April 19, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



395 



In the second place, anthropological investi- 

 gations go to show that of the fxindamental 

 primitive arts, pottery-makinp, for various 

 obvious reasons, is of relatively late date in 

 culture history, throughout the world. The 

 archeology of the eastern United States seems 

 particularly clear on this point. Thus, it has 

 been demonstrated over and over again that 

 the lower strata of artificial deposits from the 

 Ozark uplift to the Atlantic coast and from 

 lower iNew Tork state to Florida are devoid 

 of ceramics. Narrowing the field to the east 

 coast of Florida, we have on record several 

 independent determinations (one by the writer 

 only last spring and not yet published) to the 

 effect that the shellmound people did not at 

 first iwssess any pottery at all, that after a 

 time they began making a plain dull-reddish 

 earthenware, and that fiiially, some time before 

 the arrival of European explorers, they took to 

 ornamenting this ware by impressing upon it 

 some simple geometric patterns. 



Now pottery fragments, apparently of the 

 undecorated variety, occur also in the Yero 

 deposit, and the archeologist, rather than ac- 

 cepting an extraordinary hiatus in his own 

 data, will be disposed to consider the section 

 in which it was found to be synchronous with 

 the middle juried of the local shellmovmd oc- 

 cupation. To accept the Yero date at its present 

 face value would compel him not only to rele- 

 gate the development of pottery to an unheard 

 of date but also it would oblige him to assume 

 that this early culture of Pleistocene times 

 was snuffed out and that after some millen- 

 iums marked by the arrival of the modem 

 fauna a new and lower type of culture became 

 established which only after a very consider- 

 able period reached the level of the original 

 culture. Such a happening is conceivable, 

 but it is not plausible. 



So far as the writer can see, the areheolo- 

 gists can do very little more than they have 

 done already toward the solution of the Yero 

 problem. Extended investigation by an arch- 

 eologist would in all probability yield nothing, 

 because on the real points at issue he would 

 always have to defer to the geologist and the 



paleontologist. If we could persuade the pale- 

 ontologist to satisfy himself about the fauna 

 of the sheUheaps something might result. 

 Errors of identification may have been made 

 in the past. If he can close the gap between 

 the shellmound fauna and that of the Yero 

 section nobody will be happier than the pass- 

 ing generation of archeologists. But even 

 then the complete solution will not have been 

 reached because we shall still be facing a 

 situation which appears to require one of two 

 things : eitlicr the anthropologist must sur- 

 render not only his present lightly held 

 opinion regarding the antiquity of man in 

 America, but also his rather more firmly fixed 

 notion regarding the order and progress of 

 cultural traits in general, or else the paleon- 

 tologist must concede us a very much narrower 

 margin of time as having elapsed since the 

 close of the Pleistocene than he has hitherto. 

 N". C. Nelson 

 The American Museum op Natukal History 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



A NEW METHOD FOR INVESTIGATION OF THE 



PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, 



MUSCLES AND GLANDS 



In preparing and preserving animals for 

 investigation of the gross anatomy of the 

 peripheral nervous system, muscles and 

 glands, simple methods commonly in use have 

 not proven very satisfactory. 



For the study of anatomical structures al- 

 cohol does not differentiate sufficiently either 

 to separate the parts from each other or from 

 surrounding tissues. Aside from its cost, 

 moreover, alcohol is open to the objection that 

 it makes the parts brittle. Formalin has been 

 used with better results and is now the stand- 

 ard means employed in preparing, and partic- 

 ularly in preserving, portions of the central 

 nervous system. 'V\Tiile both these reagents 

 are preservatives of the peripheral nerves, 

 muscles, and glands, neither is a satisfactory 

 preparative for their dissection. 



A successful fluid for this purpose should 

 not only preserve, but it should also differen- 

 tiate the anatomical systems from each other 

 and bring to view the constituents of the 



