The Origins of Invention. By Otis T. Mason. (Walter Scott.)
—This book, the outcome of a paper on" The Birth of Invention," read at the Centenary of the American Patent System in 1891, is constructed on something of the same lines that are to be seen in the author's "Woman's Share in Primitive Culture." He argues back from the present to the past, and traces the genealogy of invention from step to step, mostly beginning with the descendant and going up to the ancestor, but assisted, of course, by such relics of the past as time has spared. It is quite impossible to give any idea of the wealth of illustrations which Mr. Mason has collected from all parts of the world, or of the in- genuity with which he pieces out his conjectures. Here is an instance of "Origin of Invention : "--" A crew of Eskimo rowed to a gravelly beach in one of their skin canoes. The craft was heavily laden, and they had either to get into cold water to rift all the freight ashore, and then carry the boat so that the gravel
could not cut the very thin and delicate seal-skin bottom They placed a row of infirted seal-skin floats in front of the umiak and rolled her high and dry upon the beach by this means."
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