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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1128 



another time cold. The degree of comfort 

 that is felt — which should not be allowed 

 too potent an influence in deciding what 

 one's environmental conditions shall be — 

 depends, moreover, largely on the thickness 

 of the clothing and on habit. It is surpris- 

 ing how readily one's habits in this respect 

 may be altered. Uniformity in conditions 

 should be avoided; too long a continuance 

 of an existing temperature is dulling to the 

 body; there should be not infrequent and 

 marked changes. Artificial ventilating 

 systems should not necessarily be con- 

 demned, but should be operated intelli- 

 gently and may advantageously be com- 

 bined with window ventilation. 



In these days we hear much of "fresh" 

 air and its merits. We have fresh-air 

 funds, fresh-air schools, and fresh-air 

 babies. All are commendable; but while 

 giving to our funds, opening our schools, 

 and putting our babies out of doors, let us 

 clearly understand what constitutes fresh 

 air. The freshness of so-called "fresh" 

 air lies, not in more oxygen, less carbon 

 dioxide, less organic matter of respiratory 

 origin, and the hypothetical presence of a 

 hypothetically stimulating ozone, but rather 

 in a low temperature, a low humidity, and 

 motion. So far as fresh air itself is con- 

 cerned, there seems to be nothing more 

 mysterious about it than this. 



To what extent ought fresh air to be 

 used as a therapeutic agent? Here intelli- 

 gent experience, and not opinion without 

 experience, is the only guide. That a physi- 

 cian, indeed, should have any article in his 

 creed of therapeutics that is not based on 

 the intelligent experience of somebody is 

 not to be supposed. It can not be denied 

 that where intelligent experience has been 

 applied to the topic of fresh air as a thera- 

 peutic agent the use of fresh air has been 

 almost invariably extended. But no one 

 has a right to maintain, therefore, that it is 



a panacea. Only when it has been tested 

 in a great variety of pathological condi- 

 tions — and this can be done with entire 

 safety to the patient — will the therapeutic 

 use and limitations of this physiologically 

 significant agent become known. 



Frederic S. Lee 

 Columbia University 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PRE-COLUMBIAN 

 CIVILIZATION OF AMERICA 



In the whole range of ethnological dis- 

 cussion perhaps no theme has evoked live- 

 lier controversies and excited more wide- 

 spread interest than the problems involved 

 in the mysteries of the wonderful civiliza- 

 tion that revealed itself to the astonished 

 Spaniards on their first arrival in America. 



During the last century, which can be re- 

 garded as covering the whole period of sci- 

 entific investigation in anthropology, the 

 opinions of those who have devoted atten- 

 tion to such enquiries have undergone the 

 strangest fluctuations. If one delves into 

 the anthropological journals of forty or 

 fifty years ago they will be found to abound 

 in careful studies on the part of many of 

 the leading ethnologists of the time, demon- 

 strating, apparently in a convincing and 

 unquestionable manner, the spread of 

 curious customs or beliefs from the Old 

 "World to the New. Then an element of 

 doubt began to creep into the attitude of 

 many ethnologists, which gradually stiff- 

 ened until it set into the rigid dogma — 

 there is no other term for it — that as the re- 

 sult of "the similarity of the working of 

 the human mind" similar needs and like 

 circumstances will lead various isolated 

 groups of men in a similar phase of culture 

 independently one of the other to invent 

 similar arts and crafts, and to evolve iden- 

 tical beliefs. The modern generation of 

 ethnologists has thoughtlessly seized hold 

 of this creed and used it as a soporific drug 

 against the need for mental exertion. For 



