igS 



NATURE 



\ytily II, 1872 



have a definite practical bearing on the welfare of the 

 country. If, as wc believe to be the case, the reason of 

 this is that such researches can rarely pay the investi- 

 gator directly, is not the reasoning sound which would ad- 

 vocate the devotion of public money to purposes which 

 must inevitably yield such large returns to the community 

 at large ? 



ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF MAN 



Man in the Past, Present, and Futicre : a Popular 

 Account of the Results of Recent Scientific Research 

 as regards the Origin, Position, and Prospects of the 

 Human Race. From the German of Dr. L. BUchner. 

 By W. S. Dallas, F.L.S. (London : Asher and Co.) 



The Martyrdom of Man. By Winwood Reade. (London : 

 Triibner and Co.) 



' I ■'HE Science of Man has become matter of public 

 -*- interest. Fluent writers now popularise anthro- 

 pological evidence, and even'use it as a lever to force public 

 opinion in some desired direction. The two clever books 

 before us are in this way remarkable as signs of the times. 

 They treat largely of Anthropology, but not so much for 

 itself as in order to promote materialistic views of phi- 

 losophy, and advanced schemes of social re-organisation. 

 In briefly noticing Dr. Buchner's " Man," we shall not 

 discuss his general doctrines on their merits. The de- 

 velopment theory, if not by acceptance, at least by inllu- 

 ence, has so far become part and parcel of modern 

 thought, that it need not be re-investigated apropos of each 

 new popular book which advocates it, thereby gaining a 

 share of its prestige. The question for the critic, in judg- 

 ing the work of the self-appointed public instructor, is 

 whether he deals fairly with his public, carefully weighing 

 and testing for them the data which they cannot weigh 

 and test for themselves. We regret to say of a writer so 

 influential in Germany and England as Dr. Biichner, that 

 on the present occasion at least he has not m.ade out his 

 claim to be a public expositor of a very serious subject. 

 In fact, the seriousness of the subject, as demanding ex- 

 tensive study and careful judgment, is just what he fails 

 to appreciate. 



Dr. Biichner has the gift of easy exposition. Whether 

 he is descanting on the drift implements and the anti- 

 quity of man, or tracing the analogies to successive orders 

 of animals in the successive phases of the human embryo, 

 or giving an account of the approaches made by other 

 animals to the human mind and character, or commenting 

 on theological dogma as opposed to scientific investiga- 

 tion, or pointing out how conscience can adapt itself to 

 contradictory moral standards, or suggesting a re-adjust- 

 ment of the laws of marriage in the interests of progressive 

 society, his opinions run on with the same shapely smooth- 

 ness, whether they happen to be solid or hollow. His 

 generalities are put with praiseworthy neatness ; his well- 

 selected examples clinch them hard, and just in the right 

 place. He is a capital expounder, when his facts and in- 

 ferences happen to be sound. Unfortunately, however, 

 his strength of rhetoric is not matched by strength of 

 criticism, as we shall briefly show, choosing the depart- 

 ment of anthropology as the trial-ground. In order to make 



the text of his work readable by the general public, Dr. 

 Biichner has collected the copious materials which might 

 alarm or tire the majority of readers in an Appendix, to 

 which we are to look for actual details or more exact proof 

 of what is enunciated in the body of the work. Looking 

 into this Appendix accordingly, we extract some signifi- 

 cant examples. 



For a test in Prehistoric Archeology, a passage may be 

 taken (p. 251), which shows our author not to be aware of 

 the distinction in rude stone structures between the dolmen 

 formed of several slabs and the single upright standing 

 stone or menhir. His words are, "Still older than the 

 so-called ' giants' graves' are the Dolmens or stone tables 

 (also called Cromlechs or Menhirs), very ancient stone 

 edifices, which have been found especially well-represented 

 in Brittany. They consist of upright stones covered with 

 slabs laid transversely upon them,"iS;c. At p. 335 we find Dr. 

 Biichner, on the question of low stages of human language, 

 supporting his views by taking seriously such worthless 

 remarks as the following: "The speech of the Fans of 

 West Africa is, Du Chaillu says, a collection of guttural 

 tones which no one can understand." We beg leave to 

 refer Dr. Biichner to Captain Burton's observations in his 

 " Wit and Wisdom from West Africa," on the grammar 

 and vocabulary of the Fan language, which is in fact but 

 slightly different from allied languages of the coast. In 

 studying the relation between the lower animals and man, 

 of course the problem of sav.age religion is important, and 

 we looked curiously at Dr. Biichner's evidence. It begins 

 with the following citation (p. 328) : " Three large sections 

 of the earth's surface, says G. Pouchet, which are still in- 

 habited by savages, appear to have remained till now 

 e.xemptfrom religiousnotions ; theyaretheinteriorof Africa, 

 Australia, and the Polar regions.'' And this in the face 

 of twenty published accounts of the religious beliefs of the 

 Australian and Esquimaux races ! There are, it is true, 

 ambiguities in the use of such terms as religion, behind 

 which inaccurate statements may find a refuge. But as 

 to such a subject as the arts of producing fire and cooking 

 food, there can be no ambiguity. We take as they stand 

 (p- 332) a series of statements on which Dr. Biichner 

 relies. " There are still peoples, such as the Dokos, the 

 Andamans, &c., who know not the use of fire, and devour 

 all their food raw. Moreover, that the use of fire cannot 

 be an attribute of humanity as such, is shown by the cir- 

 cumstance that so many peoples have been fire-worship- 

 pers, and in part are so still, that, therefore, they con- 

 sidered fire something extra and supernatural. In like 

 manner, when Magellan set fire to the huts of the Marian 

 Islanders, to whom fire was unknown, they looked upon 

 it as a kind of living monster which devoured wood. Also 

 in the Ladrone Islands the Spaniards found the natives 

 unacquainted with the use of fire." We will take these 

 sentences seriatim. As to the first, mention may be made 

 of Dr. Mouat's account of the Andaman Islanders' prac- 

 tice of keeping fire constantly burning in hollow trees, 

 covering it up with ashes, and cooking native pigs and 

 fish in these natural ovens. .Vs to the second, the inquiry 

 suggests itself whether the fact of numerous tribes being 

 water- worshippers proves the use of water not to be an 

 attribute of humanity as such ? As to the third and fourth 

 sentences, it has to be pointed out that the contemporary 

 account of Magellan's voyage knows nothing of the 



