482 



NA TURE 



[September 14, 1905 



instruments have been injured or delayed, or are 

 ijenerally inaccessible, such methods are not to be 

 despised. It would be an admirable exercise for any- 

 one, whether he travels or not, to accustom himself 

 to the use of such tools, and learn to what degree of 

 accuracy he can rely on such devices. 



THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SOCIETY. 

 La Sociologie gendtiqiie. By Frangois Cosentini. 

 Introduction by Maxime Kovalewsky. Pp. xviii 

 + 205. (Paris: F. Mean, 1905.) Price 3.75 francs. 



IN a short compass this book gives an excellent 

 bird's-eye view of a very wide territory. It 

 begins with a discussion of the data available for the 

 study of the evolution of human society. Even animal 

 associations are not neglected, but, naturally, more 

 space is devoted to the beliefs and customs of savage 

 tribes. Our author decides wisely with regard to 

 primitive man that much is to be learnt thus. But 

 he deprecates rash inferences. The ancestors of 

 civilised man, there is reason to believe, never ceased 

 to make progress. The savages of the present day 

 have stagnated, and may, in some cases, have retro- 

 graded. Still, when the theories that suggest them- 

 selves to the investigator of savages and their ways 

 are modified and corrected by the study of the insti- 

 tutions, the beliefs, the folk-lore of civilised peoples, 

 it is probable that the risk of serious error is reduced 

 to very small proportions. 



M. Cosentini decides in favour of a polyphyletic 

 origin of the human race, arguing partlv from the 

 reduced fertility observable when two widely different 

 types interbreed. After a brief but interesting account 

 of the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages, he deals with 

 the origin of the family. Here, as elsewhere, he 

 shows sound judgment in his treatment of the various 

 rival theories. He refuses to regard the patriarchal 

 family as primitive. The more primitive the com- 

 inunity the less sign is there of patriarchal authority. 

 On the other hand, it would be foolish to maintain 

 that there was ever a time in which woman was abso- 

 lutely predominant. This view is precluded by the 

 fact that primitive man had to wage incessant war 

 against wild beasts and almost incessant war against 

 hostile tribes. But there is abundant evidence that 

 there was a time when a man was known as his 

 mother's son and not as his father's, when pedigrees 

 were traced through the female line, and when 

 women had much more power and influence than at 

 a later period when the patriarchal svstem had been 

 developed. When the tendencv changed and the 

 paterfamilias became an autocrat within his own 

 household, civilisation made great progress. 



The family has been the nucleus which has made 

 the higher civilisation possible, a point which, per- 

 haps, M. Cosentini does not sufficiently recognise. 

 Our author is, no doubt, right in holding that the 

 idea of the family grew out of the idea of private 

 property. The wife was the property of her husband. 

 In very many cases he had captured her as he had 

 captured his cattle. But with regard to monogamy, 

 M. Cosentini does not bring out the interesting fact 

 NO. 1872, VOL. 72] 



that in northern climes, where it is most firmly i-ooted, 

 it derives its strength mainly from the fact that one 

 man's labour suffices for the feeding and clothing of 

 only a small number of children. Even among 

 animals we find the same thing. Where the work of 

 both parents is required for the bringing up of the 

 young, there the system of pairing is the rule. Where 

 the young are precocious and are soon able to fend 

 for themselves, polygamy arises. 



On the remainder of the book want of space for- 

 bids us to comment at length. It deals with animism, 

 myths, language, religion, morality, law, the origin 

 of social classes, art, industry, and commerce. 

 The style is clear; and throughout the book M. 

 Cosentini proves himself a fair critic and a clear- 

 headed thinker. F. W. H. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 I Trees. By H. Marshall Ward. Vol. iii. Flowers and 



Inflorescences. Pp. xii + 402. (Cambridge : The 



University Press, 1905.) Price 4s. 6d. net. 

 The first two volumes of the above work have been 

 previously noticed in these columns. The present 

 volume, which deals with flowers, is, like the others, 

 divided into two parts. Part i. deals with the flower 

 in general. The author has been very successful in 

 his treatment of this vast subject ; he has brought 

 together and arranged his facts in such a clear and 

 simple manner that the beginner should have no diffi- 

 culty in gaining a very comprehensive knowledge 

 concerning the different kinds of inflorescences, the 

 structure and development of flowers, as well as the 

 meaning of their various forms and modifications. 

 So far as possible technical terms have been carefully 

 avoided, but at the same time it is quite impossible 

 to treat a subject like this without using one or two 

 terms which have a special meaning of their own 

 which cannot be readily put into every-day language. 

 Wherever such expressions are used their meaning is 

 always carefully explained, and at the end of the book 

 a useful glossary is given which will remove all 

 mystery concerning these terms should any such 

 exist. 



The author has naturally confined himself to a 

 critical examination of the flowers of trees and 

 shrubs, and the student will find here an epitome 

 of the natural system of classification, and when this 

 epitome has been mastered he will be in a position to 

 understand the structure and form of the flowers of 

 cultivated and wild herbaceous plants as well. 



Part ii. is more of the nature of a flora, i.e. the 

 author has given in tabular form a general conspectus 

 of woody plants and their flowers, bv which means 

 any given species may be easily diagnosed at flower- 

 ing time. 



It is a well known fact that the willows are almost, 

 if not, the most difficult family to deal with as regards 

 their identification. Apart from their tendencv to 

 hvbridise with each other, the willows are dioecious, 

 which renders their identification verv difficult when 

 only one kind of flower is available. The author has 

 very ingeniously overcome this difTicultv bv giving a 

 special table as an appendix wherein the separate 

 characters of the male and female flowers are used for 

 the purposes of diagnosis. 



This volume, like the other two, is profusely 

 illustrated. There is also a very useful and exhaustive 

 index at the end of the book. While vol. i., " Buds 

 and Twigs," is a book for the winter study of trees 

 and shrubs, we have in vol. iii. a book which is 

 specially adapted for use in summer. 



