August 31, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



221 



ant director of Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory, 

 Pasadena, Calif., and G. Strombeeg. 

 The spectroscopic method of deriving the abso- 

 lute magnitudes of stars and a new formula con- 

 necting parallax and proper motion have been 

 utilized to study the relationship between the mo- 

 tions of stars and their true or absolute magni- 

 tudes. About one thousand stars have been used 

 in the investigation. The results establish almost 

 certainly a definite increase of velocity with de- 

 crease in brightness. In radial velocity this is of 

 the order of 1.5 kilometers for each magnitude for 

 stars of the F, G, K and M types of spectrum. 

 This is to be interpreted, probably in part at 

 least, as an effect of mass: that is, the smaller 

 stars move more rapidly than the larger stars. 

 This increase of velocity with decrease in bright- 

 ness is found to persist among the groups of stars 

 arranged according to their distance from the sun. 

 Accordingly the evidence does not indicate that 

 the nearer stars are moving more rapidly than the 

 distant stars. 



NetuUe: V. M. Slither, Ph.D., director of the 

 Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona. (In- 

 troduced by Professor 0. L. Doolittle.) 

 Early man in America: Edwtn Swift B.\lch, 

 A.B., Philadelphia. 



The present status of knowledge about early 

 man in America may be summed up as follows. 

 Early man was here. He lived during at least a 

 part of the Pleistocene period for tens of thou- 

 sands of years south of the glacial moraines. He 

 probably went through an Eolithic period and cer- 

 tainly through a CheUeen period in some places 

 and therefore was truly a Paleolithic man. He 

 may have made rudimentary fine art. Paleolithic 

 American man was the ancestor of the Neolithic 

 historic Indian and although less advanced in cul- 

 ture much like his descendant in anthropological 

 characteristics. Whether he was an autochthone 

 in America or whether he came from some other 

 place and if so when, we do not as yet know posi- 

 tively, although his affiliations seem to be to the 

 west. And it is to four men above all others that 

 we owe our knowledge: Abbott, the discoverer of 

 paleolithic implements and horizons; Volk, the 

 corroborator; Lund, the first finder of probably 

 Paleolithic bones, and Winchell, the investigator 

 of patination. 



The influence of the admixture of present immi- 

 grant races upon the more original stock: 

 Chakles B. Davenport, S.B., Ph.D., director. 

 Station for Experiment Evolution, Cold Spring 

 Harbor, Long Island. 



A new Babjilonian account of the creation of man: 

 George A. Barton, Ph.D., LL.D., professor of 

 biblical literature, Bryn Mawr College. 



The waters of death: Paul Haupt, professor of 

 Semitic philology, Johns Hopkins University. 



APRIL 1.3 

 Albert A. Michelson, Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S., 



Vice-president, in the Chair 

 Crushing of crystals: Percy W. Bridgman, as- 

 sistant professor of physics. Harvard Univer- 

 sity. 



Hollow cylinders cut from single crystals have 

 been subjected to unique tests by applying large 

 hydrostatic pressures to the external surface. The 

 crushing strength under these conditions is much 

 higher than that found by ordinary tests, and the 

 manner of failure is different. This has an in- 

 teresting geological significance in suggesting that 

 open cavities may persist in the earth's crust at 

 greater depths than could be expected from the 

 usual methods of measurement. 



Structure of the spectra of the phosphorescent 

 sulphides (describing measurements by Drs. H. 

 E. Howe, H. L. Howes and Percy Hodge) : Ed- 

 ward L. Nichols, Ph.D., D.Sc, LL.D., pro- 

 fessor of physics, Cornell University. 



The Coriino effect in liquid mercury: Edwin 

 Plimpton Adams, Ph.D., professor of physics, 

 Princeton University. 



Spontaneous generation of heat in recently hard- 

 ened steel: ChaklSs Francis Brush, Ph.D., 

 ScD., LL.D., Cleveland. 



/., Condensation and evaporation of metal films; 

 II., The minimum potential for excitation of the 

 "D" lines of sodium: Robert Williams Wood, 

 A.B., LL.D., professor of experimental physics, 

 Johns Hopkins University. 



Growth and imMiition : D. T. MacDougal, Ph.D., 

 LL.D., director of department of botanical re- 

 search, Carnegie Institution of Washington, and 

 H. A. Spoehb. 



The mechanism of overgrowth in plants: Erwin F. 

 Smith, B.S., Sc.D., Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



The behavior of self -sterile plants: Edward M. 

 East, Ph.D., professor of experimental plant 

 morphology. Harvard University. 

 There are really two problems connected with 



the inheritance of self-sterility in plants. One is 



the relation between self-sterile and self-fertile 



plants, the other is the behavior of self-sterile 



