proceedings: anthropological society 315 



evidence for priority of discovery by Basque or Breton fishermen. 

 Corte-Real's voyage to Newfoundland occurred in 1500 A.D. The 

 name Bacalaos applied to this land first appears on maps of a later date. 

 On being asked what degree of reliance is to be placed on the Norse 

 narratives, since they were handed down for a time by oral tradition 

 before they were written down , Mr. Babcock said that the earliest dates 

 of the writings are unknown; that the Erlendsspn copy of the Eric the 

 Red manuscript was made before 1334, perhaps about 1320; that the 

 narrative which it contains bears evidence of having been composed 

 in the eleventh century; and that a brief log of Karlsefni's voyage 

 seems to be the kernel of part of the sagas. Certainly all of the de- 

 tails are not to be relied on. 



At the 495th meeting, held February 15, 1916, Mr. Paul Popenoe 

 addressed the Society on Progress in the study of human heredity. He 

 said that man offers by far the most difficult material for the study of 

 heredity and that the number of students who have undertaken to work 

 upon it is small. The Eugenics Record Office, at Cold Spring Harbor, 

 Long Island, New York, is the principal American agency; Dr. Alex- 

 ander Graham Bell has founded a Genealogical Record Office in 

 Washington for the study of longevity; many anthropologists are con- 

 tributing to the knowledge of heredity in man; and various physicians 

 and geneticists in colleges are also making contributions. The Galton 

 Laboratory of National Eugenics at the University of London, directed 

 by Karl Pearson, is the principal agency in England. On the conti- 

 nent of Europe the work is scattered among medical men and anthro- 

 pologists. 



It is now regarded as established that physical and mental traits are 

 inherited with the same intensity and in the' same manner. Most of 

 the physical traits thus far studied have been abnormalities and are 

 therefore not of great significance to race betterment; but the study of 

 longevity and disease resistance points the way to important progress 

 in eugenics. The study of mental traits has also dealt largely with 

 abnormal or pathological conditions — feeble-mindedness, insanity, 

 epilepsy, and the like. At present students are showing a tendency to 

 take up the study of positive characters that are of more significance 

 to the progress of the race. 



In many cases an attempt has been made to show exactly how a 

 given trait is inherited. Probably a hundred traits have been classed, 

 at one time or another, as "known," but this list is greatly exaggerated. 

 If the evidence for them were critically sifted, the traits of the exact 

 mode of inheritance of which there could be no doubt would be re- 

 duced to a group not much larger than the following: Huntington's 

 chorea, brachydactyly, and a white blaze in the hair (dominants); al- 

 binism and various rare diseases or pathological conditions (recessives) . 

 Some sexlinked characters are also definitely worked out, as one kind 

 of color-blindness, one kind of night-blindness, haemophilia, and a few 

 defects of the eye. 



