Prof. Hendrik van Loon makes very high claims for the
originality of Multiplex Man, or The Story of Survival Through Invention (Cape, 10s. 6d.) ; but his thesis is not so novel and revolutionary as he considers._ None the less he has written a bright and engaging book. He examines the great variety of men's instruments and inventions ; and co-ordinates his tale by regarding them all as extensions of man's own body. Clothes and houses, for example, he sees as new and more comfortable skins ; hammers, baskets, torpedoes, dredges, he regards as suggested by the hand and used to increase its powers. The only sense for which he cannot find an augmentation is .the sense of smell. There is, no doubt that Prof. van Loon has hit upon a picturesque. idea ; one, too, which directly humanizes the study of science ; but he has announced it with too large a fanfaronade.
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