APEIL22, 1898.1 



SCIENCE. 



551 



surface. Sucli maps did not exist. A frag- 

 ment here and tliere, to be sure, existed 

 — a fringe of sea and lake coast ; but 

 these constituted only a bare beginning. 

 Accordingly, in 1882 authority was given 

 and the beginning of the mighty task 

 of making a topographic map of the 

 United States was begun-. That work has 

 for sixteen years progressed without in- 

 terruption, and to-day we have contour 

 topographic maps covering more than 

 600,000 square miles. In almost every 

 State and Territory in the Union work has 

 been done, while Massachusetts, Connecti- 

 cut, Ehode Island, ]S"ew Jersey and the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia are completely mapped. 



That the prosecution of this work and 

 the distribution of the maps has profoundly 

 influenced interest in and knowledge of 

 geography in the United States goes with- 

 out saying. These maps are in the hands 

 of engineers, of projectors of improvements, 

 of teachers, of text-book makers, and of 

 geographic students everywhere. The 

 standards of school geographies have risen, 

 methods of geographic teaching have been 

 changed, and a better understanding of the 

 relations of environment produced. 



And thus the first century of progress in 

 geography ends with a rate of progress, both 

 in research and teaching, never surpassed. 

 That which has been already accomplished 

 is great ; yet it is but a small part of that 

 which remains to be done. 



Marcus Bakee. 



U. S. Geological Survey. 



■ON THE INHERITANCE OF THE CEPHALIC 



INDEX.'^ 



(1) The cephalic index, when used to 

 test any theory of heredity, possesses many 

 merits, and at the same time one or two 



* ' Mathematical Contributions to the Theory of 

 Evolution.' By Miss Cicely D. Fawcett, B.Sc, and 

 Professor Karl Pearson, M.A., F.E.S., University 

 College, London. Eead before the Royal Society, 

 February 17, 1898. 



defects. In the first place it is supposed to 

 be a marked racial character, and, there- 

 fore, might be considered to be strongly 

 inherited. . In the next place it remains 

 sensibly constant after two j'ears of age ; 

 thus the strength of inheritance can be as- 

 certained by measurements on young chil- 

 dren, whose parents are more frequently 

 alive than if we have to wait for measure- 

 ment till the offspring are of adult age. 

 Further, although the cephalic index re- 

 quires a more trained hand to measure it 

 than some other measurements on the living 

 subject, the trained observer will always 

 deduce sensibly the same results ;* on the 

 other hand, stature measurements vary 

 sensibly with the hour of the day and with 

 the observer. The need of a moderately 

 trained observer is the chief defect of 

 cephalic index measurements ; it hinders 

 the rapid collection of numerous family 

 measurements; the dtfl&culty, further, of 

 satisfactorily measuring the female head 

 without some derangement of the toilet is 

 a farther hindrance.! The merits of the 

 cephalic index, however, as a test of hered- 

 ity far surpass its demerits. A well-organ- 

 ized measurement of the cephalic index in 

 pairs of relatives would probably give the 

 best results available for the laws of in- 

 heritance. The cephalic index measured 

 on the living head is, of course, not so satis- 

 factory as that measured on the skull, but 

 the latter may be considered, even with 

 the aid of Rdntgen rays, as at present quite 

 out of the question. The following paper 

 has been worked out, not on very good 

 material or on material collected with the 

 present end in view, but on the only material 

 that seemed at present available. It suffices 



* This has been tested by frequent measurements 

 of the same heads. 



t The recent establishment of an anthropometrio 

 laboratory at Newnham College will, it may be hoped, 

 remove the difficulty about head measurements on 

 female students felt by the Cambridge Anthropmetrio 

 Committee. 



