646 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 175. 



the present week is an African number. It 

 contains a political-physical map of Africa 

 printed in colors and numerous contributions 

 by well-known writers, including Mr. Henry 

 M. Stanley, Dr. Scott Keltic and others. 



The May Educational Review, concluding the 

 fifteenth volume, contains the following papers 

 prepared for the Harvard Teachers' Associa- 

 tion : The election of studies in secondary 

 schools, five articles, as follows : 1. ' Its Ef- 

 fect upon the Colleges :' by Nathaniel S. 

 Shaler. 2. ' Its Effect upon the Community :' 

 by Samuel Thurber. 3. ' A Negative View:' by 

 John Tetlow. 4 and 5. 'AflSrmative Views:' 

 by Charles W. Eliot and George H. Martin. 

 'The School Grade a Fiction:' by Wilbur S. 

 Jackman ; and ' Knowledge Through Associa- 

 tion:' by T. L. Bolton and Ellen M. Haskell. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON — 291ST. 



MEETING, SATURDAY, APRIL 9. 



Mr. Vernon Bailey described the manner 

 in which beavers fell trees, saying that they 

 did not gnaw squarely across, but made two 

 cuts a short distance apart vertically and pried 

 out a chip between them. The result was a 

 V-shaped cut very similar in appearance to 

 that made by a wood cutter. 



Professor O. P. Hay made some ' Observa- 

 tions on the genus of Cretaceous Fishes, called 

 by Professor Cope Portheus,^ discussing the 

 osteology of the genus at some length and par- 

 ticularly the skull, shoulder girdle and verte- 

 bral column. He said that in many respects it 

 resembled the Tarpon of our Southern coasts, 

 although possessing widely different teeth, and 

 undoubtedly belonged to the Isospondyli. The 

 conclusion was reached that Cope's Poriheus is 

 identical with the earlier described genus Xiph- 

 actinas of Leidy. (Since the paper was read 

 the author has learned that Professor Williston 

 has reached the same conclusion.) 



Mr. W. H. Osgood gave some ' Notes on the 

 Natural History of the Farallon Islands,' dwell- 

 ing particularly on the birds and illustrating 

 his remarks with lantern slides. Mr. AVilliam 

 Palmer presented a paper on 'A Phase of 



Feather Re-pigmentation,' briefly reviewing 

 the discussion regarding this mooted question, 

 stating that much of the discrepancy between 

 the statements of the advocates and opponents 

 of the subject was probably due to the geo- 

 graphical conditions under which their birds 

 had been obtained. The theory was advanced 

 that migration arrested the moult of birds, the 

 drain upon their strength made by protracted 

 flight preventing the growth of the new feath- 

 ers and the shedding of the old. 



F. A. Lucas, 

 Secretary. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASH- 

 INGTON. 



The 276th regular meeting of the Society- 

 was held on Tuesday evening, April 5, 1898. 

 Professor Otis T. Mason read a paper on 

 ' Egypt in America. ' He called attention to 

 the early and insidious intrusion of the Iron 

 Age into America everywhere, through the 

 blonde Teuton, the dark-eyed Kelt and the 

 melanchroic Spaniards and Portuguese. This 

 time he confined the argument to the way in 

 which much of the primitive life of Arabia, 

 Palestine, Egypt and Northern Africa found its 

 way to Latin America. Dr. Briuton, he said, 

 had just emphasized the vast importance of 

 North Africa and the Hamite (Khamite) in 

 early civilization. Keane also had dwelt on 

 this same subject in his late work, and Ripley 

 was quoted as saying, "Beyond the Pyrenees- 

 begins Africa." The first settlers of Spain 

 were Hamites, and they formed the folk of the 

 peninsula during Keltic and Roman occupation. 

 Phoenicia strengthened the bond with the 

 mother race. Carthage went to Spain to claim 

 her own, and for seven hundred years and more 

 (711-1492) all the Semite-Hamite elements of 

 the Moorish occupation were added to the old. 

 It was this that furnished the folk life that came 

 to middle America and easily and early aflBliated 

 itself with the natives. This folk life insidiously 

 grows over the old, genuine, aboriginal culture 

 and attracts the eye of the traveler who may 

 have sojourned also in North Africa, Egypt or 

 Palestine. By the trained eye it is easily de- 

 tected and eliminated. For three thousand 

 years the Khamites accultured Spain. In the 



