abstracts: anthropology 633 



showed a decline with storage which is almost directly proportional to 

 the decline in respiratory intensity after a like period of storage. 



The catalase activity of the expressed juice from both sweet corn 

 and potato tubers is a fair index of the comparative intensity of respi- 

 ration in the tissues. 



The data seems to justify the general induction that catalase action 

 in these tissues, at least, is correlated with the oxidative processes 

 involved in respiration. C. 0. A. 



PLANT PHYSIOLOGY.— r/«e effect of sodium nitrate applied at 

 different stages of growth on yield, composition and quality of wheat. 

 J. Davidson and J. A. LeClerc. Journ. Amer. Soc. Agron. 

 10: no. 5. 1918. 

 This is the second of a series of papers on the same subject. The 

 first, also published in the above named journal (9: 145. 1917), gave 

 data regarding the influence of sodium nitrate applied at different 

 stages of growth on the yield and protein content of the grain. In this 

 paper a study of the straw is made instead of the grain. The protein 

 content of the straw shows the same tendency as the protein content 

 of the grain, viz, an increase of protein content as a result of the appli- 

 cation of nitrates at the second stage (heading of the wheat). An 

 increase in yield results when the nitrates are appUed at the first stage. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. — An early account of the Choctaw hidians. John 

 R. SwANTON. Mem. Anier. Anthrop, Assoc. 5: 1-20. 1918. 

 The translation of part of an unpublished French memoir of uncer- 

 tain authorship preserved in the Edward E. Ayer collection of Ameri- 

 cana in the Newberry Library, Chicago. It appears to have been writ- 

 ten shortly after the middle -of the eighteenth century. Its peculiar 

 value consists in the fact that, although the Choctaw were the largest 

 tribe with which the French had intimate relations and although their 

 customs must have been well known to many Frenchmen, this is the 

 only lengthy account of them, so far as known, that has been preserved. 

 In addition to numerous matters of general ethnological interest it 

 contains unique information regarding the social organization of the 

 Choctaw nation, something which has hitherto been shrouded in great 

 obscurity. Both archeologists and ethnologists will be interested in 

 the mention of pipes which were apparently made of stone obtained 

 from the famous catlinite quarries in Minnesota. J. R. S. 



