May 16, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



791 



ventions applied to raising and distributing 

 water and showing the tremendous strides 

 made in the art at the present time. 



Mr. P, B. Pierce's paper on wireless teleg- 

 raphy presented in an attractive manner this 

 most recent of the great inventions. Mr. 

 Pierce pointed out the various steps by which 

 wireless telegraphy came to be and called at- 

 tention to the interaction of minds and in- 

 ventions to produce new inventions. In con- 

 clusion Mr. Pierce explained the apparatus 

 employed in wireless telegraphy. 



The 330th meeting was held April 8. 



Dr. Franz Boas of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, New York, read a paper 

 entitled 'Anthropological Organization in 

 America.' The paper, which was prefaced 

 with a review of the history of the existing 

 societies, was devoted to a discussion of the 

 question whether it is advisable to add a new 

 organization to the number as has been lately 

 proposed in the formation of an association 

 of a national character, or to centralize and 

 combine all such agencies in such manner as 

 to strengthen the present and prospective or- 

 ganizations. Dr. Boas concluded that such 

 work could be better done through Section H. 

 of the American Association of the Advance- 

 ment of Science, swarming from the parent 

 hive as the Geological, Chemical and other 

 Societies, from their respective Sections of 

 some years ago. 



In the discussion of Dr. Boas' paper, partici- 

 pated in by W J McGee, W. H. Holmes, Dr. 

 George M. Kober, J. Walter Fewkes, and J. 

 D. MeGuire, there seemed to be a consensus of 

 opinion that the new society should be of a 

 national character, organized on broad lines, 

 designed to promote the interests of anthropol- 

 ogy in America. It was recognized that for 

 convenience of meetings, etc., it might be 

 advisable to maintain a connection with the 

 American Association if such arrangement 

 could be made. 



A paper by Hon. A. R. SpofFord followed, 

 entitled 'Ceremonials, National, International 

 and Social,' which was entertaining and in- 

 structive. Mr. Spofford rapidly sketched the 

 wide range of ceremonial forms in time and 

 their prevalence among uncultured peoples. 



The ultra forms of ceremonious politeness were 

 held up to ridicule. Walter Hough. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN MARTINIQUE AND POS- 

 SIBLY COMING BRILLIANT SKY GLOWS. 



The terrific volcanic eruption in Krakatoa, 

 near Java, in 1883, was productive of such 

 brilliant phenomena in the sky and air and 

 added so materially to our knowledge of the 

 motions of the atmosphere that meteorological 

 observers would do well to watch for the ear- 

 liest appearance of similar phenomena from 

 the recent outbursts in the West Indies. Such 

 observations may aid greatly in the study of 

 the motions of the air. 



Up to the date of the Krakatoa explosion, it 

 had been supposed by meteorologists that the 

 air forming the trade winds approached the 

 equatorial belt from both sides and ascending 

 near the equator turned toward the poles, be- 

 coming a southwest upper current in the north- 

 ern hemisphere and a northwest upper current 

 in the southern hemisphere, flowing over the 

 trade winds below. 



The observations on the Krakatoa phe- 

 nomena gathered by the committee of the 

 Royal Society and discussed by Russell and 

 Archibald show that the upper currents in the 

 tropics between 20°N. and 20° S. moved from 

 the east with a velocity of about 75 miles an 

 hour. This was indicated by the progress of 

 the haze and sky glows which were traced 

 around the world three times in succession. 

 (See 'The Eruption of Krakatoa and Subse- 

 quent Phenomena,' London, 1888.) The very 

 fact that the authors were able to follow the 

 dust cloud and its attendant phenomena indi- 

 cates that the upper air movement within this 

 belt is very uniform in velocity and direction, 

 otherwise the cloud of smoke and haze would 

 have very quickly disintegrated and it would 

 have been impossible to trace it even once 

 around the world with a nearly parallel front 

 as was done by Russell. 



These observations were not in accord with 

 theory and it was at first supposed they might 

 be due to temporary movements of the atmos- 

 phere. But Abercromby was so much im- 

 pressed by the phenomena that he began to 



