This is by far the most valuable study among the large literature which has already accumulated over the vexed question of whether Australian aborigines are really ignorant of the physiological effects of procreation and whether they are 'so to speak' pretending for social and religious reasons to be thus ignorant. The author very impartially and judicially marshals all the extant evidence and successfully refutes the arguments brought forward by the earlier sceptics like Carveth Read. In his opinion the evidence points strongly to the reality of the native's ignorance, but, he says, 'until further intensive researches have been carried out in connection with this problem, preferably on Australian peoples uncontaminated by foreign influences, the question as to whether