December 1, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



787 



Further confirmatory data relative to seed 

 transmission has since been obtained from seed 

 which, the writer saved from typical "white 

 pickle " cucumbers collected during the sea- 

 son of 1915. Unfortunately a large per cent, 

 of the seed thus obtained was destroyed by 

 mice. From the small amount which remained 

 eleven typical mosaic plants have been ob- 

 tained. These plants first showed mosaic in 

 the second or third true leaves, and have since 

 produced typical " white pickle " fruits. The 

 plants were started in pots of steam sterilized 

 soil and transplanted to a field which had not 

 previously grown cucumbers. At the time the 

 disease was first observed on these plants no 

 cucurbits were growing nearby and no insects 

 had been seen on the plants. It seems advisable 

 to present these observations as indicating an- 

 other means of primary dissemination of cu- 

 cumber mosaic. J. A. McClintock 



Virginia Truck Experiment Station, 

 Norfolk, Va. 



the culture of pre-columbian america 



To the Editor of Science: In common 

 doubtless with many of your readers I noted 

 with interest the short sketch by Professor 

 Grafton Elliot Smith of his views regarding 

 the migration of culture to the American con- 

 tinent. I also awaited with some expectation 

 of assurance an unveiled hostility, which has 

 now appeared in your columns of the issue of 

 October 13, under the signature of Dr. Golden- 

 weiser and Mr. Means. 



From the nature of circumstances it must be 

 some weeks before my former chief can reply 

 to these gentlemen and I would request, there- 

 fore, in the meantime the opportunity to make 

 a few suggestions. 



Apart altogether from the confession of Dr. 

 Goldenweiser, it is of course obvious from 

 their arguments that both writers have arisen 

 in opposition and committed themselves in 

 your columns without having informed them- 

 selves of Professor Elliot Smith's precise 

 statements and method of handling his mass 

 of accumulated evidence. 



From a somewhat misleading footnote in 

 your issue of August 11 it would seem that 



" The Significance of the Geographical Dis- 

 tribution of the Practise of Mummification" 

 had as yet to be published. This monograph 

 appeared in the Memoirs of the Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophic Society on July 7, 

 1915, and was published in book form under 

 title " The Migrations of Culture " a few 

 weeks later. But together with the succession 

 of ensuing papers in that journal and in the 

 John Rylands Bulletin, this important mono- 

 graph seems entirely to have escaped the at- 

 tention of your contributors. That this should 

 be so in $ie maze of present-day literature 

 is entirely forgivable, but it is amazing that 

 in " awaiting with the greatest interest and 

 impatience " further exposition of Elliot 

 Smith's brilliant work, ethnologists should 

 hasten with such unseemly speed to warn him 

 against encroaching upon a theory which by 

 the assertion of Dr. Goldenweiser himself must 

 forever rest upon the uncertain basis of mere 

 negative evidence, a theory which to some of 

 us in the light of modern exactitude of 

 method seems scarcely defensible. 



Dr. Goldenweiser would have us prove every 

 step of the way in the diffusion theory, and 

 rightly so. In the chaos of ethnological ob- 

 servations, many of them afforded by amateur 

 or untrained investigators, and by indifferent 

 methods, too much stress can not be laid upon 

 this. But at the same time are we really to 

 accept for any particular custom the asser- 

 tion of independent development merely be- 

 cause as yet rigorous proof of diffusion is not 

 forthcoming! Professor Elliot Smith simply 

 contends that we should subject both to the 

 most searching investigation. Contrary to 

 Dr. Goldenweiser's suggestion, it is not loosely 

 claimed that sometime, somehow, diffusion has 

 occurred. Such statements as have been made 

 are accompanied by tangible evidence of their 

 accuracy. The excellent and indisputable re- 

 searches of Professor G. A. Reisner and Dr. 

 Elliot Smith in Egyptian archeology afford a 

 striking example of the care and vigor with 

 which every shred of evidence is scrutinized. 

 In the work of the two investigators just men- 

 tioned on the discovery of the use of copper 

 and the evolution of the rock cut tomb and in 



