574 NEW BOOKS. Gehirn und Seele. Vorlesungen von Prof. Dr. med. PAUL SCHULTZ, gehalten an der Kgl. Universitat zu Berlin (1899-1904). Herausge- geben von Dr. HERMANN BEYER. Leipzig : J. A. Barth, 1906. Pp. v, 189. The posthumous publication of these popular lectures is a tribute to the memory of a gifted and interesting man. They appear just as he de- livered them, with many weaknesses which the occasion of their delivery partly excused, and which even have a value as revelations of a per- sonality evidently combining devotion to exact science with a distinctly emotional nature. Honestly, however, it is a very weak book. The author's position is based on a facile acceptance of the premisses of Kant, with some showy, but evidently sincerely accepted deductions in the spirit of Schopenhauer and F. A. Lange. " Scientifically the only possible conception of the relation between brain and soul is that, temporally, certain processes in the brain run parallel to certain psychical processes" (p. 185). Added to this he regards as axiomatic that the complex can only be explained by the simple, hence the soul of man by the soul of animals. Thereupon we have a mass of curious and vastly entertaining details about all sorts of creatures the relevancy of which is not always apparent. The main emphasis of the book, how- ever, is laid upon the phenomena of the nerves and brain. It is, in short, an epitome of comparative cerebral physiology, and as such is interesting and profitable reading to any one desiring an outline of the subject. What I fail to see is that Prof. Schultz has so wrought his material as to recommend the hypotheses he espouses, or that, indeed, the word " Seele " has any right on his title-page. The soul is relegated throughout to that vague beyond where scientific explanations have no force, and where we are quite free, according to our author, to gratify our emotional, artistic and metaphysical impulses ; which is all very fine, but at least the phenomena of consciousness as such had some con- nexion with his theme. DAVID MORRISON. Die Anfdnge der menschlichen Kultur : Einfuhrung in die Soziologie. Von Dr. LUDWIG STEIN. Leipzig : Teubner, 1906. The book deals with the development of civilisation, and the evolution of civilised man from " natural " man. Civilisation implies work ; the state of nature idleness. The history of civilisation becomes mainly a tracing of the working of energy and activity in the conquest of mind over matter. Among the earliest incentives to work are need (hunger, cold, etc.) and the instinct for display (especially in the eyes of the opposite sex). These produced tools, division of labour, and ornament, and organised labour and care for the future succeed to the recklessness of primitive man. The author lays especial stress on the importance of ornament as a factor in the growth of social life, and he would trace its origin rather to the desire for display than to religious or superstitious rites. It has also played its part in the encouragement of the arts and sciences. Posses- sion of ornaments led to their exchange and to their storage as wealth. Morality and religion develop out of family life and instinct. The elastic customs due to instinct and habit lead on to the fixed laws of conven- tional society. Writing makes these customs into rules and perpetuates them.
