Science in Christian Perspective

Letter to the Editor

Reviewer Ignores Publication Dates

Arthur C. Custance 
P.O. Box 291 Brockville, Ontario 
Canada K6V SVS

From: JASA 30 (September 1978): 143
After reading Paul Seely's review of a work of mine, Genesis and Early Man (JASA:29 (4), 1977), I wondered whether he is aware of the inevitable delays that sometimes accompany publishing.

The original Paper dealing with the origin of speech was written in 1956 and published in 1957. Eighteen years later (1975) it reappeared when Zondervan Publishing House decided to reissue the original Doorway Papers in a series of ten hard cover volumes in essentially their original form.

Almost all the work with chimpanzees by the Gardners, the Hayses, and particularly by David Premack was reported in the literature available to me subsequent to the publication of the 1957 Paper. When in 1976 Zondervan published Volume IV in the same series, this later work with chimpanzees was evaluated and incorporated in some detail in that volume.

Apart from the fact that there is still not unanimity of opinion as to the precise meaning of these more recent experiments, it seems important that a serious reviewer should take into account the date of publication of any such work whether he agrees with its conclusions or not.

Moreover, it does not speak too well for the reviewer's thoroughness that he omitted to give the name of the publisher, the date of publication, the number of pages, or the price. This is a customary courtesy to any publisher who supplies reviewers' copies.

Nor was the review written in a very happy Christian spirit, a circumstance which is rather sad since it appears in a Christian Journal.

Ed: We apologize for the inadvertant omission of publication data on Genesis and Early Man. Regretably, numerous attempts by us to date have been unsuccessful. We will be indebted to anyone who will supply us with this information.