POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



857 



As showing how far mechanical and 

 chemical economy has saved labor on the 

 farm, Prof. Brewer cited Johnson, who esti- 

 mated fifty years ago that ninety per cent of j 

 the capital of the United States was invested 

 in farming; to-day the proportion has fallen 

 to one third. 



Anthropological Material. In his anni- 

 versary address as President of the Anthro- 

 pological Institute of Great Britain and Ire- 

 land, Prof. E. B. Tylor remarked on the fear 

 felt by some that one of the main topics of 

 anthropology would before long dwindle or 

 disappear. When the savages and barbari- 

 ans are disposed of by civilization or extir- 

 pation, their anthropological material is more 

 or less exhausted. At present, however, this 

 is so far from having happened that the sup- 

 ply is on the whole better and more plenti- 

 ful than ever. With many tribes, indeed, the 

 record is closed, as with the Tasmanians, 

 those representatives of the palaeolithic age 

 in modern times, who can give us few more 

 details of the lowest known stage of culture 

 beyond those collected by Mr. Ling Roth. 

 Not to give a whole list of modern works, it 

 is enough to say that for minutely accurate 

 accounts of uncultured life, none excel Cod- 

 drington's Melanesians and Kubari's treatise 

 on the Pelew Islanders, and we can only 

 regret that the anthropologists of past cen- 

 turies were not alive to the need of such 

 minutely careful study of the tribes who 

 were then, but are not now, in a state to be 

 thus studied. One class of anthropological 

 material, of which the quantity available has 

 only lately been appreciated, is folk lore. 

 When, fourteen years ago, the speaker took 

 part in founding the Folk-lore Society, for the 

 preservation and publication of popular tradi- 

 tions, legendary ballads, local proverbial say- 

 ings, superstitions, and old customs, and all 

 subjects relating to them, he as little as others 

 anticipated how many volumes of such matter 

 it would produce, or of how great value they 

 would be, as to the main purpose of tracing 

 the development and diffusion of popular 

 tradition and fancy, and as to the incident- 

 al knowledge of man which is preserved in 

 them. Especially to students of the develop- 

 ment of ethical ideas, folk-lore studies are 

 exceptionally valuable, recording as they do 

 in their incidents what were the ideas on 

 VOL, xuii. 62 



good and bad actions, not indeed of the age 

 in which the stories are gathered, but of a 

 remote past kept thus in memory. Speaking 

 of the reports of investigations among the 

 Indians of Northwest America, Prof. Tylor 

 said it was a ground of satisfaction, in look- 

 ing through them, to feel that a systematic 

 account of the anthropology of British North- 

 west America is to a great extent completed. 

 "Not that everything requiring record has 

 been recorded. Observation of rapidly chang- 

 ing native life will still tax to the extreme 

 the efforts of the anthropologists of the 

 Canadian Dominion, but it is a great work to 

 have the framework already set up to be 

 filled in future years." 



Officers of the American Association. 



The next meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science is to be 

 held August 16 to 22, 1894, probably in 

 Brooklyn, N. Y., under the presidency of 

 Daniel G. Brinton, of Media, Pa. The fol- 

 lowing are the vice-presidents and secre- 

 taries of sections and general officers elect : 

 Vice-Presidents : (A) Mathematics and As- 

 tronomy George C. Comstock, Madison, 

 Wis. ; (B) Physics William A. Rogers, 

 Waterville, Me. ; (C) Chemistry Thomas 

 H. Norton, Cincinnati, Ohio ; (D) Mechanic- 

 al Science and Engineering Mansfield Mer- 

 riman, South Bethlehem, Pa. ; (E) Geology 

 and Geography Samuel Calvin, Iowa City, 

 Iowa ; (F) Zoology Samuel H. Scudder, 

 Cambridge, Mass. ; (G) Botany Lucien M. 

 Underwood, Greencastle, Ind. ; (H) Anthro- 

 pology Franz Boas, Worcester, Mass. ; (I) 

 Economic Science and Statistics Henry Far- 

 quhar, Washington, D. C. Permanent Secre- 

 tary: F. W. Putnam, Cambridge (office, Sa- 

 lem), Mass. General Secretary : H. L. Fair- 

 child, Rochester, N. Y. Secretary of the 

 Council: James Lewis Howe, Louisville, Ky. 

 Secretaries of the Sections : (A) Mathematics 

 and Astronomy Wooster W. Beman, Ann 

 Arbor, Mich.; (B) Physics Benjamin W. 

 Snow, Madison, Wis. ; (C) Chemistry S. M. 

 Babcock, Madison, Wis.; (D) Mechanical 

 Science and Engineering John H. Kinealy, 

 St. Louis, Mo. ; (E) Geology and Geography 

 William Morris Davis, Cambridge, Ma->. , 

 (F) Zoology William Libbey, Jr., Prince- 

 ton, N. J. ; (G) Botany Charles R. Barnes, 

 Madison, Wis. ; (H) Anthropology Alexan- 



