250 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1077 



World was the first home of man. There he 

 invented his first tools and became acquainted 

 with the use of fire. How were the first grass 

 and forest fires produced; by a flash of light- 

 ning or a lava flow? Perhaps! but this can 

 not have been a common origin, for the light- 

 ning is usually followed by heavy rain. Early 

 man would flee from volcanic eruptions and 

 run to some secluded spot during a thunder- 

 storm. Neither occasion would be suitable for 

 first experiments in the use and control of 

 fire. Theobald states that forests in southern 

 India are often set on fire through friction pro- 

 duced by one bamboo branch rubbing against 

 another. It is likewise known that the Negri- 

 toes of Zambales still .make fire by rubbing one 

 bamboo across a nick in another. This was 

 probably the first method employed by early 

 man in the production of fire. The discovery 

 of how to make fire came early and like the ad- 

 vent of the tool-using habit in general had a 

 profound influence on the subsequent fortunes 

 of mankind. How long ago these momentous 

 steps were taken is not definitely known. The 

 author thinks it might have been as far back 

 as Pliocene times. 



The rather short chapter on the glacial 

 epochs is supplemented by a chronological 

 table, from which it is seen that Elliot differs 

 widely from SoUas. He accepts the Penck 

 system of four glacial epochs with alternating 

 warm episodes and would place the first known 

 Europeans, Eoanthropus dawsoni and Homo 

 heidelhergensis, in the first of these inter- 

 glacial epochs, viz., the Giinz-Mindel (Penck 

 and also Obermaier would place them in the 

 second). The Chellean, the first cultural 

 epoch, eoliths excepted, is for the author 

 synchronous with the second or Mindel-Riss 

 interglacial epoch. In this he agrees with 

 Penck and Geikie; but differs from Obermaier 

 and Sollas who believe that the Chellean be- 

 longs to the third interglacial epoch (Riss- 

 Wiirm). The differences of opinion appear 

 still more pronounced when the attempt is 

 made to express length of time in terms of 

 years. For Sollas the Chellean epoch closed 

 only about 27,000 years ago. This same lapse 



of time the author would estimate at more 

 than 150,000 years. 



In discussing the races subsequent to that of 

 iSTeandertal, the author's statements are liable 

 to confuse the reader. On page 121 he states 

 that the " Aurignacians seem to have lived on 

 in Europe through the Wiirm Ice Age, becom- 

 ing in course of time the Magdalenians (or 

 race of Cromagnon)." On page 163 he like- 

 wise speaks of the Cromagnon people as 

 Magdalenian (" Madeleinian"). But on the 

 following page one reads : " Yet the Aurigna- 

 cians, or men of Cromagnon, were a primitive 

 people," etc. Again on page 17Y the race of 

 Cromagnon is called Aurignacian. 



In that part of the book devoted to paleo- 

 lithic man, the use of such titles for chapter 

 headings as " The First Herdsmen " and " The 

 First Harvest " might lead the unwary to sup- 

 pose that the domestication of animals and 

 plants was a paleolithic achievement. The 

 author does not think there is a " single paleo- 

 lithic engraving of any of the cat tribe." Such 

 engravings are rare but they are not un- 

 known. On page 297 one is led to infer that 

 the 840 basketry patterns of the Pomo Indians 

 of California are prehistoric. 



Letters, numbers, weights, etc., come in for 

 interesting treatment, the conclusion being 

 that not only the cup-and-ring marks but also 

 a whole series of letters, number-signs, and 

 others were handed on from the paleolithic to 

 their neolithic successors; and that perhaps it 

 is to the paleolithic period that we have to 

 look for the origin of reading, writing and 

 arithmetic. 



Of the twenty-four plates, ten are from 

 Rutot's reconstructions of early races; and 

 twenty-two of the thirty-eight text-figures are 

 from Childhood of Man by Frobenius. Useful 

 references and footnotes are assembled at the 

 end of each chapter. The author has read 

 widely and traveled extensively. The trans- 

 mission of his experiences is aided by a lumi- 

 nous imagination. If he has a fault it lies in 

 a too-ready apparent acceptance of data, the 

 value of which is still in the realm of the 

 uncertain. George Grant MaoCurdt 



Yale University 



