756 SCIENTIFIC RECOKD FOR 1883. 



Frances E. Babbitt exhibited quartzite specimens resembling the rndely 

 wrought drift implements of the Delaware Valley. 



The greatest interest has been felt repectingthe sources of the jadoid 

 implements and images met with in collections of American antiqui- 

 ties. Dr. A. B. Meyer, of Dresden, has given much attention to the 

 subject, and his folio monograph is a work of great importance. Pro- 

 fessor Baird has written a circular letter to explorers to be on the look- 

 out for the natural source of supply. Mr. E. W. Nelson collected some 

 beautiful objects in jade, while in Alaska. 



Lucien Can's chapter in the Kentucky Geological Survey on the 

 mounds of the Mississippi Valley, historically considered, takes the 

 ground that the identity of these people with the modern Indians is 

 proved, that they are by no means ancient, but that the particular tribe 

 which is the most direct descendant is not made out. 



In the American Philosophical Society's Proceedings, Henry Phillips, 

 jr., gives an account of the more important public collections of Ameri- 

 can archaeology in the United States. The American Antiquarian, ed- 

 ited at Clinton, Wis., by S. D. Peet, is devoted solely to archaeology, 

 and much attention is paid by the editor to the animal mounds of the 

 State. 



It is impossible to follow the works of the English and continental 

 Europeans in their archaeological surveys. Fortunately their special 

 journals are accessible. The vice-presidential address of W. Pengelly 

 before the British Association is a resume^ of cave exploration well worth 

 reading. The archaeology of the Caucasus has been studied and illus- 

 trated by Chantre, Bayern, and Virchow; and their astonishing results 

 will quicken investigations in one of the early homes of the Aryan race. 



III. — BIOLOGY. 



The most interesting and important inquiry in human biology is he- 

 redity. The forces at work, the effects of consanguineous marriages, 

 the transmission of genius and other traits, the co-operation of its laws 

 with heat, light, actinism, pressure, moisture, atmospheric contamina- 

 tion, drink, food, resources, scenery, and natural security to produce, 

 perfect, and fix racial and family characteristics — all of these and many 

 other questions quite as important conspire to make heredity the focus 

 of all biologic investigations. 



Max Bartels, with German assiduity, has brought together in a mon- 

 ograph of nearly one hundred pages the literature and notices of men 

 with tails. The paper is illustrated with modern examples. The same 

 author has carefully studied Krao, the child ape. 



The anomalies of the teeth, the anthropological significance of the 

 wormian bones, and right-handedness will be found in the bibliography 

 of this paper to have received careful study. 



George Peckha,nx, of Milwaukee, has prosecuted a series of observa 



