50 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



desired to thus draw off certain small ethnographic and monographic 

 collections to call attention to any instructive peculiarities of any 

 tribe or race. It also happens at times that large objects have to 

 be left out of a comparative collection. In fact, any classification 

 must be based on compromise and must yield to exceptions. 



As an illustration of how we may show the development or evo- 

 lution of any object with a widely scattered collection let us take 

 the snow-shoe collection in the Museum. It is mounted on screens 

 in the comparative style. If we had exhaustive collections from 

 any one stock of Indians, say, we might show this development step 

 by step (by the ethnographic method) from the time they borrowed 

 or originated the idea up to its highest development, as shown. 

 With the material at the Museum this evolution can only be sug- 

 gested, as the steps are very wide, and intermediate ones are not at 

 hand. We must in this adopt Mr. Spencer's plan of illustrating 

 primitive man by our present savage tribe. 



DISCUSSION. 



Prof. Mason called attention to the advantages derived from a 

 systematic classification and arrangement of the material in great 

 collections like that of the Smithsonian Institution. He also said 

 that an organized effort should be made looking toward a full utili- 

 zation of the m.any resources afforded by the various departments of 

 the Government for information valuable to the student of an- 

 thropology, and that the attention of the scientific world should be 

 directed to the scope and character of these resources. 



Mr. Flint spoke of the manner in which aboriginal ideas had 

 been followed up and finally developed, illustrating his remarks by 

 showing how a study of the possibilities of the arrow as a projectile 

 had resulted in its use for throwing explosives under a heavy air 

 pressure, for which^several patents have already issued. 



Eightieth Regular Meeting, March 15, 1884. 



Major J. W. Powell, President, in the Chair. 

 The Secretary of the Council reported the election of the follow- 

 ing-named gentlemen as corresponding members of the Society : 



Charles C. Abbott, Trenton, N. J. 

 Henry B. Adams, Baltimore, Md. 



