THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



• 287 



kiutl Toxls ' by Franz Boas and. G«orge 

 Hunt, and " The Night Chant, a Navaho 

 Coroniony ' by \\asliington ]\Iattho\v.s. 

 The amount of ' Bnliotin ' matter pub- 

 lished is the hirgest in the liistory of 

 the museum. Nine numbers of the EIu- 

 seum Journal and six 'guide leaflet' 

 supplements -were issued. The supple- 

 ments describe collections in the mu- 

 seum, and their popularity is shown by 

 the fact that several thousand were 

 sold in the year at the entrances. 



Several courses of lectures were of- 

 fered under various auspices : To teach- 

 ers, to members of the museum, and 

 to the public (holiday course), vmder 

 a grant from the state; to teachers, by 

 the museum, in cooperation with the 

 ^-ludubon and Linniiean Societies ; to the 

 public, by the City Department of Edu- 

 cation in cooperation with the museum. 



In summing up his report, the presi- 

 dent mentions several items that indi- 

 cate the progress of the institution: 

 " In concluding this my twenty-second 

 report, I take pleasure in assuring the 

 members of this board that the past 

 year has been one of achievement. The 

 increase in the annual appropriation, 

 the growing popularity of the lectures, 

 the large sums spent for laboratoiy re- 

 search, the long list of publications, 

 the opening of new exhibition halls, 

 the appropriation by the city of $200,- 

 000 for a new power house, the receipt 

 of large invoices of ethnological ma- 

 terial from Siberia and China, the con- 

 clusion of negotiations leading to the 

 purchase of the Cope collection, and 

 the departure of several exploring ex- 

 peditions, are only a few of the indices 

 of activity at the museum, of the gen- 

 erosity of our friends, and of apprecia- 

 tion on the part of the city officers and 

 the visiting public." 



TEE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL 

 SOCIETY. 

 In the complex organization of 

 American scientific societies, the 

 American Philosophical Society 'held at 

 Philadelphia for the promotion of 



useful knowledge ' seems to be main- 

 taining a place of its own. It was 

 originally a national society founded 

 on tlie model of the Royal Society, 

 and the general meetings held last 

 year and this show that it has to a cer- 

 tain extent maintained this position. 

 JMembers from Philadelphia and the 

 vicinity acted as hosts, and were able 

 to welcome a considerable number of 

 members from different parts of the 

 country. Both the arrangements for 

 social intercourse and the program 

 compared very favorably with those 

 of the meeting of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, held at Washington in 

 the same month. The meeting lasted 

 for three days. In one of the evening 

 sessions Dr. Edgar F. Smith, professor 

 of chemistry in the University of Penn- 

 sylvania and president of the society, 

 made an address on its origin and early 

 history, drawing from original docu- 

 ments much interesting information in 

 regard to the beginnings of science in 

 America. At the same session Dr. D. 

 C. Gilman, president of the Carnegie 

 Institution, spoke of its work during 

 the past year. After these addresses, 

 which were given in the hall of the His- 

 torical Society of Pennsylvania, there 

 was a reception, and on the following 

 evening a dinner was given at the 

 Hotel Bellevue, at which Professor W. 

 B. Scott, of Princeton University, was 

 toastmaster. 



The meetings were held in the hall 

 of the society, and a considerable num- 

 ber of interesting papers were pre- 

 sented. The American Philosophical 

 Society includes philology and eco- 

 nomics in its scope, and papers were 

 presented by Professor March, of La- 

 fayette College, on the development 

 of the English alphabet; by Professor 

 Haupt, of the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, on archeology and mineralogy; 

 by Professor Jastrow, of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, on the Hamites 

 and Semites in the tenth chapter of 

 Genesis, and by Professor Schelling, of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, on the 



