December 21, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



949 



per cent., the maximum error, although of 

 course infrequent, may even be ten per 

 cent. For the reconstruction of the mean 

 capacity of a race, the mean error is about 

 1.2 per cent., with a maximum error of 2.5 

 per cent. If these errors appear large to 

 the craniologist, we would remind him thab 

 his search for an absolutely correct formula 

 giving cranial capacity from external meas- 

 urements is the pursuit of a will o' the wisp. 

 The theory of probabilit}^ shows us exactlj^ 

 the sort of errors such formulae are liable 

 to, and teaches us how to select the best. 

 The whole basis of the theory of evolution, 

 the variability of one character, even with 

 fixed values for a number of others, would 

 be upset if any such absolute formula were 

 forthcoming. What we have to do is to se- 

 lect a few organs as highly correlated as 

 possible, but, having done this, it has been 

 shown elsewhere that we shall not sensibly 

 decrease the error of our prediction by in- 

 creasing the number of organs upon which 

 the estimate is based.* Accordingly we 

 do not believe that sensibly better recon- 

 struction formulae than those found will 

 ever be forthcoming, for, as we have already 

 observed, we know from Miss Fawcett's 

 wide series of skull correlations that we 

 have practicallj' chosen the organs of the 

 highest correlation. Better data for de- 

 termining the equations will undoubtedly 

 be available as further craniological meas- 

 urements are made, or as the great mass al- 

 ready made are quantitatively reduced. 



In the last place we turn to the third 

 problem : the reconstruction of the capacity 

 of the living head. The memoir contains 

 tables of the skull capacity of some sixty 

 men, and also of some thirty women, whose 

 relative intellectual ability can be more or 

 less roughly appreciated. It would be im- 

 possible to assert any marked degree of 

 correlation between the skull capacities of 

 these individuals and the current apprecia- 

 * Phil. Trans., A, Vol. 190, p. 466. 



tion of their intellectual capacities. One 

 of the most distinguished of continental 

 anthropologists has less skull capacity than 

 50 per cent, of the women students of Bed- 

 ford College ; one of our leading English 

 anatomists than 25 per cent, of the same 

 students. There will, of course, be errors 

 in our probable determinations, but different 

 methods of appreciation lead to sensibly 

 like results, and although we are dealing 

 with skull capacity, and not brain weight, 

 there is, we hold in our data, material 

 enough to cause those to pause who asso- 

 ciate relative brain weight either in the in- 

 dividual or the sex with relative intellectual 

 power. The correlation, if it exists, can 

 hardly be large, and the true source of in- 

 tellectual ability will, we are convinced, 

 have to be sought elsewhere, in the com- 

 plexity of the convolutions, in the variety 

 and eniciency of v'"' commissures, rather 

 than in mere size or weight. 



AMERICAN OBNITHOLOGISTS' UNION. 



The Eighteenth Congress of the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union convened in Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., Monday evening, November 

 12th. The business meeting was held in 

 Mr. William Brewster's Museum, and the 

 public sessions, commencing Tuesday, No- 

 vember 13th, and lasting three days, were 

 held in the Nash lecture room of the Uni- 

 versity Museum. 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of Washington, 



D. C, was elected President ; Charles B. 

 Cory, of Boston, and C. F. Batchelder, of 

 Cambridge, Mass., Vice-Presidents ; John 

 H. Sage, of Portland, Conn., Secretary, and 

 William Dutcher, of New York City, Treas- 

 urer. Frank M. Chapman, Euthven Deane, 



E. W. Nelson, Witmer Stone, Drs. A. K. 

 Fisher, Jonathan D wight, Jr. and Thos. 8. 

 Roberts were elected members of the Coun- 

 cil. By a provision of the by-laws, the Ex- 

 Presidents of the Union, Dr. J. A. Allen 

 and Messrs. William Brewster, D. G. Elliot 



