A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement 

 of Science, publishing the official notices and 

 proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, edited by J. McKeen 

 Cattell and published every Friday by 



THE SCIENCE PRESS 



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Entered as second-class matter January 21, 1922, at the 



Post Office at Utica, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



Vol. lv May 5, 1922 No. 1427 



Hesperopithecus, the First Anthropoid Pri- 

 mate found in America: Dr. Henry Paik- 



FIELB OSBORN 463 



The Medals and Dinner of the National 

 Academy of Sciences: Dr. Edwin E. 

 Slosson 465 



The Edward C. Pickering Memorial: Pko- 

 PESSOR S. A. Mitchell 467 



J. D. Mitchell: W. D. Hunter 469 



Scientific Events: 



Annual Tables of Constants; Alaska Penin- 

 sula Fisheries Reservation; The Flora of 

 Porto Bico; Expedition to the Fiji Islands; 

 The Section of Medical Sciences of the 

 American Association ; The Bocher Memo- 

 rial Prize of the American Mathematical 

 Society 469 



Scientific Notes and News 473 



University and Educational Notes 477 



Discussion and Correspondence: 



The Futility of the Human Yollc Sac ; Pro- 

 fessor Frederic T. Lewis. Deflection of 

 Streams by Earth Rotation: Professor 

 W. M. Davis. Possible Cause of the Bed 

 Color of Potash Salts: Dr. W. C. Phalen. 

 Popular Science: Db. Edwin E. Slosson.... 478 



Scientific Books: 



Sharp's Introduction to Cytology: Pro- 

 fessor C. E. McClung 482 



Special Articles: 



Continuous Renewal of Nutrient Solution 

 for Plants in Water Cultures: Dr. Sam F. 

 Trelease and Professor Burton E. Liv- 

 ingston. The Synthesis of Ethyl Butyrate 

 in Egg Secretion: Professor Otto Glaser 483 



The National Academy of Sciences 486 



HESPEROPITHECUS, THE FIRST AN- 

 THROPOID PRIMATE FOUND 

 IN AMERICA 



It is hard to believe that a single small 

 water-worn tooth, 10.5 mm. by 11 mm. in 

 crown diameter, can signalize the arrival of 

 the anthropoid Primates in North America in 

 Pliocene time. We have been eagerly antici- 

 pating some discovery of this kind, but were 

 not prepared for such convincing evidence of 

 the close faunal relationship between eastern 

 Asia and western North America as is revealed 

 by this diminutive specimen. The entire credit 

 for the discovery belongs to Mr. Harold J. 

 Cook, consulting geologist, of Agate, Nebraska, 

 who has been contributing for many years to 

 our knowledge of the extinct fauna of Ne- 

 braska through both his discoveries and his 

 writings. He wrote to the present author 

 (February 25, 1922) : 



I have had here, for some little time, a molar 

 tooth from the Tipper, or Hipparion phase of the 

 Snake Creek beds, that very closely approaches 

 the human type. It was found associated with 

 the other typical fossils of the Snake Creek, and 

 is mineralized in the same fashion as they are. 

 I sent a brief description of this to Professor 

 Loomis a short time before the Amherst meeting 

 of this year, with a request that it be read at 

 that time, if opportunity offered. The manuscript 

 was retvirned to me here immediately after the 

 meetings, but with no notation as to whether it 

 was read or not, or presented at that time in any 

 fashion. 



Inasmuch as you are particularly interested in 

 this problem and, in collaboration with Dr. Greg- 

 ory and others, are in the best position of any one 

 to accurately determine the relationships of this 

 tooth, if it can be done, I will be glad to send 

 it on to you, should you care to examine and 

 study it. Whatever it is, it is certainly a contem- 

 porary fossil of the Upper Snake Creek horizon, 

 and it agrees far more closely with the anthropoid- 

 human molar, than that of any other mammal 

 known. 



