June i, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



839 



Oral Endamehiosis : Allen J. Smith. 



Certain Factors Conditioning Nervous Besponses: 

 Stewart Paton. 



The Bights and Obligations as to Neutralised 

 Territory: Chaklemagne Towee. 



Physiographic Features as a Factor in the Euro- 

 pean War: Douglas W. Johnson. 

 The paper describes the salient features of geo- 

 logical structure west of the Khiae and explains 

 the influence of this structure upon surface topog- 

 raphy. Special attention is given to the Ehme 

 graben and the strong contrast between the steep 

 eastern and gentle western slope of the Vosges; 

 the maturely dissected peneplane of western Ger- 

 many and the Ardennes, trenched by the incised 

 meandering valleys of the Ehine, Moselle and 

 Meuse; the concentric cuestas northeast and east 

 of Pa.ris with their steep escarpments facing toward 

 the Germans; and the comparatively level plains of 

 central and northwestern Belgium. In the eastern 

 field the East Prussian lake district, the plain of 

 Poland, the Podolian ouesta and the Carpathian 

 Mountains are briefly described. 



It is shown that in both theaters of war land- 

 forms have exercised an important influence both 

 upon the general plans of campaign and the de- 

 tailed movements of armies. Topography limited 

 the German invasion of France to four principal 

 routes, which are described and illustrated by lan- 

 tern views. The violation of Belgian neutrality 

 had a very distinct topographic basis. Eussia's 

 plan of campaign has been dictated in part by 

 topographic considerations, and the principal 

 battles in the east have been fought with reference 

 to natural lines of defense which are illustrated 

 by diagrams. Suggestions are made as to the 

 efEect of landforms upon probable future move- 

 ments of the armies. 

 Tammus and Osiris: Geokge A. Bakton. 



The Pronouns and Verbs in Sumerian: J. Dyneley 

 Peince. 



Opium in the Bible: Paul Haupt. 



In ten passages of the Old Testament Hebrew 

 r^sh, head, denotes a bitter and poisonous plant. 

 It is used also of the poison of serpents. Accord- 

 ing to Pliny the venom of snakes was nothing but 

 bile. The ancients used the same word for gall, 

 bitterness, poison, medicine. We use "to drug" 

 for "to narcotize," although "drug" originally 

 means simply a dry (German trocJcen, Dutch 

 droog) herb. Bosh is mentioned in the Bible in 

 connection with la'anah, wormwood or absinthe. 



It was a plant which grew in the furrows of the 

 fields (Hosea, x., 4). The Authorized Version 

 renders ' ' hemlock, ' ' but rosh, head, denotes poppy- 

 head, and me-rosh is opium. Also the gaU (t. e., 

 bitter fluid) with wine (not vinegar) in the ac- 

 count of Christ's crucifixion (Matthew, xxvii., 

 34) and the myrrh in Mark xv., 23 denote opium. 

 The Talmud states that a cup of wine with lebondh 

 was given to criminals before their execution. 

 Lebonah means "incense," as a rule, but in this 

 case it is used for opium. In the fifth chapter of 

 the Alexandrian festal legend for the feast of 

 Purim, known as the Third Book of the Maccabees, 

 we read that wine with incense was given to the 

 elephants before they were let loose upon the Jews. 

 This "incense" may have been a preparation of 

 Indian hemp. Assassin means intoxicated with 

 hashish {Cannabis Indica). 



Divisions of the Pleistocene of Europe and the 

 Periods of the Entrance of Human Baces: 

 Henby Faiefield Osbobn. 



The Occurrence of Algce in Carbonaceous Deposits: 



Chaeles a. Davis. 



On account of their generally small size and frag- 

 ile structure. Algae have not usually been recog- 

 nized as important contributors to caxbonaceous 

 rocks, and some recent students of the microscopic 

 structure of coals have denied the probability of 

 their existence as fossils in carbonaceous rocks. 

 Under certain conditions of deposition and preser- 

 vation, as yet unknown, Algae may constitute a 

 large percentage of the recognizable plant remains 

 which have accumulated to form beds of carbona- 

 ceous shales of great extent and thickness. Some 

 micro -photographs of Algae from the oil -yielding 

 shales of Green Eiver age was shown. 



Additions to the Fauna of the Lower Pliocene 

 SnaJce Creeh Beds, Nebrasha: W. J. Sinclaie. 

 The Snake Creek beds explored by the Prince- 

 ton Expedition of 1914 are found in the north- 

 west corner of Nebraska in Sioux Co., and consist 

 of unconsolidated gravels and sands in which 

 water-worn bones of a large number of fossil ani- 

 mals of Lower Pliocene age are found. Most of 

 these remains are fragmentary and there is almost 

 no association of parts. We were fortunate in 

 securing rather better material than has hitherto 

 been collected from this formation, and have a 

 number of new forms now described for the first 

 time. Most of the remains are of horses, of which 

 there were at least a dozen different species on the 

 Lower Pliocene plains of Nebraska, most of them 

 three-toed. There were also several different kinds 



