proceedings: anthropological society 653 



were made at several other places of interest: Oracle, about 45 miles 

 north of Tucson, in company with Prof. J. J. Thornber; Big Spring, 

 Alpine, and Del Rio, in western Texas; and the Guadalupe Mountains 

 of southern New Mexico, especially rich in Mexican species. Prof. 

 Hitchcock's paper was discussed by the chair. 



The second and last paper of the program was by R. L. Garner, 

 African studies: Things in common among men, apes, and other mammals. 

 Mr. Garner spoke of the courtship, family life, period of infancy, arrival 

 of puberty, instincts, homes, habits, and moral traits of the African 

 anthropoid apes as observed by him in their wild state, during many 

 years of observation in Africa. Among other things he stated that the 

 period of gestation is probably seven months; that the young ape is 

 born with usually 4 teeth present; that twin births are exceedingly 

 rare; that the female becomes sexually mature at from 7 to 9 years, and 

 the male from 1 to 2 years later; that the usual length of life is 20 to 

 21 years; that their foods are mainly vegetable, but that flesh is an es- 

 sential part of their diet; that they have no permanent homes, but 

 travel about as nomadic families; that their sleeping position is on their 

 back or side like that of men; that they often make their beds 18 to 

 25 feet off the ground, but that the young are delivered in a bed on the 

 ground in a well drained place; that sight and particularly hearing are 

 acute, but that smell is not much more developed than in man and that 

 touch is less acute than in man; and that the right of ownership among 

 them is well respected. Mr. Garner concluded by saying he hoped to 

 return to Africa in the near future and take motion pictures of the 

 great apes. 



M. W. Lyon, Jr., Recording Secretary. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



At the 488th meeting held October 13, 1915, at the George Washing- 

 ton Medical School, jointly with the Medical Society of the District of 

 Columbia, Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, Curator in Physical Anthropology, 

 National Museum, delivered an address on The evolution of man 

 in the light of recent discoveries, and its relation to medicine. Human 

 evolution is no longer a mere theory but a fixed part of natural history, 

 better documented from day to day by substantial evidence. Its 

 foundations rest upon many and important organic analogies; on actual 

 physical remains of early man and perhaps even some of his predeces- 

 sors; and on observations of the changes which are at present taking 

 place in man. 



The organic analogies are (1) the evidence of evolution in all the better 

 known mammals; (2) the relations of various stages of the embryonic 

 development of man to grades of life represented by some lower verte- 

 brates; (3) resemblances in the mode of conception, the laws of develop- 

 ment, in all other vital functions, and in death; (4) similarities between 

 man and other mammals in organs, limbs, and all other physical as 

 well as microscopic parts of the body; (5) close similarities in the chemi- 



