290 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1160 



to each commissioner for distribution in Ms 

 own country. A copy will be sent to any per- 

 son sufficiently interested, who will apply to 

 Dr. C. W. Stiles, secretary to International 

 Commission on Zoological iN'omenclature, U. 

 S. National Museum, Washington, D. C. 



Sm Alfred Keogh, director-general of the 

 British army medical service, presiding at a 

 lecture at the Eoyal Institute of Public Health 

 on February 14, is reported in Nature to have 

 stated that in France at that moment there 

 were only five cases of enteric fever and 

 eighteen cases of paratyphoid fever, with sev- 

 enty or eighty doubtful cases. He attributed 

 this result to inoculation, and the general good 

 health of the army to good food, in addition to 

 careful sanitation. The health of the army at 

 all the fronts was said to be better than the 

 ordinary health of the army in peace-time. 



Dr. Leo J. Frachtenberg, of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology, returned to Washington, 

 D. C, on February 4, after a stay of almost 

 two and a half years in Oregon and Washing- 

 ton, where he investigated the ethnology, 

 mythology and languages of the various 

 Indian tribes scattered throughoiit these 

 states. Dr. Frachtenberg's researches in this 

 area have resulted in evidence that three 

 of the most important linguistic stocks of the 

 northwest, namely, the Salish, Wakashan and 

 Chimakuan, have ultimately been derived from 

 one common stock, which he proposes to call 

 the Mosan group. This name has been sug- 

 gested by the fact that the numeral 4 (mos or 

 hos) occurs in each of these stocks in one 

 form or another. While working on the social 

 organization of the Chimalman tribes Dr. 

 Frachtenberg observed an entirely new feature 

 in the social life of the American Indians. 

 This feature consists of the existence of pro- 

 fessional orders, whose members do and must 

 follow one and the same profession. Thus 

 there are special orders for fishermen, hunters, 

 sealers, whalers, shamans, rainmakers, etc. 

 During the last two weeks of his stay in the 

 west Dr. Frachtenberg succeeded in raising a 

 fund of $25,000 as a nucleus for the purposes 

 of organizing a Museimi of Natural History 

 in the city of Portland, Oregon. On January 

 29 he succeeded in starting a similar move- 



ment in Spokane, Washington, and it is hoped 

 that the city of Spokane will in the near fu- 

 ture have a musemn specially devoted to the 

 American Indians of that region. 



Preliminary estimates by John D. Nor- 

 throp, of the United States Geological Survey, 

 Department of the Interior, indicate that the 

 quantity of crude petroleum produced and 

 marketed in the old fields of the United States 

 in 1916 was 292,300,000 barrels. This quantity 

 is greater by 4 per cent, than the correspond- 

 ing output in 1915, which reached the record- 

 breaking total of 281,104,104 barrels. Mr. 

 Northrop estimates that 38 per cent, of the 

 1916 total came from the Oklahoma-Kansas 

 field, 30 per cent, from California, and the re- 

 maining 32 per cent, from the Appalachian, 

 Lima-Indiana, Hlinois, north Texas, north 

 Louisiana, Gulf coast, and Eocky Mountain 

 fields. 



In 1916 Alaska mines made a mineral pro- 

 duction valued at $50,900,000. These are the 

 advance figures issued by the United States 

 Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, 

 and are based on estimates made by Alfred H. 

 Brooks. The output of Alaska mines in 1915, 

 which was greater than that of any previous 

 year, had a value of $32,850,000, and the in- 

 crease in 1916 was therefore over 54 per cent. 

 It was the product of the copper mines that 

 so greatly swelled the mineral production of 

 the year. This amounted to 120,850,000 

 pounds, valued at $32,400,000. There was also, 

 however, an increase in gold output, which in 

 1916 was $17,050,000 and in 1915 was $16,700,- 

 000. Of the gold produced in 1916, $10,640,- 

 000 is to be credited to the placer mines. 

 Alaska also produced in 1916 silver, lead, tin, 

 antimony, tungsten, petroleum, marble, gyp- 

 sum and coal to the value of $1,300,000. Dur- 

 ing 32 years of mining Alaska has produced 

 $351,000,000 in gold, silver, copper and other 

 minerals. Of tliis amount $278,000,000 repre- 

 sents the value of the gold, and $68,000,000 

 that of the copper. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



The legislature of Kansas appropriated 

 $1,524,000 for the University of Kansas for the 



