362 
NATURE 
| March 9, 1871 

Sound, 20; Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism, 30; In- 
organic and Organic Chemistry, 15 each; Mineralogy 
and Crystallography, 10 each. It need only be added 
that lectures on all these subjects are delivered every 
terrn by the respective Professors. 
The subjects of examination for the Moderatorship in 
Natural Science are the following, each of which has 
equal weight :—(1) Physiological and Comparative An- 
atomy ; (2) Zoology and Botany ; (3) Geology (including 
Physical Geography and Palontology). 
It may be objected that the distinction between Zoology 
and Comparative Anatomy will not hold good, and the 
books ordered to be read under both sections seem to 
demonstrate this. But there can be little doubt that the 
establishment of this Moderatorship is a step in the right 
direction, and the course is such that every medical student 
ought to take it up and do his utmost to attain a place 
among the golds. 
It is of course not to be denied that there are no 
scholarships, no studentships nor fellowships to be 
attained by a knowledge of these sciences, but per- 
haps even these may in time come. It is not so very long 
ago when a student could aspire to but few distinctions 
if he were not a first-rate mathematician; now this is 
completely altered, and as the world rolls on changes 
come with it. 
The chemical and physical laboratories of the College 
leave nothing to be desired. The distinguished Medical 
Registrar takes care that there shall be every facility 
given to students to work out the Comparative Anatomy 
of the Vertebrates, and places at the disposal of the 
College the animals that from time to time die in the 
Zoological Gardens. The Professor of Zoology demon~ 
strates the Anatomy of the Invertebrates to his class 
during two out of the three terms. The Botanical 
Gardens and the Herbarium are as extensive as any 
University can require, and there are two courses, one 
of forty and another of twenty lectures, delivered each 
year in Botany, besides garden demonstrations. 
In conclusion we venture to suggest that if the M.D. 
degree should only be taken by the reading and publish- 
ing of a Thesis, as in some of the German Universities, 
it would help materially to assist the cause of the Sciences 
in Trinity College, Dublin; for, theugh some of the 
candidates might select practical subjects, others, doubt- 
less, would turn their attention to the wide fields of 
Zoology and Botany. W. 


SIR FOHN LUBBOCK ON THE ORIGIN OF 
CIVILISATION 
The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition 
of Man: Mental and Social Condition of Savages. 
By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., &c. (Long- 
mans, 1870.) 
OW that Sir John Lubbock’s work on the “ Origin 
of Civilisation” has reached a second edition, it is 
perhaps only natural that those who make it their business 
to warn the public against the encroachments of Science 
should raise an alarm against the first. In a recent 
number of the Christian Advocate and Review appears, 
accordingly, an article specially devoted to the demolition 
of Sir John’s theories, and the vindication of human 
degeneracy. With the felicitous instinct of clerical anta- 


gonism, the Advocate and Reviewer makes his fiercest on- 
slaught precisely where his opponent happens to be least 
vulnerable, and lays about him with all the fine, fervidimbe- 
cility distinctive of his particular clique. Such an attack, 
however, were ignorance its only characteristic, would hardly 
call for remark. We notice it, not for its absurdity, but 
because, in combining with its absurdity a certain unctuous 
disingenuousness, it is really a typical example of a kind 
of criticism unhappily influential, if obscure, and widely 
accepted, if not popular. It would perhaps be too much 
to expect that reviewers of this class should read through 
the books they review, but at least they have no right to 
misquote what they do read. On p. 256 (first edition), Sir 
John Lubbock, speaking of errors into which, in the 
absence of education, not even Christianity prevented 
mankind from falling, writes thus: “ We know that a 
belief in witchcraft was all but universal until recently 
even in our own country. This dark superstition has 
indeed flourished for centuries in Christian countries, and 
has only been expelled at length by the light of science.” 
He then proceeds to observe: “The immense service 
which science has ¢ius rendered to the cause of religion 
and humanity, has not hitherto received the recognition 
which it deserved.” His reviewer, omitting any reference 
to witchcraft, quotes Sir John as asserting that “the 
immense service which Science has rendered to the cause 
of religion and humanity, has not hitherto received the 
recognition it deserves ””—a proposition which may or may 
not be accurate, but is certainly not the one laid down by 
Sir John Lubbock. But he is not content with merely 
misrepresenting the book under review. Sir John Lub- 
bock, he correctly remarks, at Liverpool, “ frankly avowed 
‘there was no opposition between science and religion,’ 
an admission,” he adds, “of no slight importance by so 
great an authority in the scientific world, as zt is such a 
guiet rebuff to the boast of Bishop Colenso, that the 
differences between these two are such as to render it 
hopeless to attempt their reconciliation.” If, however, we 
are bewildered at the brisk audacity which could venture 
on such a statement without even a hint at its wholly 
fabulous character, what are we to say to a critic who 
gravely asserts that “the Drift age had not been invented 
at the time” when Sir Charles Lyell wrote his “ Geo- 
logical Evidence of the Antiquity of Man”? and who 
assigns to the “ prehistoric period in Sweden a minimum 
antiquity of 20,000, or it may be of 20,000,000 years.” 
But enough of the Christian Advocate. Turn we now 
to other and nobler opponents. The conclusions main- 
tained by Sir J. Lubbock in this work are, in his own 
words— 
“That existing savages are not the descendants of 
civilised ancestors. 
“That the primitive condition of man was one of utter 
barbarism, 
“ That from this condition, several races have indepen- 
dently raised themselves.” 
On the other hand, we have the opinion of the late 
Archbishop Whately, that “We have no reason to sup- 
pose that any community ever did. or ever can emerge, 
unassisted by external helps, from a state of utter bar- 
barism into anything that can be called civilisation ;” and 
that of the Duke of Argyll, who holds that the primitive 
sondition of man was one of civilisation ; that “ there is 
