SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING TH6 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



Fbiday, July 10, 1908 



contents 



Physical Anthropology and its Aims: De. 

 Ales Hedlicka 33 



The Hanover Meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advamcement of Science . . 43 



Scientific Notes and News 45 



University and Educational News 48 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Mendelian Proportions: G. H. Haedt. 

 Pure Cultures for Legume Inoculation: 

 Kael p. Kellebman. A Study of the Be- 

 markahle Illumination of the Sky on March 

 Z7, 1908: WiLMOT E. Ellis 49 



Quotations : — 

 The Cavendish Laboratory 53 



Scientific Books: — 

 lioss's Social Psychology : Professoe Les- 

 TEE F. Waed. Poor's The Solar System: 

 Peofessob C. L. Doolittle 54 



Scientific Journals and Articles 56 



The Coco Bud-rot in Cuba 57 



Special Articles: — 

 Regarding the Future of the Guano In- 

 dustry and the Guano-producing Birds of 

 Peru: Db. Eobeet E. Cokee 58 



Societies and Acoydemies: — 



The Philosophical Society of Washington: 



E. L. Fabis 64 



MSB. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 EudsoQ, N. Y., or during the present summer to Wood's Hole, 

 Mass, 



PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ITS AIMS'- 

 The phenomena of the universe, brought 

 within the range of human understanding 

 and preserved in memory or writing, con- 

 stitute knowledge; and systematic search 

 for knowledge, on the basis of the highest 

 standards of learning, is science. This in 

 its application being of the utmost utility, 

 constitutes the most important function of 

 mankind. A branch of science is a por- 

 tion of systematic research that extends to 

 closely related phenomena and has become 

 the special function of a definite class of 

 qualified observers. 



One of these branches is anthropology, 

 described by its principal promoter, Broca, 

 as "the natural history of the genus 

 homo," or, more in detail, as "that science 

 which has for its object the study of 

 mankind as a whole, in its parts, and in 

 its relation with the rest of nature. "= 

 In the light of to-day, it may be defined 

 more strictly as that portion of systematic 

 research which deals with the diiferences 



'Annual address of the president of the An- 

 thropological Society of Washington, given under 

 the auspices of the Washington Academy of Sci- 

 ences, February 11, 1908. 



- Article " Anthropologie " in the Diction, 

 encyclop. d. sc's. mgd., Vol. V., p. 276 — Paris, 

 1866; also in Broca's " Mgmoires d'anthropol- 

 ogie," Paris, 1871, Vol. I., p. 1. References to 

 numerous definitions in R. Martin, " System d. 

 (physischen) Anthropologie, etc.," Korr.-Bl. d. 

 deutsch. Anthrop. Ges., 1907, Nr. 9/12. See also 

 L. Manouvrier, Rev. de VEcole d'Anthrop., 1904, 

 pp. 397-410, and F. Boas, "Anthropology," 8°, 

 pp. 1-28, The Columbia University Press, N. Y., 

 1908. 



