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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The department of anthropology has re- 

 cently received as a gift from Mrs. \Vm. Tod 

 Kelmuth a sacred belt, apron, and headdress 

 from Darjeeling, Tibet. They are made of 

 shuttle-shaped pieces of human bone, or- 

 nately carved and strung together with 

 smaller bead-shaped bits of bone, against a 

 background of green cloth. The Tibetan 

 wearer believes that the garments have the 

 power of transmitting to him the virtues of 

 the saints of whose bones they are made. In 

 recognition of this gift, Mrs. Helmuth has 

 been elected a Patron of the American Mu- 

 seum. 



Mr. Alessandro Fabbri has been ap- 

 pointed research associate in physiologj' in 

 the department of anatomy and physiology 

 of the American Museum. Mr. Fabbri, who 

 has gained fame for his marvelous work in 

 the production of motion picture films of 

 microscopic forms, is at present devoting 

 himself to making motion photographs of 

 isolated living cells in which it is intended 

 to show, in a graphic way, contractility and 

 like phenomena. Mr. Fabbri will present to 

 the Museum copies of the films he makes. 



The first exhibition of prizma motion pic- 

 tures, given at the American Museum of 

 Natural History on February 8, called forth 

 more than three thousand spectators, so 

 many that to accommodate an overflow of 

 fully a thousand people the films were run 

 through a second time. The prizma pic- 

 tures furnish a most remarkable reproduc- 

 tion of the colors of nature. Four colors, 

 made up of two pairs of complementary col- 

 ors, and covering photographically the whole 

 range of visible colors, are made use of to 

 give a roundness and depth to the pictures 

 which could never be attained in black and 

 white. The pictures are taken on standard 

 panchromatic film, and, although in the 

 hand they have the appearance of the 

 black and white films in general use, they 

 possess color values which are reproduced 

 by special attachments applicable to stand- 

 ard projecting machines. 



The American Museum has acquired by 

 purchase the complete fall of the new me- 

 teorite known as Burkett. It is in six 

 pieces and weighs 8,018 grams. The speci- 

 men was found by Mr. W. A. Smith, Octo- 

 ber, 1913, on the premises of his father-in- 

 law, Mr. D. W. Howe, in Coleman County, 

 Texas, about eighteen and a half miles 



northeast of Coleman City on the waters of 

 Pecan Bayou known as Section 24, sur- 

 veyed by the Houston, Texas, and Brazos 

 Eiver Railroad, and patented by D. W. 

 Howe. The Holloway Peaks bear east about 

 three miles, and the town of Burkett bears 

 north about three and a half miles, latitude 

 thirty-two degrees north and longitude one 

 hundred degrees west from Greenwich. The 

 mass was partially buried with the large end 

 down, dipping toward the east at an angle 

 of about twenty degrees. It was found on 

 level ground. The soils of this area are 

 sandy loam and gravelly loam types, inter- 

 spersed with belts of black soil. These soils 

 seem to be of residual origin, the sands, 

 sandy loams, and gravelly loams being de- 

 rived from the underlying Carboniferous 

 sandstones and conglomerates, — all of which 

 are overspread with a dwarfish growth of 

 post oak, Spanish oak, mesquite, elm, and 

 hackberry. A portion of the fall was ana- 

 lyzed by Booth, Garrett, and Blair, of Phila- 

 delphia, for the Foote Mineral Company, in 

 1915. The composition of the meteorite is 

 as follows: silicon, 0.004; sulphur, 0.172; 

 phosphorus, 0.169; nickel, 6.670; cobalt, 

 0.560; copper, 0.014; carbon, 0.16.3; iron, 

 90.028; and iron oxide, 2.230. The specific 

 gravity is 7.718. 



One piece was used for the determination 

 of troilite and schreibersite. The amount of 

 sulphur is so small that the presence of troi- 

 lite is doubted. Material resembling schrei- 

 bersite to the amount of 9.343 per cent, was 

 obtained, that is, 1.1175 grams of material 

 insoluble in dilute hydrochloric acid was ob- 

 tained from 11.96 grams of the original 

 iron. This by analysis gave: iron, 68.594; 

 phosphorus, 2.350; nickel, 4.920; cobalt, 

 0.180; and iron oxide, 24.000. This compo- 

 sition does not conform to that of schrei- 

 bersite, and must represent some other phos- 

 phide. 



Mr. George K. Cherrie, who left New 

 York for South America in May, 1916, has 

 returned after ten months spent in the 

 swamps and forests of Paraguay and Bra- 

 zil. During these months he continued the 

 explorations begun by the Eoosevelt-Eondon 

 Expedition, which explored the "River of 

 Doubt" in 1914, but which was unable to 

 remain to investigate closely the life his- 

 tories of the remarkable birds and mammals 

 of the region. The most serious work of 

 the new expedition began at Puerto Pinasco 



