Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/582

 480 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 B. ix. DEC. 10, 1921. stance, a good discussion and more copious illustration of the batons de commandement, their measurements (of which we do not remember to have found any note in the book) and varieties of design would, on the whole, have been better worth while than the lengthy discussion of eoliths, and the great number of illustrations of these and of the earliest stone implements. The descriptions of the* remains of Palaeolithic man are very careful and thorough, and the account of his psychology is closely reasoned out. It is to be deplored that attempts should be made to go further than this and to reconstruct his out- ward form and feature. We were glad to notice Dr. Macalister's denunciation of such attempts and also of their uselessness for arriving at the truth. Among the books for children published this year we have seen one which gives a drawing purporting to be a restoration of the Piltdown man a proceeding which, on many grounds, can- not be too vigorously deprecated. It would be more to the purpose to emphasize the fact that in the ornaments and other objects found in Palaeo- lithic interments we have the first tangible evidence of human affection. Though designed primarily for the student, and therefore a substantial treatise, this work should attract the general reader also. It is the easiest and most readable summary of the present state of knowledge of the Palaeolithic period that we know of. Further, it not only insists as it needs must on the supremacy of the French in archae- ology, but also furnishes excellent guidance to the French authorities on the subject and their work. The War List of the University of Cambridge, 1914-1918. Edited by G. V. Carey. (Cam- bridge University Press. 1 net.) No official record, Mr. Carey informs us in his Introduction, was kept during the war by Cam- bridge University of the service of Cambridge men with the forces. College records of this were drawn upon and published from time to time in The Cambridge Review, the last list appearing in April, 1917. Mr. J. Austin Fabb, printer of The Cambridge Revietv, was, however, happily inspired to keep the record going till December, 1919, and it was with this as his foundation that Mr. Carey entered upon the arduous task of filling out with particulars lists in which, so far, it had only been possible to note casualties and dis- tinctions. The task, so far as we can judge, has been most satisfactorily carried out. A Cambridge man, for the purposes of the list, is one who was such at the time of his service, residence prior to war service being made the dividing line, with the exception only of men who had been admitted for Michaelmas, 1914, and prevented by their joining the Forces from coming into residence. Service with the Navy, Army and Air Force is reckoned as the service qualification, and for the purpose of this book the war is held to have ended on November 11, 1918. From the tabulated summary at the end we learn that Cambridge sent 13,878 men to serve in his Majesty's Forces, of whom 2,470 lost their lives, 2,902 were wounded, and 252 taken prisoner. Four of the prisoners escaped from captivity. Ten men have the V.C. four Trinity College men, two Pembroke men, and one man each of Downing, Gonville and Caius, Jesus and Trinity Hall. The Trinity College names reach a total of 3,130, with 574 killed, 638 wounded, and a corresponding number of decorations. Gonville and Caius and Pembroke come next with over 1,200 each, Pembroke having a dis- tinctly larger proportion of killed and wounded. To Corpus, Pembroke and King's appears to belong the melancholy honour of having given the greatest proportion of lives in the war. Each of these Colleges lost well over a fifth, Corpus nearly a fourth, of the men they sent. It would be interesting to know what proportion of the Cambridge men who joined enlisted as privates, and how many remained privates through the whole of their service. The Beginning of the Year in the Middle Ages. By Reginald L. Poole. (London : Humphrey Milford, for the British Academy. 3s. net.) WE are delighted to call the attention of students of the Middle Ages to this monograph. It is a full, clear and erudite account of a subject which gives trouble not merely to the inexperienced tyro, but also to accomplished scholars and authorities on medieval history. According to the Julian Calendar the year began on January 1, altered about the end of the third century after Christ by the Byzantine authorities to September 1. It is not surprising that, in time, Christian feeling for the festivals of the Church prompted a departure from the pagan beginning I of the year, and that Christmas, Easter and the Feast of the Annunciation were severally in different times and countries adopted. It is curious, however, that January 1 should have been retained as the first day for the purposes of the Calendar, and that, since almanacs were constructed from January 1 there should have arisen, about the middle of the thirteenth century, when almanacs were being more widely used, a tendency to revert to it. This reversion, as is well known, was definitely effected at last by the Church herself through the bull of Gregory XIII., 1581-2, a reform with which England did not fall in till seventy years later. The divergences of use throughout Europe are numerous and ex- ceedingly complicated, and to be proved only by a close examination and criticism of statements of date in ancient documents. Needless to say, Dr. Lane Poole has addressed himself to this with the utmost thoroughness in fact this monograph will doubtless eerve as the work in authority on the subject for a long time to come. JJotice* to EDITORIAL, communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' " Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers " at the Office, Printing House Square, London, B.C. 4 ; corrected proofs to The Editor, ' INI, & Q.,' Printing House Square, London, i3.C.4. ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear the name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. CORRIGENDUM. At ante, p. 436, col. 2 footno for " Son of Thomas Shatterdon's sister Elizabeth ' read Son of Colonel Henry Drax's sister, Elizabeth I Shatter don.