proceedings: anthropological society 331 



specific entity. The most noticeable sjonptoms are pronounced nausea, 

 with vomiting, extreme constipation, and trembhng. The disease was 

 said to afiect particularly cattle and was transmitted through the milk 

 to human beings. A good deal of mystery has been attached to the eti- 

 ology of the disease and among the suggestions as to the cause have been 

 fungi, insect-borne germs, emanations from the soil, and a number of 

 supposed poisonous plants. The plant to which suspicion has been par- 

 ticularly directed has been Eupatorium urticaefolium. commonly known 

 as white snake root. The work of Jordan and Harris in 1909 seems to 

 prove that the disease is produced by a distinct bacillus, and the pub- 

 hcation of Crawford in 1908 seemed to negative the possibility of Eupa- 

 torium being the cause of the disease. It seemed best, however, on 

 account of the suspicion which still attached to this plant for the De- 

 partment of Agriculture to make a series of feeding experiments. These 

 experiments proved conclusively that Eupatorium urticaefolium is poison- 

 ous to both cattle and sheep. The knowledge thus acquired in connec- 

 tion with other pubhshed statements seems to make it certain, not only 

 that the Eupatorium is poisonous to both cattle and sheep, but that it 

 is the cause of many, if not almost all of the so-called cases of milk 

 sickness in cattle and sheep. 



Dr. IMarsh's paper was illustrated by lantern shdes showing character- 

 istic attitudes of poisoned animals. 



J. W. Gidley: Segregation an important factor in evolution with its 

 special bearing on the origin and distribution of mammals. (No abstract.) 



Mr. Gidley 's paper was discussed by Prof. Bradley M. Davis, Dr. 

 T. S. Palmer, Mr. William Palmer, and Capt. M. W. Lyon, Jr. 



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



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 525th meeting of the Society was held in the Lecture Hall of 

 the Public Library on Tuesday, April 9, at 8 p.m. Dr. PaulHaupt, 

 W. W. Spence Professor of Semitic Languages and Director of the Ori- 

 ental Seminary at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 

 gave an address upon Mesopotafnia and Palestine. 



"The early civihzation of Babylonia was Sumerian. The Sumerian 

 language appears to be related to Georgian in Russian Transcaucasia. 

 Mesopotamia passed successively under the sway of the Sumerians, 

 Accadians, Hittites, Cassites, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, IMace- 

 donians, Parthians, Romans, Sassanians, Arabs, Mongols, Tartars, and 

 Turks. Since 1638 it has been a part of the Turkish Empire. 



"In 1902 the Turkish Government granted to a German syndicate 

 a charter for the construction of a railway from Constantinople through 

 Asia Minor to Bagdad, and afterw^ards to Basra. This through line 

 from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf, which threatened the British do- 

 minion of India, was one of the most important factors which led to 

 the world war. 



