Mat 2, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



427 



The field of work of American anthropolo- 

 gists is also in part determined by the char- 

 acter of the institutions that maintain anthro- 

 pological work. The Bureau of American 

 Ethnology which forms part of the Smithson- 

 ian Institution is by law restricted to work 

 on the natives of America and the Hawaiian 

 Islands. Most positions held by working an- 

 thropologrists are museum jwsitions. and con- 

 sequently the scientific work is largely re- 

 stricted to those aspects of anthropology that 

 yield tangible specimens. University positions 

 are on the whole of such a character that the 

 funds necessary for tlie conduct of field work 

 are not supplied by the tmiversities, but if 

 available at all, come from museums. 



Anthropologists have felt for a long time 

 that their work needs expansion, and many 

 attempts have been made to free anthropo- 

 logical research from the restrictions depend- 

 ent upon the association of anthropological 

 work with museimas on the one hand, and 

 from those conditions that tend to give undue 

 preponderance to work on American Indians 

 on the other hand. Attempts have been made 

 particularly to direct attention to African 

 problems, which are of importance to us on 

 accoimt of our large negro population, and 

 also to investigations on racial anthropology 

 among the white and negro populations of 

 the United States. "Work of this kind needs 

 financial support, but all attempts have failed 

 to interest the government institutions which 

 command considerable funds, or private in- 

 dividuals, to support work of this type. There 

 is a peculiar hesitancy in regard to under- 

 takings of this kind, which will not be over- 

 come until more work on a smaller scale has 

 been done. Investigations of this description 

 have been undertaken by American anthro- 

 pologists and by educators, sociologists and 

 medical men with anthropological leanings. 



Recently, biologists have also directed their 

 attention to this subject, but mctliods applied 

 and results obtained up to this time are quite 

 unsatisfactory. Work on hiunan paleontology 

 is also not vigorously pursued. 



The difficulty of giving anthropological re- 

 search an adequate iK)sition in the scheme of 



the National Research Council is largely based 

 on the fact that the humanities find no place 

 in the general scheme of work of the Research 

 Council. While anthropology must necessarily 

 be based on the one hand on biological science, 

 on the other hand it is intimately associated 

 with the humanities. It is impossible to treat 

 even the biological problems of anthropology 

 without a due regard to the cultural aspect of 

 anthropology, because the forces which deter- 

 mine the development of human types are to 

 a very large extent cultural forces. 



The jieculiar position of anthropology brings 

 about close contact with a great many differ- 

 ent sciences — biology, geology, paleontology, 

 geography, psychology, history, linguistics and 

 the whole range of humanities. Cooperation 

 will be necessary according to the particular 

 type of problems taken up, and antliropology 

 will be best served by an entirely free associa- 

 tion with different subjects, according to the 

 need of each case. 



It is the opinion of the undersigned com- 

 mittee that the appointment of a director of 

 anthropological work, who would have a domi- 

 nating influence over organized work, would 

 not be helpful on account of the great diversity 

 of subject matter included in anthroiwlogy, 

 and might prove decidedly prejudicial on ac- 

 count of the necessity of developing this sub- 

 ject in different directions. Much better re- 

 sults would undoubtedly be obtained by regu- 

 lar meetings of representative scientists, and 

 by the appointment of a secretary who would 

 carry out the necessary clerical work. 



Franz Boas, Chairman, 

 Ales Hrdlicka, 

 Alfred M. Tozzer 



New York City, 

 March 6, 1919 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



EGG-WEIGHT AS A CRITERION OF NUMERICAL 

 PRODUCTION IN THE DOMESTIC FOWL' 



In connection with a study of the manner 

 of inheritance of ^g-weight in the domestic 



1 Contribution 251 from the Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station of the Rhode Island State Col- 

 lege, Kingston, R. I. 



