NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS 



*33 



THE LAWS OF LIVING THINGS. 



By Edward J. Menge. 



The Bruce Publishing Co. 

 $1.72. 5i x 7t;53° Milwaukee 



A high-school textbook of biology, 

 which starts off with the perch as the 

 standard type form, on which the dis- 

 cussion of other living things is hung. 

 The book is extremely comprehensive 

 though elementary. 



HUMAN BIOLOGY 



THE MOTHERS. A Study of the Origins 

 of Sentiments and Institutions. 

 By Robert Briffault. The Macmillan Co. 



$Z7 . 00 New York 



► 6 x 9I; Vol. I, xix + 781 



II, xx +789 

 III, xv + 841 

 This is a monumental and brilliant con- 

 tribution to prehistory. The method, is to 

 re-examine the data available regarding 

 the ethnography of primitive races of 

 mankind, and from it synthetically to 

 reconstruct the probable course of human 

 social evolution from its earliest stages. 

 The material which Mr. Briffault uses is 

 old, and available to everyone. But what 

 a thorough and critical combing-over he 

 has given it! His contribution, apart 

 from the colossal industry which the work 

 has involved, is a fresh point of view. 

 It is that: "The social characters of the 

 human mind are, one and all, traceable to 

 the operation of instincts that are related 

 to the functions of the female and not to 

 those of the male. That the mind of 

 women should have exercised so funda- 

 mental an influence upon human develop- 

 ment in the conditions of historical patri- 

 archal societies is inconceivable. I was 

 thus led to reconsider the early develop- 

 ment of human society, of its fundamental 



institutions and traditions, in the light of 

 the matriarchal theory of social evo- 

 lution." 



The author is thoroughly convinced of 

 the overwhelming importance of sex in 

 social life. And in prehistoric stages of 

 culture he makes a very strong case that 

 the interests and viewpoints of women 

 played a much more important role than 

 in any society now existing. The final 

 conclusion reached is that: "The tradi- 

 tional inheritance of the human mind, if 

 these considerations are well founded, has 

 been moulded in the first instance not by 

 the fierce passions of wild hunters battling 

 for the possession of food and of women, 

 but by the instincts of the mothers." 



Every serious student of human biology 

 should have this work on his shelves. 

 Besides the intrinsic value of its contribu- 

 tion it is a reference work of first impor- 

 tance. 



ARABIAN SOCIETY AT THE TIME OF 

 MUHAMMAD . Parts I and II. 

 By Pringle Kennedy. T hacker, Spink and Co. 

 Rs. 7/8 5 1 x 8£; vi + Z53 Calcutta 

 This is an extremely interesting con- 

 tribution to human biology. The point 

 of view from which the analysis of the 

 early history of Muhammadanism is un- 

 dertaken is indicated by the following 

 quotation : 



"Whatever the opinion one may have of this 

 extraordinary man, whether it be that of the devout 

 Muhammadan, who considers him the last and 

 greatest herald of God's word, or of the fanatical 

 Christian of former days, who considers him an 

 emissary of the Evil one, or of certain modern Orient- 

 alists, who look on him rather as a politician than 

 a saint, as an organizer of Asia in general, and Arabia 

 in particular, against Europe, rather than as a relig- 

 ious reformer; there can be no difference as to the 

 immensity of the effect which his life has had on 

 the history of the world. To those of us, to whom 

 the man is everything, the milieu but little, he is the 



