38 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1907. 



RESEARCHES. 



In the division of physical anthropology Doctor Hrdlicka, assist- 

 ant curator, completed comparative studies on orang skulls from 

 Western Borneo, on the cranial fossa 1 in man and the higher primates, 

 and on the osteological specimens in the collection having relation to 

 the antiquity of man in America. He also continued his investiga- 

 tions on the racial variations of the humerus, the brain weight in 

 animals, and the action of preservatives on the brain. Studies on the 

 orang skeleton and on the cranial capacity of Indians were taken up. 

 In the course of and for the benefit of his researches. Doctor Hrd- 

 licka visited the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York; 

 Laval University, Quebec; Anastasia Island, on the east coast of 

 Florida, and the States of Nebraska and Iowa. 



Professor Mason, head curator, and Doctor Hough, assistant cu- 

 rator of ethnology, were mainly occupied in studying the aborigi- 

 nal culture of the Malays and other peoples of the East Indies, as 

 exemplified in the large collections made and presented by Dr. YV. L. 

 Abbott. Doctor Hough continued his work on the history of heating 

 and illumination and on the Pueblo collections, and completed two 

 papers, one on the agave as a culture plant, the other on the palm and 

 agave as nuture plants. An account of the Museum-Oates expedition 

 of 1905 lias been begun. A large series of Eskimo ivory needlecases 

 was lent to Dr. Frank Boas, of Columbia University, for use in a 

 special investigation on the development of ornament and in his gen- 

 eral work on the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. 



Mr. Holmes, curator of prehistoric archeology, made extensive use 

 of (he collections of that division in the preparation of numerous 

 descriptive articles for the Handbook of American Indians, the first 

 volume of which was issued by the Bureau of American Ethnology 

 about the close of the fiscal year. In the course of this work hi' also 

 made more detailed studies for embodiment in a monographic paper 

 on stone implements. 



The assistant curator of historic religions, Doctor Casanowicz, has 

 in course of preparation a description of the exhibition collection of 

 Jewish religious rites and ceremonials, which is probably the finest 

 in the country. 



Many persons visited the Museum for the purpose of examining 

 specimens in ethnology and archeology, and a few lots of specimens 

 were also lent to assist in the conduct of investigations elsewhere. 



Some of the more important biological researches completed dur- 

 ing the yea'r are best indicated by the titles of the resulting publica- 

 tions, such as the fourth part of the work on the Birds of North and 



