithecanthropus 

 I'rectiis) ; and (6) primitive man {Homo primigenius). 



He disarms the obvious criticism, which most 

 zoologists will make of such a work as this, by re- 

 peating the oft-expressed assurance that his " sug- 

 gestions regarding the phylogeny of man (and 

 their obvious expression in the form of a genealogical 

 tree) are not to be regarded as dogmatic axioms, but 

 rather as heuristic hypotheses, intended merely to 

 point the way in a field of research, which is as 

 difticult and obscure as it is interesting and full of 

 significance." 



He has a considerable measure of justification for 

 his claim that, in the great progress of anthropological 

 knowledge in recent times, many statements regard- 

 ing man's ancestry, which he put forward as little 

 more than mere speculations forty years ago, have 

 now been proved to be demonstrable facts. 



The book contains a series of excellent illustrations 

 of a cranium of Homo sapiens, compared with those 

 of Homo palinander (an aboriginal Australian), a 

 chimpanzee, a gibbon and a mandrill, and also a series 

 of three corresponding stages in the embryonic develop- 

 ment of nine different mammals. 



G. Elliot Smitil 



.'lA' ATLAS OF GEOGRAPHICAL EXERCISES. 

 Practical Exercises in Physical Geography. By Prof. 

 W. M. Davis. Pp. xii+148; atlas of 45 plates. 

 (Boston and London : Ginn and Co., igo8.) Price 

 js. 6d. 



rHE laboratory steadily replaces the lecture room. 

 The use of laboratory methods in elementary 

 education has at length affected geography, and the 

 former inadequate school exercises are being replaced 

 by others over which the students must think for 

 themselves. To help this change. Prof. W. M. Davis, 

 Ihc chief .American prophet in the reform of geograph- 

 ical teaching, has designed an atlas of geographical 

 NO. 2049, VOL. 79] 



exercises, accompanied by an explanatory text-book, 

 and based upon his well-known geographical cycle. 

 The atlas consists of forty-five plates, including at the 

 end a few topographical maps of actual places, the 

 usual charts to show the distribution of temperature, 

 winds, and ocean currents, and six maps that give the 

 outlines of each of the continents except Australia. 

 The rest of the plates are ideal maps and sketches, 

 which show the development of valleys, the growth 

 of coasts and coastal plains, the characters of plateaus, 

 the formation of residual mountains by denudation, 

 and the structure of volcanoes. The sketch-maps all 

 teach their lesson simply ; there are not the irrelevant 

 details with which Nature usually confuses her illus- 

 trations. A page or two of fancy pictures and maps 

 are now inserted in most elementary atlases, but they 

 merely illustrate geographical terms. Prof. Davis 

 adopts this diagrammatic method for more advanced 

 work, and his series of carefully planned exercises 

 brings into due prominence the fundamental concep- 

 tions of physical geography. The maps offer excellent 

 geographical exercises, and should be most useful 

 where adequate time is devoted to geography. 



Prof. Davis in his preface compares the use of 

 ordinary maps for the first lessons on physical geo- 

 graphy, to teaching elementary arithmetic from the 

 books of a large commercial establishment. But this 

 very comparison suggests a doubt whether these exer- 

 cises could be widely adopted in British schools. 

 Arithmetic is very unpopular with many school 

 children, because they are not attracted by its logical 

 progress, and they are discouraged by the apparent 

 remoteness of its rules from the affairs of life. The 

 effort is therefore made to teach arithmetic by the 

 use of necessary every-day calculations, of which 

 children can realise the practical value. Prof. Davis's 

 system sacrifices the one advantage which ordinary 

 geography shares with technical over purely academic 

 education. To work through the whole of the exer- 

 cises given in this book would occupy all the time 

 allowed for geography in many elementary schools. 

 The students would leave well prepared for the intelli- 

 gent interpretation of maps, but they would not know 

 the ordinary facts of political geography; whereas 

 the study of actual instances, especially of local 

 examples that can be checked by field observations, 

 gives the children a keener interest in their work, an 

 equally sound grasp of principles, and a store of 

 useful facts indelibly impressed upon their minds. 



In countries where school time is not used up by 

 Latin and Greek, where modern languages are less 

 important than they are in Europe, and public interest 

 in education is not confined to the question of religious 

 instruction, there may be time for students both to 

 learn the geographical principles from such exercises 

 as those of Prof. Davis, and subsequently to learn the 

 necessary stock of facts. But as education is con- 

 ducted in this country, the amount of time usually 

 devoted to geography is so small that it is doubtful 

 whether sufficient could be spared for Prof. Davis's 

 exercises, though it is to be hoped that teachers will 

 study them, and thus benefit by the last of his many 

 contributions that have given life to geographical 

 education. J. W. G. 



