February 4, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



179 



been announced from Block Island. The paper 

 was discussed by Professors Lloyd and Mar- 

 tin. 



The second paper of the evening was by the 

 Secretary, entitled ' Scientific Geography in 

 Education. ' The speaker brought out the point 

 that geography work may be classified into 

 three divisions — that for the common schools, 

 the secondary schools and the universities — and 

 outlined briefly a few suggestions as to how the 

 subject-matter might be treated scientifically in 

 each of the groups, and the dependence of each 

 group upon the othei'S. He paid particular at- 

 tentioh to the difficulties of securing scientific 

 work in geography in the grade schools, and to 

 the fact that the present work is extremely un- 

 satisfactory in most of our schools, probably be- 

 cause of the lack of inspiration, owing to the 

 neglect of the subject hitherto in universities 

 of the country. The paper was illustrated by 

 a series of cheap and easily procurable maps 

 that may be used for scientific geography work 

 in either of the groups mentioned. 



The meeting then closed with a few remarks 

 by the Chairman in reference to the famous 

 classic entitled ' Lithographise Wircenburgensis 

 ducentis lapidum figuratorum, a potiori insecti- 

 formium prodigiosis imaginibus exornatse, speci- 

 men primum,' written by Dr. Beringer and pub- 

 lished in Wiirzburg in 1726. Professor Kemp 

 summarized the work of the author in attempt- 

 ing to explain a great collection of pseudo-fos- 

 sils from a theological standpoint, the fossils 

 having previously been made by some practical 

 jokers and buried in the rocks for the author to 

 find. 



Richard E. Dodge, 



Secretary. 



SUB-SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND 

 PSYCHOLOGY. 



At the regular meeting of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences at 64 Madison Avenue, 

 Monday evening, January 24th, fourteen new 

 names were proposed for membership. This is 

 evidence of the increased interest being awaken- 

 ed in the Academy by the active efforts of Presi- 

 dent Stevenson. The hope was expressed that 

 the number of members might soon be raised to 

 five hundred. 



The principle paper of the evening was pre- 

 sented by Mr. E. L. Thorndike, of Columbia 

 University. He gave an account of a long 

 series of interesting experiments on compara- 

 tive psychology. These experiments were 

 made upon cats, chickens, dogs, monkeys and 

 other animals and were supplemented by the 

 experience of professional animal trainers. 



Cats were placed in boxes with doors so ar- 

 ranged that they could be opened from the in- 

 side in various ways, in one set of experiments 

 by pressing a latch, in another by pulling a 

 cord, by pulling a hook attached to a cord, or 

 by turning a button. Again the arrangement 

 was more complicated and two or three sepa- 

 rate movements had to be combined in order to 

 release the door and let the animal out to reach 

 the fish placed outside the cage. Curves were 

 given showing the rate at which the kittens 

 learned the various tricks, the time taken to 

 get out becoming gradually shorter. 



The trick was always learned by accident ; 

 one lucky hit would prepare the way for 

 another. There was no trace of rational in- 

 ference. Seeing another animal do the trick a 

 hundred times was no help. Nor was it possi- 

 ble to teach the trick by taking the kitten's 

 paw and putting it on the latch and so opening 

 the door, no matter how often it was repeated. 



A habit once formed artificially will over- 

 power natural instincts. A chicken that had 

 been compelled to jump from a box to the floor 

 in a roundabout way by a cardboard placed in 

 its way felt unable to jump down to its food 

 directly when the card was taken away. 



The second paper was presented by Mr. H. 

 I. Smith, of the Museum of Natural History. 

 He gave an account of the archaeological work 

 which he did in British Columbia during the 

 summer. He was the third member of the 

 Jesup expedition, with Dr. Boas and Dr. Far- 

 rand. The work of the expedition has already 

 been described in Science. 



Dr. Livingston Farrand, of Columbia Univer- 

 sitjr, presented a brief report of the meeting of 

 the American Psychological Association held at 

 Cornell during the holidays. 



Charles B. Bliss, 



Secretary. 



