54 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 159. 



was indicated. Dr. Boas and others con- 

 tributed supplementary information. 



' Views of the Paleolithic Question,' by 

 Rev. Stephen D. Peet, and ' The Collection 

 of Anthropometric Data,' by Professor J. 

 McKeen Cattell, were read by title. 



The next communication was presented 

 under the title ' Conditions attending the 

 Else of Civilization,' by W J McGee. The 

 author pointed out that the development of 

 civilization on the shores of the Mediterra- 

 nean was attended by growing recognition 

 of proprietary right in land, together with 

 concomitant recognition of the territorial 

 rights of others, and the gradual growth of 

 law relating to boundai-ies, monuments and 

 inheritances. He gave special emphasis to 

 the altruistic character of the laws regula- 

 ting territorial interest. Considering, then, 

 the characteristics of life in desert regions, 

 he showed that the tendency of common 

 strife against hard physical environment is 

 toward the development of an intimate co- 

 peration and interaction of such sort as to 

 simulate the altruism of civilization. He 

 then touched briefly on the influence of 

 desert conditions in promoting the recogni- 

 tion first of custom and then of law cor- 

 responding to the customs and laws of ad- 

 vanced culture. The communication was 

 discussed by Professor J. Mark Baldwin, 

 Dr. Farrand and Dr. Boas. 



An informal symposium followed on the 

 question ' Will Winter Meetings Meet the 

 Need of American Anthropologists for Or- 

 ganization ?' It resulted in a decision to 

 recommend to the Association that pro- 

 vision be made for a meeting of the Section 

 of Anthropology to be held in New York 

 during the Christmas holidays of 1898. In- 

 cidentally the need of a medium for the 

 publication of anthropologic papers received 

 consideration, and a special committee was 

 appointed and given power to act toward 

 the establishment or adoption of an Ameri- 

 can anthropological journal, the commit- 



tee consisting of Messrs. Boas (chairman), 

 Brinton, Putnam, Frank Baker and McGee. 

 The Section adjourned at 5 p. m. to meet 

 with others at Boston. 



W J McGee, 

 Vice-President Section H. 



ALONZO S. KIMBALL. 

 Pkofessok Alonzo S. Kimball, who 

 was for a quarter of a century professor of 

 physics in the Worcester Polytechnic In- 

 stitute, was born at Center Harbor, New 

 Hampshire, in 1843. He was prepared for 

 college at New Hampton Academy, and 

 was graduated from Amherst College in 

 1866. In 1871 he was called to the Wor- 

 cester Polytechnic Institute, which had 

 just graduated its first class. He organized 

 the department of physics, and the In- 

 stitute was among the first in the country 

 to provide systematic instruction in a 

 physical laboratory. After seven or eight 

 years of great activity and usefulness, shown 

 alike in the development of the important 

 department of which he had charge, and in 

 a series of valuable original contributions 

 to physical science, he was, in 1879, at- 

 tacked by a painful disease,which, in spite of 

 the highest medical skill in both this coun- 

 try and Europe, proved to be incurable, and 

 from the efi"ects of which he died on Decem- 

 ber 2, 1897. Notwithstanding the steady 

 progress of a malady which entailed nearly 

 continuous suffering. Professor Kimball, 

 through all these years, discharged the 

 constantly increasing duties of his position 

 to the great satisfaction of the officers of 

 the Institute and of the hundreds of pupils 

 to whom his life and work were always in- 

 spiring. In addition to his regular work in 

 Worcester, he was for several years a lec- 

 turer at Mt. Holyoke College, of which in- 

 stitution he was for many years and at the 

 time of his death a Trustee. While the 

 Salisbury Laboratories of the Polytechnic 

 Institute were being built he spent a year 



