Mat 7, 1909] 



SGIENGE'^ 



741 



ditions of city or village life. The matter 

 must rest here im.til further statistics are 

 available. 



W. J. Spillman 

 U. S. Depaetment of Agbicuituke 



THE RELATION OF THE METER AND THE YAED 



To THE Editor of Science : It is a matter of 

 astonishment to me that so many men, authors 

 of scientific books, are ignorant of the fact 

 that the relation between the meter and the 

 yard is in the United States fixed by law, 

 viz., 1 meter = 39.37 inches. In England the 

 established relation is 1 meter = 39.370113 

 inches. As examples, see " Fortie's Electrical 

 Engineers' Handbook," 5th Ed., 1908, p. 

 1500, and " Eggleston's Tables of Weights and 

 Measures," 4th Ed., 1900, p. viii, in both of 

 which the archaic, inherited necessary rela- 

 tion, 1 meter = 39.37079 inches is adopted. 

 In trade catalogues an error of this sort is 

 not so serious and is occasionally made; but 

 in a scientific publication it is unpardonable. 

 Marshall D. Ewell 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Primitive Secret Societies. A Study in Early 

 Politics and Religion. By Hutton Webster, 

 Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Anthro- 

 pology in the University of Nebraska. 

 New York, The MacmiUan Co. 1908. Pp. 

 xiii + 227. 



This book, which has served in its original 

 form as a thesis for the doctorate in political 

 science at Harvard University, treats, ia 

 eleven chapters, of the men's house, the pu- 

 berty institution, the secret rites, the training 

 of the novice, the power of the elders, develop- 

 ment of tribal societies, functions of tribal 

 societies, decline of tribal societies, the clan 

 ceremonies, magical fraternities, diffusion of 

 initiation ceremonies. The author's studies 

 were concluded before he became acquainted 

 with the late Dr. Heinrich Schurtz's " Alters- 

 klassen und Mannerbiinde " (Berlin, 1902), 

 of which, however, he was able to make some 

 use in the present monograph. The book of 

 Schurtz, rather tendenzios in places and 

 somewhat marred by a philological appendix, 

 but, nevertheless, an interesting and valuable 



summary of facts, was preceded by Boas's 

 (1895-7) investigations of the social organi- 

 zation and secret societies of the Indian 

 tribes of the North Pacific coast (particularly 

 the Kwakiutl), which still remain the best 

 source of information for that region, as yet 

 not adequately used by any authority. For 

 the Plains tribes we have recent investiga- 

 tions by Wissler, Dorsey, Fletcher, Kroeber, 

 and for the Pueblos Indians, those of Fewkes, 

 etc. The material in Dr. Webster's book, as 

 is the case with aU others dealing generally 

 with the topic of secret societies and cere- 

 monies, is preponderatingly Australasian, 

 Indonesian and African, though at pages 15-19 

 ("men's house"), 131-134 (age-societies), 

 147-159 (clan-ceremonies) and 176-190 (mag- 

 ical fraternities), the aborigines of the new 

 world receive particular attention. 



The author begins with the "men's house," 

 described as follows: 



The men's house ia usually the largest building 

 in a tribal settlement. It belongs in common to 

 the villagers; it serves as council-chamber and 

 town hall, as a guest-house for strangers, and as 

 the sleeping resort of the men. Frequently seats 

 in the house are assigned to elders and other lead- 

 ing individuals according to their dignity and 

 importance. Here the more precious belongings 

 of the community, such as trophies taken in war 

 or in the chase, and religious emblems of various 

 sorts, are preserved. Within its precincts, women 

 and children, and men not fully initiated members 

 of the tribe, seldom or never enter. When mar- 

 riage and exclusive possession of a woman do not 

 follow immediately upon initiation into the tribe, 

 the institution of the men's house becomes an 

 effective restrainit upon the sexual proclivities of 

 the unmarried youth. It then serves as a club- 

 house for the bachelors, whose residence within it 

 may be regarded as a perpetuation of that formal 

 seclusion of the lads from women, which it is the 

 purpose of the initiation ceremonies in the first 

 place to accomplish. Such communal living on the 

 part of the young men is a visible token of their 

 separation from the narrow circle of the family, 

 and of their introduction to the duties and re- 

 sponsibilities of tribal life. The existence of such 

 an institution emphasizes the fact that a settled 

 family life with a private abode is the privilege 

 of the older men, who alone have marital rights 

 over the women of the tribe. For promiscuity. 



