484 



NA TURE 



[February 25, 19C9 



to be of the greatest interest and value. M. Blaring- 

 hem's account of his experiments forms a stimulating 

 starting-point to such an inquiry, and sliould be read 

 by everyone engaged in the experimental study of 

 vital processes. 



THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 



The Scope and Content of the Science of Anthropology. 

 By Juul Dicserud. Pp. 200. (Chicago : The Open 

 Court Publishing Co. ; London : Kegan Paul, 

 Trench, Triibner and Co., Ltd., 190S.) Price 8s. 6d. 

 net. 



A 



people that the terminology and classification 

 of the subject-matter of anthropology is at present in 

 a state of almost hopeless confusion. In England, 

 early authorities like Hunt defined anthropology as 

 the science of the whole nature of man, including the 

 study of his anatomical, physiological and psycho- 

 logical characters, and this logical view has for- 

 tunately been maintained among the majority of 

 anthropologists in this country up to the present day. 

 In France also the original view, as expressed by 

 Pruner Bey, was that anthropology embraces the 

 studv of man in time and space, and the great Broca 

 took a very similar view of the scope of the science. 

 In Germanv, however, a beginning of the descent 

 from this clear and reasonable definition of the science 

 appears to have been made in iSyg by Muller, who 

 divided anthropology into (i) physical anthropology and 

 (2) psychic anthropology, and this cleavage was made 

 wider by Grosse, who in 1894 completely separated 

 the second of ^liiller's subdivisions from anthropology 

 and gave it a new designation, namely, ethnology, or 

 the culture of races. 



Ethnology and its related term ethnography were 

 henceforth widely applied, chiefly in Germany and 

 America, to a new science dealing with the culture 

 of races. It was excluded from the science of 

 anthropology, chiefly, no doubt, because this study 

 had increased more rapidly than other departments of 

 anthropology, its material data being represented by 

 large collections of tools, weapons, dress and pottery 

 in museums, and its psychic data by numerous 

 memoirs on manners and customs, religion and folk- 

 lore. From a logical point of view it is difficult to 

 see why the study of the psychological evolution of 

 man, as expressed by the various products of his 

 activity, should be excluded from anthropology — the 

 science of the whole nature of man — and it is still 

 more diflicult to see why the term ethnology, which 

 etymologically means the science of peoples or races, 

 should be applied to this new science, for which the 

 proper designation would appear to be that given to 

 it bv .Achelis, namely, psychical anthropology. 



This confusion in the terminology of anthropology 

 is, however, now so widespread that it will take a 

 long time to set it right, and Mr. Dieserud's book 

 will, we fear, only tend to perpetuate the confusion. 

 He shows himself throughout strongly in favour of 

 the misuse of the term ethnology by e.xcluding from 

 its scope all somatic or physical anthropology, though 

 XO. 2052, VOL. 79] 



he very illogically compromises between reason and 

 use, or rather abuse, by admitting physical subject- 

 matter under the allied term ethnography. 



The second part of Mr. Dieserud's book consists of 

 a scheme of library classification for works on 

 anthropology. He divides the subject into three main 

 classes, namely, (i) general, (2) somatology or 

 physical anthropology, and {3) ethnical anthropology. 

 The second and third classes are further subdivided, 

 and a comparison of some of these subdivisions will 

 give some idea of the consequences of the irrational 

 classification of anthropology which the author has 

 adopted. For example, under class (2) we have a 

 subdivision "racial psychology." and under class (3)- 

 a subdivision " ethnical or folk-psychology." The 

 plain man will find it very diflicult from the names to 

 discover any difference between the two subclasses. 

 There appears to be a great amount of apparent over- 

 lapping in other subclasses ; for example, it is difficult 

 to distinguish between palaeoanthropology and palaeo- 

 ethnology or archaeology, and yet these are separate 

 and distinct subdivisions. 



In the details of the physical anthropology section 

 of his classification, the author evidently owes a great 

 deal to the excellent scheme of Prof. Martin, of Zurich, 

 and where he departs from this it is not often by way 

 of improvement. 



The subdivision of his third class, " ethnical 

 anthropology (or psycho-socio-cultural anthropology)," 

 is very minute, but apparently here also we have re- 

 dundancy; for example, "gambling and its imple- 

 ments " and " gambling implements " are two dif- 

 ferent subdivisions, one of which appears to be 

 unnecessary. 



Part iii. of this work consists of a bibliography 

 containing a list of a few important works on 

 anthropology, with notes of their contents, and a list 

 of the chief publications of leading anthropological 

 societies and museums. 



Though we cannot recommend Mr. Dieserud's 

 scheme of classification either to librarians or anthro- 

 pologists, his book is well worth reading, and con- 

 tains much material that is of great value to the 

 anthropologist who is interested in the question of the 

 scope and content of his science. J. G. 



REFRIGERATION. 



The Mcclianical Production of Cold. By J. A. Ewing. 

 Pp. x+204; illustrated. (Cambridge: University 

 Press, 190S.) Price 10s. 



LOW temperatures arc rapidly becoming of great 

 ■I industrial and scientific importance, so that the 

 general principles of their application arfi necessary or 

 useful to continually increasing numbers of people. 

 In this book Prof. Ewing has brought the Howard 

 lectures, which he gave to the Society of Arts in 1897. 

 up to date in various directions by the addition of 

 sections on the more important developments in the 

 last ten years. In these attention is paid to sucli 

 questions as the production of oxygen by the recti- 

 fication of liquid air and the theoretical investigations 



