NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS 



577 



significant phases of the population prob- 

 lem as seen from the viewpoint of their 

 special knowledge. The report therefore 

 constitutes a handbook of reference for 

 the most expert opinion on important 

 aspects of the population question. In 

 view of the increasing pressure of the 

 problem and the probable great impor- 

 tance of the International Union, it is 

 likely to become historic. 



There is an index and a ' 'Who's Who' ' of 

 the conference. 



THE ARUNTA. A Study of a Stone Age 



People. Vols. I and II. 



By Sir Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen. 



The Macmillan Co. 

 $14.50 5I x 8f ; liv + 646 New York 



In these two impressive volumes, the 

 authors, the second now deceased, con- 

 tinue their pioneer and exhaustive studies 

 of the manners and morals of the Austral- 

 ian aborigines . The present work follows 

 the investigations of the Central Aus- 

 tralian tribes known as the Arunta, 

 reported in their Native Tribes of Central 

 Australia, published in 1899. In contra- 

 distinction to other explorers of these 

 tribes, who obtained their information 

 from natives who had come under the 

 influence of civilized missionaries, the 

 present writers were fully initiated mem- 

 bers of the Arunta tribe, being considered 

 to belong to the Bultara section and the 

 Udnirringita or witchetty grub totem. 

 From this indigenous vantage point they 

 went over the ground of their previous 

 studies and rewrote and amplified their 

 first account. 



After an introductory chapter, which 

 gives a broad picture of the life of the 

 people in their native surroundings, the 

 succeeding ones take up, in great detail, 

 their individual customs. Such typical 



chapter headings as "Social Organiza- 

 tion," "The Totems," "Initiation Cere- 

 monies," "The Achulpa Tradition," 

 "Death, Burial and Mourning Cere- 

 monies," "Method of Obtaining Wives" 

 indicate the thoroughly descriptive char- 

 acter of the treatment. 



Following the main work, there are a 

 number of appendices which contain, 

 among other subjects, the names of parts 

 of the body, and a discussion of the sup- 

 posed distinction of the aborigines into 

 straight and wavy -haired individuals. 



There are many photographic illustra- 

 tions, a glossary of native terms used, and 

 an index. 



IN SEARCH OF OUR ANCESTORS. An 

 Attempt to Retrace Man's Origin and Develop- 

 ment from Later Ages Back to Their Beginnings . 

 By Mary E. Boyle. Little, Brown and Co. 



$3.50 5^x8^2.87 Boston 



The Abbe Henri Breuil, renowned 

 archaeologist of France, suggested to the 

 authoress that she reverse the usual 

 procedure and tell the history of man 

 starting at the later ages and tracing his 

 development back to its beginnings. 

 "Try to give a history of events which 

 instead of sliding down the thread of the 

 past should climb up it, going, as each 

 one of us does, from the known to the 

 less known, and at length to that region 

 attained only by scientific investigation." 

 The result was this book, and we regret to 

 report that, judging by the effect on this 

 reviewer, it is not happy. To proceed 

 from the recent and better known to the 

 remote and obscure seems an admirable 

 formula for exploring history, but for 

 recounting it the chronological order 

 has become so habitual that its reverse 

 seems awkward. When we read that the 

 four divisions of the Tertiary Age arc the 

 Pliocene, Miocene, Oligocene and Eocene 



