Sei'TEMuer 13, 1S94J 



NATURE 



4S7 



had been a better botanist -he would never have proinulgated 

 his theory of the isolation of the germ plasm." 



Prof. L. H. liiiley discussed the relation of (he age of type 

 to variabiliiy. He called attention to the wide range in varia- 

 bility of cultivated types, some of which, he said, vary so much 

 and so quickly that specific types may be lost, yet the ditTerence 

 was not due to age or period, nor to geography or diversity of 

 cultivation. Continuing, he said : 



"Variability under cultivation must be ascribed to some 

 original elasticity of the species, and this elasticity or flexibility 

 is no doubt intimately associated with the phylogeny of the 

 type. The common notion that man can modify any plant in 

 given directions is not true. The newer the type the more 

 readily does it vary. All this establishes an intimate relationship 

 between development under cultivation and evolution under 

 natural conditions. They are not two, but one, and the agri- 

 culture ()!<■) of man is but an extension of the agriculture of 

 nature." 



Prof. Bailey also read a paper on the struggle for existence 

 under cultivation, and during the course of his remarks he 

 said — 



" It is commonly supposed that struggle for existence ceases 

 under cultivation, and that man's endeavours and nature's are 

 two. Here we have statistics. There are enough seeds in the 

 United States to stock the world. It is observed that in culti- 

 vation there is less waste than in nature. Struggle is more 

 intense than in nature. Not more than one in twenty or more 

 which actually germinate are allowed to mature. But it is a 

 struggle of few against few, rather than a struggle of few against 

 many. This struggle, therefore, instead of fixing the specific 

 type in a warfare against outsiders, sets up a divergence among 

 individuals of the species itself. This, to my mind, is one of 

 the reasons for the rapid development of garden plants." 



Olher papers read before the joint meeting were: — The 

 numerical intensity of faunas, L. P. Gratacap ; the growth of 

 radishes as affected by the size and weight of the seed, B. T. 

 dalloway ; the work of the Indiana Biological Survey, A. \V. 

 Butler ; the movement of gases in rhizomes, Kalherine E. 

 Golden : soine interesting conditions in wood resulting from the 

 attacks of insects and woodpeckers, A. D. Hopkins. 



A paper on evidence as to the former existence of large trees 

 on Nantucket Island, by Dr. Burt G. Wilder, was read before 

 the section of Botany. 



Ur. Byron D. Halstead, in a paper upon a root rot of beets, 

 before the section of Botany, described a new disease of those 

 plants. 



Major J. Hotchkiss showed specimens of wood cut from trees 

 that had been marked by surveyors 107 years ago. The 

 presence of the injury was still manifest upon the surface o'' the 

 trees. The growth per year was about one-twentieth of an inch. 



Dr. E. F. Smith read a pajjer on watermelon disease in the 

 south. Olher papers read were : — The sugar maples of Central 

 Michigan, \V. J. Beal ; some affinities among Cactacece, John 

 M. Coulter ; simplification and degeneration, Charles E. 

 Bessey ; regulatory growth of mechanical tissue, Frederick C. 

 Newcombe ; further studies in the relationship and arrangement 

 of the flowering plants, Charles E. Bessey. 



Anthropology. 



Dr. Fran?. Boaz's address to this section was on human faculty 

 as determined by race. He traced the history of civilisation 

 from its dawn in the far East until now, showirn; how ideas and 

 inventions were carried from one nation to another. I le referred 

 to the civilisations in ancient Peru and Central .Xmerica, and 

 showed that the general advancement was the same as in Asia 

 and Europe. The only dilTerence was one of time. One 

 reached a certain stage 3000 or 4000 years earlier than the other. 

 But this difference was insignificant compared with the age of 

 the human race. Man had existed for a period to be measured 

 by geological standards only. He showed that, in the past, 

 nations brought into contact with civilisation easily assimilated it, 

 and now they dwindled away before its approach. This was due 

 to the fact that formerly races did not differ so widely as at 

 present, and now disease devastated regions newly opened to 

 white people. The conditions for assimilation in ancient 

 Europe were much more favourable than in countries where 

 primitive people now came in contact with civilisation. This 

 conclusion was confirmed by other facts from the history of 

 civilisation — Northern Africa and in China. 



NO. 1298, VOL. 50] 



Dr. Boaz remarked : ' ' Several races have developed a civilisa- 

 tion of a similar type to the one from which our own had its 

 origin. A number of favourable conditions facilitated the 

 rapid spread of this civilisation in Europe. Among these com- 

 mon physical appearances, contiguity of habitat and moderate 

 differences in the modes of manufacture were the most potent. 

 When, later on, civilisation began to spread over other conti- 

 nents the races with which the modern civilisation came into 

 contact were not equally favourably situated. In short, historical 

 factors appear to have been much more potent in leading races 

 to civilisation than their faculty, and it follows that achievements 

 of races do not warrant us to assume that one race is more 

 highly gifted than another." 



He also said: "After going over the field of anatomical 

 differences, between races, so far as they have a bearing upon 

 our question, our conclusion is that there are differences 

 between the physical characters ol races which make it probable 

 that there may be differences of faculty. No unquestionable 

 fact, however, has been found yet which would prove beyond 

 a doubt that it will be impossible for certain races to attain a 

 higher civilisation." 



Dr. Boaz expressed the opinion that the probable effect 

 of civilisation upon an evolution of human faculty has been 

 much over-estimated. The psychical changes which are the 

 immediate consequence of civilisation may be considerable. 

 They are changes due to the influence of environment. It is 

 doubtful, however, if any proL;ressive changes or such as are 

 transmitted by heredity have taken place. The number of 

 generations subjected to this influence seems altogether too small, 

 liesides, the tendency of human multiplication is such that the 

 most highly cultured families tend to disappear, while others, 

 who have been less subjected to the influences regulating the 

 life of the most cultured classes, take their place. Therefore, 

 it is much less likely that advance is hereditary than that it is 

 transmitted by means of education. 



In conclusion Dr. Boaz said : " The average faculty of the 

 white race is found to the same degree in a large proportion of 

 individuals of all other races, and although it is probable that 

 some of these races may not produce as large a proportion of 

 great men as our own race, there is no reason to suppose that 

 they are unable to reach the level of civilisation represented by 

 the bulk of our own people." 



In the Anthropological Section, Dr. Daniel G. Brintonreada 

 paper entitled "Variations in the human skeleton and their 

 causes." The speaker called attention to a number of peculiarities 

 in the human skeleton which had attracted the notice of anato- 

 mists, and which had frequently been interpreted as signs of 

 reversion to an ape-like ancestry. He said that most of these 

 variations can be explained by mechanical function, or excess 

 or deficiency of nutrition ; and when they can be so explained, 

 this is the only interpretation they should receive. Theyould 

 no longer be oflTered as evidence of the theory of evolution, 

 nor considered as criteria or marks of the human races. 



Mi-. M. H. Saville read a paper on a comparative study of 

 the Glyphs of Copan and Quirigua, in which he presented his 

 conclusions on the hieroglyph " pax. " In the discussion of Mr. 

 .Saville's paper. Dr. Brinton presentc-d his conclusions, which 

 he announced for the first time, b.ased upon studies of vases in 

 the museum of Pennsylvania, that the symbol pax was a repre- 

 sentation of the sacred drum of the Aztec, and that the 

 hieroglyph stood in the codices for paxahs, " It is finished." 



" Iroquois migration " was the subject of a brief paper by the 

 Rev. Dr. Beauchamp, who said that one at least of the three 

 great divisions of the Iroquois family had its centre near the. 

 south-western border of Lake Erie. 



Mr. Frank ILimilton Cushing, ethnologist for the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology at Washington, read a paper entitled 

 ■' Salt in Savagery." lie referred tot he universal liking for salt 

 among the Indians of North America. The Zuni Indians 

 believed that the first salt came from the sun. -According to 

 Indian mythology, there is a salt goddess who is the daughter 

 of the ocean. Mr. Cushing related her genealogy, and then 

 proceeded to discuss the influence of salt upon the culture of 

 the Indians in the southwest. He stated that he believed that 

 nothing led the cliff-dwellers down from their inaccessible 

 dwellings to live in villages more than their desire for salt. 

 Men's dispersion over the world, said Mr. Cushing, is largely 

 influenced by salt. Coming down from his arboreal retreat, 

 where he lived on nuts and fruit, he found the seashore and 

 acquired a taste for a substance now universally used. 



