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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 294. 



have a separate section. In college curric- 

 ula psychology is much more widely recog- 

 nized than is anthropology, there would 

 seem to be no logical grounds for making 

 psychology an outrider for Section H in 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. 



Henry Davies read a paper upon ' Meth- 

 ods of Esthetics'; Edward Thorndike one 

 upon ' Practice.' J. McK. Cattell illustrated 

 a new method of demonstrating physiolog- 

 ical processes that are dependent upon men- 

 tal conditions. The stereopticon was used 

 to show upon the screen the tracings made 

 upon a revolving disk of smoked glass. 

 Thus the quantitative character of breath- 

 ing, muscular fatigue, etc., were shown to 

 the audience as they took place. Charles 

 H. Judd reported upon his ' Studies in Vocal 

 Expression.' Eecords upon smoked paper 

 were shown that had been made by a dia- 

 phragm and enlarging lever. Measure- 

 ments of two hundred and fifty metrical 

 feet, English hexameter, demonstrated that 

 the theory that English metrical feet are 

 all of uniform temporal quantity must be 

 rejected. 



The afternoon session opened with a paper 

 by Dr. Thomas Wilson upon ' Criminology.' 

 He traced the historical development of his 

 subject from the time of John Howard down 

 to the present. The speaker expressed his 

 dissatisfaction with the manner in which 

 crime had been treated in America. It has 

 been clearly defined and the criminal pun- 

 ished, but due heed has not been given to 

 causes and methods of prevention. Dr. 

 "Wilson argued that Lombroso's theories, 

 associating certain types of crime with defi- 

 nite physical characters, were based upon 

 unreliable statistics. It would be more 

 correct to say that crime determines the 

 physical structure than vice versa, that en- 

 vironment is more responsible for crime 

 than hereditary character. In conclusion, 

 accurate and extensive statistics are desired. 



Methods for securing these are being de- 

 veloped, such, for example, as described in 

 the succeeding paper by Vice-President 

 Butler. 



In an exposition of ' A Method of Regis- 

 tration for certain Anthropologic Data, ' Mr. 

 Butler outlined the developments of a 

 method of obtaining and recording facts re- 

 garding defectives, delinquents, and de- 

 pendents. The system was developed and 

 is in use in the office of the Indiana Board 

 of State Charities. Samples of the blanks 

 and records were shown. 



Professor Otis T. Mason's paper upon 

 ' The Trap : a Study in Aboriginal Psy- 

 chology' contained a classification of the 

 various forms of instruments employed by 

 the aboriginal Americans to secure animals. 

 The mental capacities of the inhabitants of 

 the several culture areas, as determined by 

 their skill in devising, killing or capturing 

 apparatus, were compared. 



W. H. Holmes gave a brief exposition of 

 ' The Ancient Aztec Obsidian Mines of the 

 State of Hidalgo, Mexico.' The use of ob- . 

 sidian for the manufacture of implements 

 was very common throughout Mexico. The 

 only mine of importance so far discovered is 

 that of Hidalgo, a hundred miles northeast 

 of the City of Mexico. The work on this 

 site has been very extensive and the pit- 

 tings cover at least one square mile. The 

 quarries were worked mainly for the secur- 

 ing of cores or nuclei for making fiake 

 knives, thousands of the rejected cores being 

 found in the quarries. That the mines 

 were worked by Aztecs is shown by the fact 

 that typical Aztec pottery is distributed 

 through the debris of the work-shop. 



Geo. G. MacCurdy followed with a paper 

 upon ' The Obsidian Razor of the Aztecs. ' 

 The differences between the fracture of 

 flint and obsidian were described and the 

 excellence of obsidian as a material for the 

 manufacture of knives and razors was dem- 

 onstrated by lantern views. 



