;82 



NATURE 



[January i8, i-ju 



portant article of Levantine commerce in the Middle 

 Ages. The contemporary specimen of this earth in 

 the Pharmaceutical Society's collection, he says, "can 

 hardly be genuine " ; by this we suppose he means 

 that it is probably a British "fake" of the seven- 

 teenth century. I'he modern specimen he gives 

 of the Turkish stamp which used to be the 

 " sif«illum " of the earth (now put on clay bowls), 

 reads iXn makhtAtn, "sealed earth," in Arabic (not 

 "<in» maktoum." as Mr. Ilasluck prints it: kh must 

 not be confounded with k\). Old specimens of this 

 Arabic seal arc figured from Htlon by Mr. Ilasluck; 

 but why has he printed them all on one side ? Or is 

 this the fault of Belon? 



Mr. H. R. Hall contributes "An Addition to the 

 Senmut-Fresco " at Egyptian Thebes, which shows 

 Minoan Cretan (Keftian) ambassadors bearing gifts 

 to the court of Queen Ilntshepsu. The addition he 

 has found in a drawing by Robert Hay, now in the 

 MSS. Department of the British Museum, made about 

 the year 1837, which shows the fresco as it was then, 

 with additional figures, vases, and a great sword. 

 Mr. Walters notes that the peculiar method of sealing 

 vases in vogue at Mycenjean Sparta is paralleled by 

 Egyptian seals of Roman times; we might carry the 

 cornparison further back, for the Egyptians always 

 sealed vases in this way, at a period contemporary 

 with the Spartan specimens. Here is another minor 



tale of a freakish tyrant may be a true one, and not 

 connected with any hybrislika ; the pranks of Greek 

 despots were often peculiar, and sometimes took forn- 

 of this sumptuary kind. 



The frontispiece to the volume is a ••' '"•'■''"rtion »ji 

 a colour-phot ojjraph, by Mr. R<.1 id, of 



the Semnut fresco as it is to-day, v. .-^ »hc 



most accurate possible representation of it^ i;. 



Mr. Mond has done a good deal for .in by 



his excavations of tombs at Egyptian iijs 



application of the latest resource of to 



the representation of this important 1 .-o, 



and gift of the picture to the Scho<ii "or 



this volume, merit special acknowledgmci 



Fig. 3. — A Genoese Inscription at Chios' 



point of similarity between Minoan and Egyptian 

 ways. 



Prof. R. C. Bosanquet publishes the last of the old 

 finds of the School at Praesos in Crete, in the shape 

 of the Greek inscriptions, and Mr. Woodward contri- 

 butes new material to the study of Athenian building 

 records of the fifth century B.C. Finally, anthropolojjy 

 is well catered for in Mr. Wace's very interesting 

 description of the modern survivals in North Greece 

 of Dionysiac festivals (which have now degenerated 

 into mere Guy Fawkes bacchaiialia, accompanied by 

 chicken-stealing and frowned upon by the police), 

 and Mr. W. R. Halliday's critical examination of the 

 Argive festival of the Hybristika, in connection with 

 Herodotus's description of the marriage of the Argive 

 women with their slaves on account of the oXiyavfipia 

 caused by the defeat of Argos by the Spartan King 

 Kleomenes I. (Hdt. vi. 83). He finds the origin of 

 this story in the festival of the Hybristika, when the 

 slaves had full licence, and the women donned men's 

 clothing, the men that of women. This custom of 

 "changing 'ats " is found all over the world, as he 

 shows, and is probably the origin of several Greek 

 stories; for instance, he thinks, that of the Cumaean 

 tyrant Aristodemos, who, says Plutarch, " is said to 

 have brought up the boys of free birth to wear their 

 hair in long tresses and to adorn themselves with 

 gold, while he compelled the girls to have their hair 

 cut at the level of their shoulders, and to wear cloaks 

 like youths and little short frocks." However, this 



NO. 2203, VOL. 88] 



riJE WASHINGTON MEETING OF THE 

 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



THE sixty-third meeting of the .American .Assoc i 

 tion for the .Advancement of Scirr lield in 



Washington, district of Columbia, on 1 27-3o». 



191 1, under the presidency of Dr. Chaii.> 1.. 1' - ■ 

 professor of botany in the University of Nebra- 



The meetings began in the morning of Decenii.vi ^) 

 with a meeting of the council, after \>hich sections 

 and affiliated societies proceeded with busi'T^- m.-.t- 

 ings and programmes of papers. 

 The formal opening exercises were h.,. 



.Assembly Room of the New L. 

 National Museum at q p.m. of r 

 same day, the exercises being jk 

 ceded by a reception from 8 to 

 o'clock. The President of the 

 United States, Mr, Taft, was pre- 

 sent at the opening exercises, and 

 delivered an address of welcome, 

 directing attention especially to the 

 close similarity between the attitude 

 of mind of the scientific investigator 

 and that of the judge. Truth, in 

 both cases, is the aim, and tb- 

 judicial temperament is necess.v 

 to the successful scientific m;i 

 The secretary of the Smithsoni 

 Institution, Dr. Charles D. Walcott, was to ha\ 

 given a second address of welcome, but was absent 

 through illness. 



The president-elect. Dr. Bessey, responded to the 

 address of welcome, and, in view of the fact that the 

 address had been delivered by the President of the 

 United States, took occasion to point out the import- 

 ance of scientific work to Government affairs, and to 

 urge President Taft to give all his support to scientific 

 bureaus of the Government. 



The address of the retiring president, Dr. 

 Michelson, of the University' of Chicago, was uun 

 delivered. His subject was, " Recent Progress in 

 Spectroscopic Methods." This address was published 

 in full in NATfRE of January nth. 



The meeting, as a whole, is the largest in the 

 histor\' of the association. The actual registration of 

 the association proper was 1402, while members of 

 affiliated societies and others in attendance at the 

 meetings, including ven.' many members of the asso- 

 ciation who were unable to register, undoubtedly 

 would have swelled the number to more than 2800. 



The addresses of the retiring vice-presidents were 

 as follows : — Vice-President Eliakim H. Moore, before 

 th.e Section of Mathematics and .Astronomy, on "The 

 Foundations of the Theor>- of Linear Integral 

 Equations " ; Vice-President E. B. Rosa, before the 

 Section of Physics, on "The Work of the Electrical 

 Division of the Bureau of Standards " ; Vice-President 

 George B. Frankforter, before the Section of Chem- 



