Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/144

122 In Mr. Marett's small book we find an immense mass of well-arranged fact and theory treated in a clear and witty style, which admirably fits it for popular reading. On the question of racial origin he is well justified in maintaining a position of scepticism. He craves a final test of race distinctions, which is as yet not forthcoming. He admits a certain degree of plasticity in head form, and he accepts the view of Professor Boas that the skull may be to some extent modified under the influence of environment. The book, as a whole, is admirably suited for general reading and teaching purposes, and will prove of the greatest value to field-workers throughout the Empire.

Mr. Duckworth is less advanced in dealing with the present position of the anthropometrical problem. His book will be useful for its clear and well-illustrated survey of the various types of prehistoric skulls. In this connection it may be noted that in his recent first Hunterian lecture on the remarkable skeleton recently unearthed near Ipswich, Professor Arthur Keith expresses the opinion that in studying ancient man perhaps too much attention has been devoted to the skull, and he is inclined to fall back on the tibia, which is so closely associated with man's power of locomotion, as a test of the stages in his physical evolution.

It is a good omen for the future of anthropology that a large public is ready to interest itself in such a survey as that of Professor Sollas and in two such excellent manuals as those of Mr. Marett and Mr. Duckworth.

This enlarged English edition of a Danish publication utilizes the contributions of Sir John Evans, Montelius, Cogels, Cartailhac, and Andree, Dr. Feilberg's unpublished collections, and much first-hand material from Scandinavia and India. Help has been given by the Danish Folklore Collection (p. 113 supra), and a