Mat 26, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



745 



in the woodland path, or a rustle in the dry 

 grass beside it, will startle a person fully as 

 much as the sight of the snake itself seen a 

 short time before. 



As very strong evidence in favor of the uni- 

 versality of the serpent dread instinct is the 

 solution it affords to the familiar serpent na- 

 ture-myth in Genesis. Scholars are pretty 

 well agreed that the true interpretation of 

 primitive legends lies in the attempts of 

 primitive peoples by them to explain the origin 

 of fundamental institutions, universal customs, 

 innate impulses. 



As Gunkle in his " Legends of Genesis " 

 observes : 



They> [the legends] are attempts to answer sueh 

 questions as, Whence came the heavens and the 

 earth? Whence the language of man? Why the 

 love of the sexes? Why does the serpent go on 

 his belly, and why does the "seed of woman" 

 continue so relentlessly to "bruise its head"? 



Such a legend speaks eloquently of the imi- 

 versality in the human family of the fear and 

 hatred of snakes, and of the instinctive char- 

 acter of these emotions. 



Arthur M. Miller 



Lexington, Ky. 



To THE Editor op Science : The disputants 

 regarding our instinctive fear of snakes may 

 " all be right and all be wrong." It is not 

 necessary that the whole human race should 

 have the same instinct. The feeling of repul- 

 sion for snakes and worms, and that for many- 

 legged things such as spiders and centipedes, 

 are rarely felt by the same person. I have the 

 latter to an uncontrollable degree, and I do 

 not believe that I learned it from any one. I 

 can not remember that either of my parents 

 felt about spiders as I do. I do not feel about 

 snakes and worms in the same way at all. It 

 is therefore possible that one person may have 

 a congenital repulsion for snakes and that 

 another may have been free from such a repul- 

 sion from childhood. 



As for establishing a connection between 

 such facts and " the cradle of the human race," 

 I leave that to the mythical philologist who 

 derived Middletown from Moses " by dropping 

 the ' OSes ' and adding ' iddletown.' " 



Arthur E. Bostwick 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Laboratory Manual for the Detection of Poi- 

 sons and Powerful Drugs. By Wilhelm 

 Autenrieth. Translated by William H. 

 Warren. Second American edition from 

 the Fourth German edition. 8°. P. Blakis- 

 ton's Son and Co., Philadelphia, 1915. Pp. 

 XV + 320; Pigs. 25. $2.00. 

 The fourth German edition of this well- 

 known laboratory text-book has been suffi- 

 ciently revised, enlarged and extended in scope 

 to warrant the term " manual " as it appears 

 upon the title page. Former editions were so 

 incomplete in every subject covered as to lead 

 the reader to wonder whether the title was not 

 a misleading one. 



In this last edition the author has presented 

 his subject in the same order, chapter by chap- 

 ter, as in former editions. The book being 

 strictly a laboratory guide, the chapters deal- 

 ing with the various noxious substances dis- 

 cussed, have naturally been arranged with 

 reference to the sequence of steps taken by the 

 chemist in his search for the presence of a 

 poison. 



Chapter I. treats of poisons which may be 

 volatilized in a current of steam and thus 

 separated from organic material. Chapter II. 

 discusses the Stas-Otto method for the extrac- 

 tion of vegetable poisons and powerful drugs 

 and describes the special reactions by which 

 these substances may be identified. Chapter 

 III. treats of the inorganic (metallic) poisons. 

 Chapter IV. discusses corrosives, several poi- 

 sonous anhydrides of organic acids; a number 

 of powerful synthetic drugs; toxalbumins and 

 matters of importance to physician and 

 analyst. Under Chapter V. are grouped a 

 selection of special methods for the qualita- 

 tive detection and quantitative determination 

 of arsenic, phosphorus, a number of important 

 alkaloids, and salicylic acid. In this chapter 

 is also given a brief outline of Mauch's very 

 ingenious chloral hydrate method for the sepa- 

 ration and identification of the active prin- 

 ciples of plants. Chapter VI. is devoted to 

 crude drug assay and evaluation according to 

 the official methods of the German pharma- 

 copoeia. Chapter VII. discusses the forensic 

 chemistry of blood and blood stains. 



