488 



NATURE 



[September 17, 1908 



This form of ornamentation is believed to be peculiar to 

 Eskimo work, and does not occur in those parts of America 

 or Asia which are beyond the sphere of Eskimo influence. 

 The controversy, as now stated, turns mainly upon the 

 diminutive knobs found in the Eskimo needle-case group, 

 which appear to serve no practical end, and are, it is 

 believed, purely conventional. This type of conventional 

 ornament, according to the view of Dr. Boaz, is found to 

 develop gradually into an animal design, such as that of 

 a crouching beast, the knobs in the assumed later forms 

 becoming heads, such as those of a seal, or even a 

 partially or fully draped human figure, curiously reminis- 

 cent of the growth of the aniconic Greek pillar into an 

 anthropomorphic image. 



Dr. Boaz argues that it is impossible to believe that in 

 this group the animal form was primitive ; in other words, 

 he attempts to prove that the seal-headed and similar more 

 advanced designs could not have been developed by a 

 degradation of a type which was originally more highly 

 specialised. The process, it is contended, was the reverse 

 of this, and the crude knob preceded the animalistic and 

 later developments. " If we were to apply," he urges, 

 " to the present series the theory of the origin of the con- 

 ventional form from realistic motives, it would be exceed- 

 ingly difficult to account for the general uniformity of 

 fundamental type. It seems to me that on the basis of 

 this theory we could not account for the diversity of 

 realistic forms and the uniformity of the general type. 



Characteristic forms of neetlle-cases, to show the evolution of type. 



Keither does it seem possible to account for the series of 

 types by the; assumption of any influence of technic ; and 

 my impression is that the only satisfactory explanation lies 

 in the assumption that the multifarious forms are due to 

 the play of imagination with a fixed old conventional form, 

 the origin of which remains entirely obscure. This I freely 

 acknowledge. If, however, we are to form an acceptable 

 theory of the origin of decorative designs, it seems a safer 

 method to form our judgment based on examples the 

 history of which can be traced with a fair degree of 

 certainty, rather than on speculations in regard to the 

 origin of remote forms for the development of which no 

 ■data are available." Hence he explains decorative forms 

 as " the results of the play of imagination under the 

 restricting influence of a fixed conventional style." This 

 influence of imagination is illustrated in the case of neck- 

 laces and leggings made by the American Indians, in 

 which the tendency to use rhythmic repetitions of varying 

 forms is specially apparent. Dr. Boaz sums up the dis- 

 cussion by remarking that " the development of decorative 

 designs cannot be simply interpreted by the assumption of 

 a general tendency towards conventionalism, or by the 

 theory of an evolution of technical motives into realistic 

 motives by a process of reading in ; but that a consider- 

 able number of other psvchic processes must be taken into 

 consideration if we desire to obtain a clear insight into the 

 history of art." 



It is impossible to discuss in detail the views of Dr. 

 Boaz in this important contribution. The weak points in 



NO. 2029, VOL. 78] 



the argument seem to be : — first, that the ultimate origin 

 ot the flanges and knobs in this group of objects remams 

 unexplained ; secondly, that it seems rash to assume that 

 the historical development of the Eskimo form of design 

 can be definitely established ; thirdly, it may be urged that 

 the objects themselves are of too special a type and found 

 in a too limited area to supply a safe basis for such a 

 wide induction as that which is here applied to the evolu- 

 tion of primitive art in general. It seems clearly necessary 

 that a tullrr comparison of this group with the types pro- 

 duced by other neighbouring tribes should be a preliminary 

 to any further discussion of their origin and meaning. 



It seems not impossible that this Eskimo form of decora- 

 tion may be due to special influences of environment, 

 technique, and general culture with which we are as yet 

 imperfectly acquainted. This paper, however, with its 

 abundant illustrations and ingenious interpretations of the 

 evolution of decorative forms, must be taken into account 

 by all future writers on the subject. In any case, it illus- 

 trates the danger, in the present imperfect state of our 

 knowledge on this and other subjects connected with the 

 thought and culture of so-called " primitive " man, of the - 

 dogmatic assumption that any one theory will account for • 

 the workings of the artistic faculty when exposed to the 

 varying influences of imagination, culture, and environ- 

 ment. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 

 SECTION D. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Opening Address by Sidney F. Harmer, Sc.D., F.R.S., 



President of the Section. 



The British Association meets this year for the fourth 

 time in Dublin. The last occasion was just thirty years 

 ago, when Sir William Flower presided over Section D, 

 while Prof. Huxley was Chairman of the Department of 

 Anthropology, at that time not raised to the dignity of a 

 separate Section, and Sir Wyville Thomson was President 

 of Section E. The last Dublin meeting was fortunate in 

 having among its officers men who have left an enduring 

 mark on Zoological science. 



I can hardly come to the more immediate subject of my 

 Address without referring to the death, on March 9 last, 

 of Henry Clifton Sorby, who had been a member of the 

 ."Association for nearly fifty years. Dr. Sorby was Presi- 

 dent of Section C in 1880 ; but although he does not appear 

 to have presided over Section D, many of his sympathies 

 were with Zoology. He belonged to a type which is be- 

 coming almost extinct with the increasing specialisation 

 of science, having done pioneer work in more than one 

 branch. His interest in Chemistry was no doubt re- 

 sponsible for his having taken up the subject of the pig- 

 mentation of animals, by his researches on which he is 

 probably best known to Zoologists. During recent years 

 he had devoted particular attention to the study of the 

 marine fauna of East Anglia. 



According to the popular estimate, Zoology is regarded 

 as the branch of science that has perhaps the least refer- 

 ence to the details of practical life. The importance of 

 the applications of Chemistry, Physics, Geology, Botany, 

 and Physiology to questions which involve the welfare of 

 the human race is obvious and universally admitted. But 

 pure Zoology is often supposed to be a study of merely 

 academic interest, and its relation to the practical concerns 

 of mankind is not always apparent. It is no doubt true 

 that many of the investigations undertaken by Zoologists 

 are of a highly special nature ; and yet when the sum 

 total of the results achieved by workers in this science is 

 estimated it will be found that the contributions of Zoology 

 to the common stock of human knowledge are by no means 

 of restricted application. 



There is no conception which has more profoundly in- 

 fluenced thought in all branches of knowledge than the 

 idea of organic evolution, in the development of which 

 Zoology has shared the honours with its sister-subject, 

 Botany. The present summer has seen a memorable event 

 in the celebration by the Linnean Society, on July i, of 

 the fiftieth anniversary of the communication to that 



