June 23, 192 1] 



NATURE 



539 



celestial orientations {a) by the fact that they tend 

 to converg-e, not to diverge, in direction ; (6) by the 

 absence of graves at right angles to the prevailing 

 direction. 



They may also be orientated by beini* placed along 

 a road of spirits. There were three main classes ot 

 non-orientated burials, those with (a) an absence of 

 any intelligible arrangement whatsoever, as in the 

 British round barrows, (V) a funeral feast arrange- 

 ment, as among the Siculi and some Amerindians, 

 (r) a " Sociocentric " arrangement, as among the 

 Wotjobaluk, Omaha, Ponka, etc. 



In conclusion, Prof. Rose suggested that if his 

 deductions were sounds they afforded, inter alia, a new 

 test of race. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of the 

 paper Dr. Rivers, the president, jwinted out that 

 Prof. Rose, in coupling reincarnation and terrestrial 

 orientation, had suggested an entirely new con- 



nection. In Melanesia orientation was usually terres- 

 trial. There was, however, a form of orientation 

 which, while being celestial, had no connection with 

 the cardinal points. It was in the direction of a home 

 of the dead in the sky, which he connected with the 

 Melanesian variant of upright burial and the custom 

 of burying the dead in the sea with weights attached 

 to their legs. Dr. Rivers suggested, further, that our 

 own practice of laying the corpse on its back mav be 

 connected with the home of the dead in the skv. Prof. 

 Elliot Smith referred to the custom of the proto- 

 dynastic Egyptians who buried their dead with the 

 head to the south, while in the second and third 

 dynasties they were buried with the head to the north, 

 in each case towards the country of origin. Mr. H. 

 Peake pointed out that the terrestrial orientation would 

 tend to become celestial as a people in the course of 

 its wanderings lost the memory of the direction of 

 its orig^inal point of departure. 



The National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 



'HP HE annual meeting- of the National Academy of 

 ^ Sciences was held at the Smithsonian Institution 

 on April 25-27. Unusual interest was taken in the 

 meetrngs owing to the presence of his Serene High- 

 ness Albert I., Prince of Monaco, Prof, and Mrs. 

 Albert Einstein, and Dr. Frank Adams, of Montreal, 

 a foreign associate. In accordance with a precedent 

 of long- standing, President Harding- received the 

 academy. 



On Monday evening, April 25, the Prince of Monaco 

 gave an address, illustrated by moving pictures, on 

 his researches in oceanography, for which the Agassiz 

 medal, founded by the late Sir John Murray, was 

 awarded to him by the academy in iqi8. After the 

 address the Prince graciously received the members 

 of the audience at a reception held in the National 

 Gallery of Art. 



On Tuesday the president, Dr. C. D. Walcott, 

 extended a welcome to Prof. Albert Einstein on behalf 

 of the academv, to which Prof. Einstein briefly 

 responded, expressing his sense of pleasure at being 

 present at the meeting of the academy and receiving 

 its welcome. 



On Tuesday evening, at the annual banquet, the 

 presentation of the academy's medals was made. 

 The Mary Clark Thompson medal, for eminence in 

 researches in palaeontologv and geology, was awarded 

 for the first time to Dr. Walcott for his classic 

 studies in Cambrian palaeontology. The Agassiz 

 medal for 1018 was presented to the Prince of 

 Monaco. The Agassiz medal for iq2i was pre- 

 sented to Admiral Sigsbee for his investigations, 

 including deep-sea soundings and other oceano- 

 graphic work, mainly in the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The Henry Draper gold medal, for eminence in 

 astronomical physics, was aw-arded to Prof, P. 

 Zeeman, of Amsterdam, for his discoverv of the so- 

 called "Zeeman eftect " and for the studv of the in- 

 fluence of magnetism upon light. In Prof. Zeeman 's 

 absence the medal was communicated through Dr. 

 Hubrecht, secretary of the Netherlands Legation.. The 

 Daniel Giraud Elliot medal was awarded to Dr. Robert 

 Ridgway for his studies of the birds of North America, 

 esp>ecially part viii. of his " Birds of North and Middle 

 America," which has recently appeared. The Hartley 

 gold medal for eminence in the application of science 

 to the public welfare was awarded to Dr. C. W. 

 Stiles for his work in the investigation and eradication 

 of the hookworm disease in the United States. 



At the business meeting on Wednesday, April 27. 

 Dr. Walcott tendered his resignation as president of 

 the academy on account of his desire to lay down 

 NO. 2695. VOL. 107] 



something of the burden of administrative work which 

 he has long carried, and in order to be able to devote 

 himself more completely to his studies of palae- 

 ontology, but at the unanimous desire of the academv 

 he consented to withdraw his resignation for the re- 

 maining two years of his term. Dr. George E. Hale 

 resigned the office of foreign secretary on account 

 of ill-health, and Dr. R. A. Millikan was elected to 

 succeed him. Messrs. Hale and Pearl were elected to 

 the council, and the following new members were 

 elected to the academy : Messrs. Frank Michler 

 Chapman, William Leroy Emmet, William Draper 

 Harkins, Ales Hrdlicka, Arthur Edwin Kennelly, 

 William George MacCallum, Dayton Clarence Mijler, 

 George Abram Miller, Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, 

 Vesto Melvin Slipher, Lewis Buckley Stillwell, Donald 

 Dexter Van Slyke, Thomas \\'avland Vaughan, 

 Henrv Stephens Washington, and Robert Sessions 

 Wood worth. 



Numerous papers were presented at the scientifit 

 sessions. The principal feature was the address of 

 Dr. W. S. Adams, of Mount W'ilson Solar Observa- 

 tory, on his spectrum researches on the motions in the 

 line of sight and the absolute magnitudes of nearlv 

 2tX)o stars. Dr. Adams pointed out the excellent con- 

 firmation of Russell's theory of giant and dwarf 

 stars, and discussed the bearing" of the observations 

 on the dependence of stellar velocities upon spectral 

 type and absolute magnitude. He also treated several 

 other questions which are no longer insoluble now 

 that, for the first time, the positions, directions, and 

 velocities in space of such a large and homogeneous 

 mass of stars have become known. 



Dr. C. D. Walcott gave a profusely illustrated 

 paper in which he directed attention to the great 

 detail in the structure of the trilobite which he has 

 found bv the application of a new photographic process. 



Dr. H. F. Osborn, of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, New Vork, traced the evolution 

 and geographical distribution of the Proboscidea. The 

 two main groups of the mastodons and true elephants 

 were followed, by the aid of skeletal photographs, 

 restorations, and maps, from their original homes in 

 northern Africa and Central Asia in the Eocene 

 through their migrations over Europe and Asia to 

 North and South America by wav of Bering Strait. 



Another paper of the same general character was 

 given bv Dr. J. C. Merriam, president of the Carnegie 

 Institution, on his twentv Aears of studv of the evolu- 

 tion and geographical distribution of the bear family. 

 Dr. L. R. Jones, of the L'niversitv of Wisconsin, 

 showed the pathological influence of temperature, and 



