June 27, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



983 



the late Rev. J. O. Dorsey. They honored his 

 personal character and his conscientious ef- 

 forts, and preferred silence to the unwelcome 

 task of pointing out the numerous errors 

 throughout his work when he was no longer 

 living to rectify them. Had Mr. Dorsey con- 

 tinued the study of the Omaha language and 

 so perfected his knowledge of it he would 

 have been better able to understand the mean- 

 ing of the institutions and ideals of the tribe 

 as they were explained to him in the native 

 tongue. Regrettably his imperfect knowledge 

 of the language, as can readily be seen in his 

 Omaha texts, accounts for misconceptions that 

 now appear in his writings. 



It is with regret that the authors are now 

 obliged to break the silence which they would 

 have preferred to maintain. The misconcep- 

 tions of Mr. Dorsey, cited by the reviewer, 

 they corrected in the interest of truth, but 

 without caring to detract from the credit due 

 to the deserving author. Their competency 

 to do so comes from the long and careful 

 study of the tribal institutions and the beliefs 

 on which they were founded, made in con- 

 junction with practically all those men of the 

 tribe who by position and ability were quali- 

 fied to explain and to interpret tribal life and 

 thought, and also to point out the differences 

 between teachings that were to be taken lit- 

 erally and those which were symbolic in form 

 and character. 



The unusual advantages under which the 

 monograph was prepared are indicated in the 

 foreword (p. 30). One of the authors is not 

 only himself an Omaha and well versed in his 

 native language, but is equipped with a knowl- 

 edge of English, so that niceties of the mean- 

 ing and of the usage of words are made clear. 

 In consequence of these facts and conditions 

 it was in the power of the authors to state 

 that among the Omaha tribe there was no be- 

 lief that the ancestors of the people were 

 animals and that at death men returned to 

 the animals from which they sprang. 



It would take too much space to reply to 

 all the animadversions and innuendos of the 

 would-be reviewer, nor would any good pur- 

 pose thereby be served. 



Francis La Flesche 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Eloges academiques et divers. Volume puhlie 



par le comite du juhile scieniifique de M. 



Gaston Darhoux. By Gaston Darboux. 



Paris, A. Hermann & Fils. 1912. Pp. 525 



4- 4 + portrait. Price, 5 francs. 



Jean Gaston Darboux, most eminent of liv- 

 ing geometers, was born at Nimes, France, 

 April 13, 1842. His scientific career may be 

 said to have begun with his entry into the 

 Elcole Normale Superieure in 1861. To com- 

 memorate the fiftieth anniversary of this 

 event' it was proposed early in 1911, by a large 

 international group of his mathematical co- 

 workers, friends and former pupils (Professor 

 Hale, of Mount Wilson Observatory, and Pro- 

 fessor Hancock, of Cincinnati, were the Amer- 

 ican representatives), to present to Professor 

 Darboux a gold medal bearing his portrait, 

 and an appropriate address signed by the par- 

 ticipants. All mathematicians were invited 

 to share in rendering this honor to Professor 

 Darboux. The response was so generous, the 

 committee was enabled not only to have the 

 eminent artist M. Vernon execute the medal 

 but also to publish a memorial volume. This 

 volume contains a full report of the commem- 

 oration proceedings which took place at the 

 Sorbonne, January 21, 1912; Lippmann, Ap- 

 pell, Poincare, Picard, Volterra, were among 

 the speakers. It also contains 6 eloges his- 

 toriques (pages 1-306) which Darboux as sec- 

 retaire perpetuel delivered before the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences of the Institut after his elec- 

 tion in 1900. And finall,y, we find a dozen of 

 his miscellaneous addresses (pages 307-440) 

 among which mention may be made of that on 

 " The Unity of Science," delivered at St. 

 Louis in 1904, and that on " Fulton and the 

 Academy of Science," delivered in 1909. 



The volume is of particular interest to the 

 scientist because of the most attractive style 



* Curiously enough the letter sent out by the 

 international committee stated that the jubilee of 

 service as a teacher in the system of public in- 

 struction in France was to be celebrated. This 

 error is perpetuated on page 443 of the memorial 

 volume to be presently referred to. As a matter 

 of fact, Darboux is even now a year or so short of 

 such a period of service. 



