176 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 710 



A CONTINUOUS CALORIMETER 



To THE Editor of Science: In your issue 

 of July 24 Professor Lyndley Pyle refers to 

 the use of the continuous calorimeter by 

 students of Washington University for the 

 past fifteen years. It is gratifying to learn 

 that the method has been so thoroughly tested 

 elsewhere for this purpose. In taking up your 

 valuable space in my article of May 15 I 

 described a particular type of simple calori- 

 meter that we have found most suitable for 

 the elementary work. That this method is 

 not generally used in place of the older and 

 more troublesome method of measuring Joule's 

 heat appears to be because sufficient attention 

 has not been drawn to it. The directness, 

 accuracy and ease of manipulation will ap- 

 peal I think to all those who have charge of 

 laboratory classes. 



The method itself, is, of course, not new. 

 Callendar used it more than twenty-two years 

 ago at Cambridge for comparing the thermal 

 and electrical units, but it was not until he 

 came to McGill University in 1893 that steps 

 were taken to thoroughly investigate the 

 merits of the method. A continuous method 

 was used by Graetz as early as 1882 for 

 measuring thermal conductivities. 



H. T. Barnes 



McGtIll University, 

 July 29, 1908 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Ex- 

 pedition. Edited by Eranz Boas. Leiden, 

 E. J. Brill Limited; New York, G. E. 

 Stechert & Co. 4to. 

 During the past year the following numbers 



of this publication have been issued: 



The Lillooet Indians. By James Teit. (Vol. 



n.. Part V.) 



In this book Mr. Teit describes the customs 

 of the Lillooet, a branch of the Salish Indians, 

 who inhabit the valleys of the Coast Range of 

 British Columbia, from Harrison Lake to the 

 upper reaches of Eraser River. Mr. Teit vis- 

 ited the tribe twice, and describes in some 

 detail the customs of both its lower and upper 



divisions. The plan of description is similar 

 to that of Mr. Teit's well-known book on the 

 Thompson Indians of British Columbia; the 

 habitat and divisions of the tribe, material 

 culture, warfare, games and pastimes, social 

 organization and festivals, birth, childhood, 

 marriage and death, and religion being taken 

 up in detail. On the whole, the Lillooet re- 

 semble in their culture the tribes of the in- 

 terior, but they form an interesting link be- 

 tween them and the coast tribes, having 

 adopted many of the industries and a consid- 

 erable part of the social traits of the coast 

 tribes. Mr. Teit describes in detail how the 

 influence of the coast culture gradually dimin- 

 ishes towards those divisions of the Lillooet 

 that reside farthest away from the coast. Of 

 special interest in the descriptions is the dis- 

 cussion of the imbricated basketry and of the 

 basketry designs of the tribe, a subject which 

 has received considerable attention in recent 

 literature. The houses of the division of the 

 tribe living near the coast were similar in 

 structure to the large wooden houses of the 

 Coast Salish, while the tribes of the interior 

 lived in underground dwellings and in tents. 

 Weaving like that produced by the Salish 

 Indians of the Gulf of Georgia was confined 

 to the Lower Lillooet. The tribe has been so 

 much influenced by the whites that very few 

 of the old specimens remain, and consequently 

 not many of the objects in use among them 

 formerly could be illustrated. The transi- 

 tional stage in the social organization of the 

 tribe is interesting from a theoretical point 

 of view, in so far as it shows clearly how a 

 semi-totemic organization may influence a 

 people that in previous times was organized 

 only in very loose village communities. At 

 the present time the influence of the totemic 

 organization may be observed particularly in 

 grave-monuments which are still preserved,, 

 many of which represent figures of ancestors 

 and of totemic beings. The religious concepts 

 of the people differ only slightly from those of 

 the Thompson Indians. The numerous rock- 

 paintings in the Lillooet country have refer- 

 ence particularly to the puberty ceremonials, 

 and are explained in a manner similar to those 



