February i i, 1909] 



NATURE 



423 



and niav be commended to the notice of a much wider 

 public, viz. all those interested in the national ques- 

 tion of the prevention of tuberculosis and in the 

 public health. The book is light to hold, is printed in 

 pleasant t}-pe, and is illustrated with numerous statis- 

 tical charts and some figures. R. T. H. 



TRADITION AND MONUMENTAL REMAINS. 

 i'li/fc Memory, or the Continuity of British Archaeo- 

 logy. By Walter Johnson. Pp. 416. (Oxford : 

 Clarendon Press, igo8.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 



MR. JOHNSON puts before the student of tradi- 

 tion a study which, whether or not it be 

 accepted in all its details, will be recognised as a 

 valuable addition to our knowledge of the archaeo- 

 logical remains of our country. It tells us both of 

 the means by which these remains have often been 

 jireserved and of the machinery by which a great 

 mass of tradition has been handed down during the 

 .-iges. A monument is protected by a custom, super- 

 .stition or tradition attached to it, while the much 

 frailer life of the custom, superstition or tradition is 

 preserved by the continued existence of the monu- 

 ment. It is obvious that we have here a most fruitful 

 and hitherto largely neglected source of information. 

 Even where tradition has obviously gone wrong, the 

 point where it has gone wrong and the reasons and 

 influence which have caused this deflection are laid 

 bare by Mr. Johnson in many cases, and become a 

 not unimportant part of his inquiry. We frankly 

 confess that, despite objections here and there to 

 conclusions wrongly drawn or drawn from authorities 

 not of the first order, we are impressed by the cumu- 

 lative value of the evidence which Mr. Johnson 

 adduces. He is sound on most of the scientific 

 problems he deals with, and does not allow his theory 

 to master him. 



Mr. Johnson is not always just to his own theory. 

 Thus he directs attention to the important fact that 

 in the Isle of Man it was believed that to pasture 

 sheep on ground which was marked by a stone circle 

 would surely bring disease to the flock, and he goes 

 on to observe that " we call these ideas survivals, and 

 thus hide their true character; in their totality they 

 indicate, not spasmodic survivals, but continuity of 

 development." The introduction of the qualification 

 " spasmodic " is here wholly unwarranted. Survival 

 is not spasmodic, but continuous, and Mr. Johnson 

 not only spoils his own argument, but suggests that 

 he does not understand the true significance of Mr. 

 Tylor's admirable term. Again, he is not always 

 correct in his evidence. His reference to the so- 

 called Boadicea's tomb at Hampstead is to Mr. Read's 

 ad-nirable excavation of it and the suggestion, quite 

 tentative, of its being a tomb of the Bronze age; but 

 further research has been made into this subject, and 

 it is now almost certain that this so-called tomb is 

 a boundary mark of the Roman period, a botontiniis, 

 in fact, and the legend attaching it to Boadicea is 

 explainable on this origin. We give these examples 

 of faulty research or faulty argument, not for the 

 purpose of discounting Mr. Johnson's work, but 

 merely to show that even after the exhaustive inquiry 

 NO. 2050, VOL. 79] 



he has made and the care with which he has 

 marshalled the great mass of facts he has to deal 

 with, there is still much to be done; and the much 

 to be done confirms Mr. Johnson's general con- 

 clusions. In these two cases correction would mean 

 additional evidence entirely of the kind that Mr. John- 

 son advances throughout his work. 



The book is usefully, though not elaborately, illus- 

 trated, contains full and complete references to 

 authorities, and has a good index. Its scope will be 

 gathered by the following summary of its contents : — 

 the continuity of the ages of Stone and Bronze, racial 

 continuity, links between the prehistoric and proto- 

 historic ages, traces of the ages of Stone and Bronze 

 shown by later implements, stone and bronze in cere- 

 monies and superstitions, the later history of the 

 megaliths, fairies, mound-treasure and barrow super- 

 stitions, the reputed virtues of iron, our oldest in- 

 dustry (stone implements), dene holes, linchets, dew 

 ponds, incised figures of our chalk downs, old roads 

 and trackways. 



VACCINATION AND OPSONIC ACTION. 

 Vaccine Therapy and the Opsonic Method of Treat- 

 ment. By Dr. R. W. Allen. Second edition. Pp 

 xii + 244. (London: H. K. Lewis, 1908.) Price 

 7^. 6rf. net. 



THIS book will be found exceedingly useful at the 

 present time, when vaccine therapy has become 

 so popular and in certain fields has achieved such 

 brilliant results, .'\ccording to the author, the best 

 results are, as a rule, obtained only when vaccination 

 is carried out under the guidance of the opsonic index, 

 but a critical study of his evidence in support of this 

 belief will rather lead one to conclude that good results 

 have been got in spite of the opsonic index and in 

 spite of negative phases. The use of the expression 

 " opsonic method of treatment," forming part of the 

 title of the book, must be strongly deprecated. It is 

 unscientific, and can appeal only to the undiscriminat- 

 ing reader who is unaware of the multiplicity of anti- 

 bodies elaborated in response to vaccination. , 



The author commences with a summary review of 

 current opinion on the nature of opsonic action. He 

 believes that the weight of present evidence goes to 

 show that opsonic action, like hsemolytic action, is 

 due to the cooperation of thermostable amboceptor with 

 a thermolabile complement. The practical difficulties 

 in opsonic technique which must yet be overcome in 

 order to do justice to this conception have not, how- 

 ever, been touched upon, nor has the author taken 

 count of this conception in the interpretation of many 

 of the opsonic results tabulated throughout the book. 

 Regarding the site of formation of opsonin, the author 

 concludes from his own experiments that this resides 

 in the muscle tissues. He adduces in support of this 

 view that the opsonic index of muscle plasma from 

 an amputated leg was 14 towards various micro- 

 organisms. Further, he mentions that a case of tuber- 

 cular ulceration which had previously resisted treat- 

 ment did well when the tuberculin was " injected in a 

 concentric manner round the area of ulceration." We 

 are not told whether the tuberculin was injected intra- 



