Autobiography of Isaac Jones Wistar, 1827-1905 by Isaac Jones WistarReview by: M. F. Ashley-MontaguIsis, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jul., 1938), pp. 126-127Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/225942 .

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I26 ISIS, XXIX, I

although he did suggest that the stone tools belonged to a remote pas.. He came very close to distinguishing between paleolithic and neolithic remains but hesitated. He did, however, very fine work as an archaeolo- gist in studying the Gallo-Roman in Dordogne and in the Gironde. He wrote excellent reports of his findings. He gave accurate descriptions of objects discovered. Ile made chemical analyses of the fossil bones and of the bronze of axes. By very careful description he showed that bronze axes were modeled after those of polished stone. His finding bronze and stone tools in the same places, led him to conclude that bronze age followed that of stone and preceded that of iron. CHEYNIER claims that he arrived at this classification before THOMSEN. This is no doubt true. But GOGUET in 1758 made a similar classification of prehistoric times. And so did LucRETIus before him.

JOUANNET may perhaps be excused for failing to identify the remains of extinct fauna, since the great CUVIER himself refused to admit disco- veries made by AMI Boui and others. Yet such an identification was an essential link in the chain of evidence of man's remote past and in the progress of our knowledge of prehistory. Hence it seems to us, after careful examination of the evidence, JOUANNET can be considered a very good archaeologist but by no means a founder of prehistory in the same sense as SCHMERLING and BOUCHER DE PERTHES.

Brooklyn, N. Y. PHILIP SHORR.

Isaac Jones Wistar. - Autobiography of Isaac Jones Wistar, I827-1905. Pag. vii + 528. Philadelphia: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1937, ($ 5.00).

ISAAC JONES WISTAR (I827-1905) was the grandnephew of GASPAR

WISTAR (176I-I8I8); that same GASPAR WISTAR who was from 1792 to

the time of his death in i8i8 Adjunct Professor and then full Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. During the period of his incumbency of that position GASPAR WISTAR accumulated a large collection of materials relating to human anatomy which, following his death, was presented by his widow ELIZABETH MIFFLIN WISTAR to the University of Pennsylvania. In I892 this collection, which had come to be known as the Wistar, or Wistar and Horner Museum, was incor- porated under a new name as The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology. The building then erected and the endowment for its adequate maintenance were provided by the author of this extraordinary auto- biography, IsAAc JoNEs WISTAR.

The generosity which made The Wistar Institute possible will confer a lasting grace upon ISMC WISTAR's name, and his autobiography, now fittingly made available by the Press of the Institute which he brought

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REVIEWS 127

into being, will add fame to that grace. The volume was originally issued in 1914 in an edition of 250 copies intended for a 'cautious' private circulation. The present volume is issued in a larger "limited edition", and differs from the earlier edition in the restoration of some passages omitted then and in the addition of an addendum, by EDMOND J. FARRIS, bringing the late Director MILTON J. GREENMAN 'S 1914 account of the history of the Wistar Institute up to date.

The life and adventures of IsAAc WISTAR read like the "cowboy and Indian" stories which the generation that came into being in the year in which IsAAc WISTAR died will have no difficulty in recollecting. It is naturally a most exciting story, despite the somewhat stilted style of the author, and conveys a picture of the opening up of Western America upon which historians will not fail to draw. From the pages of the book IsAAc WISTAR emerges a character of heroic proportions. It is unnecessary to apply the usual adjectives here; not that they would be too pale to fit our subject, but that they would be superfluous; those who read this book will be able to supply their own. All that it is necessary to say here is that the account of the pioneering Wanderjahre given by WISTAR will match any yarn of its genre that has ever been told of ad- venture and romance in America. Unfortunately, WISTAR seems to have had a habit of understatement which takes much of the feeling out of his story, but as a rugged American individualist, there appears to have been little place for that commodity in his practical economy. There can, however, be little doubt of the kindness of his heart and of his noble spirit. His sympathy and attachment to the Indians, and his strictures upon the white man and his civilization, testify to that deep interest in the welfare of humanity which culminated in the foundation of the Wistar Institute.

In his later years WISTAR became interested in Natural History, and was a member of a select circle of scientists who used to meet informally, in Philadelphia, once a fortnight. In I892 WISTAR was elected President of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

New York University. M. F. ASHLEY-MONTAGU.

Margaret Farrand Thorp.-CHARLES KINGSLEY, I8I9-I875. X+2I2p. 5 pls., Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1937. Price $ 3.00.

CHARLES KINGSLEY was a Victorian to the core, an aristocrat with strong liberal leanings and influence, tutor to EDWARD VII, Chaplain to the Queen, and Canon of Westminster Abbey. He was a voluminous writer of essays and novels, an exceedingly popular professor of history at Cambridge, and a lecturer of even wider popularity. Catholic in

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