Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice

I t may well be asked : What purpose is served by the writing
of a book on such a subject as cannibalism? Indeed, this was
my own reaction when my publisher invited me to undertake
the task.
There is, however, a quite simple answer to the question:
No book covering the subject generally exists in the English
language. Inquiries from the Royal Anthropological Institute
of Great Britain and Ireland elicited the reply :
' We know of
no comprehensive work on cannibalism. The material on
the subject is unfortunately scattered through many books and
periodicals.
Subsequent inquiries at the British Museum met with the
same result : on the 80 miles of shelves in that incomparable
library of 8,000,000 books, there is no single work in the English
language that covers the immense field of cannibalism and
human sacrifice. The Germans would appear to be the only
people who have made any attempt to deal comprehensively
with the subject on a large scale, and the work in question has
not been translated into English.