5 o8 



NA TURE 



[October 14, 1922 



states explicitly of what these contents consist. This 

 issue is, of course, in anticipation of the annual 

 volume, which gives a complete record of the Associa- 

 tion's proceedings at the particular meeting, but 

 which cannot, in the nature of things, make its 

 appearance until some time after its conclusion. 



This practice of the Association, which is of com- 

 paratively recent origin, is altogether to be commended, 

 and as a business proposition is to the credit of the 

 management. Experience has shown that it meets a 

 public demand. Members who attend a meeting are 

 ready to purchase, at the comparatively low price of 

 issue, a collected edition of the addresses, as are those 

 who are unable to be present. The fact is significant 

 of the increasing appreciation in which these addresses 

 are held by the public. In the early days of the 

 Association it was not considered obligatory on the 

 part of a president of a section to prepare a special 

 address by way of opening its proceedings, and he 

 occasionally contented himself with a few general 

 remarks before calling upon a member charged with 

 the preparation of a report on the progress of the par- 

 ticular department of science with which the section 

 concerned itself, either to read the report or to give an 

 abstract of its contents. Failing the report he would 

 call upon a member to present the first communication 

 on the list, and in some such manner the business of the 

 section would be begun. Gradually the present 

 custom has been evolved, and the presidential addresses 

 have become a valuable and most important feature 

 of the work of the section — some people, indeed, 

 would say the most valuable and important. 



The presidents of sections nowadays are invariably 

 representative men or women — recognised authorities 

 on the special subjects with which the section deals. 

 They are usually active workers in the development of 

 knowledge on these subjects — persons with experience 

 of research and of matured judgment, with a message 

 (if aih ire, counsel, or warning to communicate, or they 

 may even promulgate a wholly new departure in 

 scientific thought. Hence the eagerness and expect- 

 ancy with which these utterances are awaited, not only 

 by tin professional members of the section but also by 

 such portion of the general public as shows its interest 

 in the progress of science either by attending the 

 meetings of the Association, or following its proceedings 

 in the press. The appreciation in which these 

 sectional addresses are now held is further shown by 

 the measures which the executive have been required 

 to take in deference to public demand. Formerly the 

 addresses were all given on the same day, and as a rule 

 at the same hour, and they initiated the work of their 

 respective sections. Nowadays special arrangements 

 are made, so that members may have an opportunity 

 NO. 2763, VOL. I IO] 



of hearing as many as possible during the week over 

 which the meeting extends. Their publication in 

 collected form during the week of the meeting will be of 

 service to those who for various reasons are unable to 

 take advantage of such opportunity, and will be wel- 

 comed by others who may wish to study them in 

 detail and at leisure. There are, of course, some, and 

 they are particularly common among those of the 

 student habit, upon whom the printed word makes a 

 more effective impression than that spoken. 



It is unnecessary on the present occasion to say 

 anything at length concerning the contents of the 

 volume before us. Any detailed examination or 

 criticism is the more uncalled for, as most of the 

 addresses themselves, slightly abridged in some cases, 

 have been, or are being, reproduced in these columns. 

 It is sufficient to say that the 1922 book worthily 

 sustains the reputation which British Association 

 addresses now enjoy, as well-written, scholarly pro- 

 ductions, pregnant with thought, replete with fact 

 and suggestion, stimulating and full of interest and 

 inspiration to the contemplative kind. In an age 

 which is pre-eminently scientific these books deserve 

 the widest possible circulation, and in the interests of 

 knowledge it is to be hoped that they will attain it. 



Our Bookshelf. 



Der fossilc Mensch: Grundziige einer Palaanthropologie. 



Von Prof. Dr. E. Werth. Erster Teil. Pp. iv + 336. 



(Berlin : Gebriider Borntraeger, 1921.) 205. 

 English students who wish to know what their German 

 colleagues think of recent discoveries of fossil man will 

 be somewhat disappointed when they consult this work. 

 Its author, Prof. Werth, who has published several 

 books on the Ice-age and allied geological subjects, has 

 either never heard of the fossil remains discovered at 

 Piltdown and fully described by Dr. Smith Woodward, 

 or refuses to believe in their authenticity ; at least no 

 mention is made of them. Xor is any allusion made 

 to the remains found at Boskop, South Africa, tin fossil 

 skull found at Talgai, Queensland, nor those found by 

 Prof. Eugene Dubois at Wadjak-Java. On the other 

 hand, full and welcome accounts are given of two im- 

 portant finds made in Germany during war-time. One 

 of these was made at Ehringsdorf, near Weimar, where 

 two fossil lower jaws were found. These are attributed 

 -and rightly so — to Neanderthal man, whose distribu- 

 tion is thus carried beyond the watershed of the Rhine. 

 The other discovery, which was made at Obercassel, 

 near Bonn, has revealed the remains of a man and of a 

 woman belonging to the last phase of the Ice-age, and 

 regarded by their discoverers as members of the so- 

 called Cromagnon race. The skull of the man serves 

 very well as the prototype of many a specimen found in 

 neolithic graves in Scandinavia and Britain, but has 

 such outstanding cheek-bones, zygomatic arches and 

 angles of the jaw (or jowls) as have never been seen in 



