Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/117

 BOOK REVIEWS

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■was the cause of the decay of Oriental people, while the Nordic race acquired sufficient plasticity in what we must again describe as its prolonged puberty to counteract the innate antipathy of mankind against all new readjustments (p. 271). The author concludes his book with the hope that a progress of knowledge, especially of the knowledge of social laws, will emancipate mankind from the thralMom of blind in- stinct and custom as well as from the intellectual errors into which rationaUsm is prone to fall. We think that this knowledge is still to be acquired, and the science which will be in the position to grapple with these problems has yet to be born.

G. ROHEIM.

The Origin of Man and op his Superstitionb. By Carveth Read, M,A. (Cambridge University Press, 1920. Pp. xii-f 350.)

Students of psychology and anthropology who are already in any way acquainted with Mr. Carveth Read's work during the years in which he was lecturer in Comparative Psychology at University Coilege, London (sub- sequent to his resignation of the Grote Chair of philosophy) will wel- come this volume, which contains in a convenient form many of the principal fruits of his scientific labours during these years. It is to be hoped however that the book will also make a strong appeal to the general reading public, and that its wide diffusion may help to make amends for the relatively small number of listeners who found their way to Mr. Read's somewhat remote and inaccessible lecture room, there to be rewarded by lectures which— in virtue of their combination of sound common sense with charm of expression and originality of exposition —undoubtedly deserved a larger audience and a wider recognition. To psycho-analysts in particular the book should be of interest as dealing with a variety of questions of the greatest importance in the development and history of the human mind and as suggesting a niunber of problems where psycho-analysis should be of service.

The work falls mto two fairly distinct sections, the relative evaluation of which will no doubt differ according to the tastes and interests of the reader. In the first or smaller section (comprising the first 7g paMs) there is developed a theory as to the differentiation of man from the anthropoids, this theory being that all the differences between man and his nearest relatives may be traced to the influence of a single variation operatmg among the original 'anthropoid conditions, i.e. 'the adoption of a flesh diet and the habits of a hunter in order to obtain it'. The chief advantages which such a variation may have brought with it lie it is suggested, first in an increased supply of food (and therefore the possibility of a denser population), secondly in the ability to live in open