46 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 393. 



urements. The instruments will l)e ready at the 

 time of the Washington meeting, and" an assist- 

 ant eould probably be secured to take the meas- 

 urements if his travelling expenses were paid. 

 We should be pleased if an appropriation to this 

 committee of $25 or $50 could be made for this 

 purpose. An appropriation was made for a series 

 of years by the British Association for its anthro- 

 pometric laboratory. Our own measurements are 

 more extended than those of the British Associa- 

 tion, especially in the direction of mental traits; 

 but it would be interesting to compare the meas- 

 urements of the members of the British Associa- 

 tion with similar measurements of American men 

 of science. 



.J. McK. C.4TTELL, 



W J McGee, 

 Franz Boas. 



committee on the study of blind 

 invertebrates. 

 To the Council of the A. A. A. S.: Gentlemen — 

 In behalf of your Committee on the Investigation, 

 of Cave Animals, I beg leave to report that the 

 following publications have recently been issued, 

 or will appear before the Washington meeting, in 

 January : 



1. An account of the arthropods of the caves 

 of Texas by Carl .lost Ulrich, Proc. Am. Mici: 

 Society. 



2. An account of the history of the eye of 

 amblyopsis from its appearance to death of tlie 

 individual by old age. 



3. The eyes of Rhineura, Proc. Washington 

 Acad. Sci. 



During March of the present year, the writer, 

 accompanied by Mr. Oscar Eiddle as assistant 

 and interpreter, visited the blind fish caves of 

 western Cuba. A general account of the trip was 

 presented before Section F. The Crustacea col- 

 lected will be described by Mr. W. P. Hay. The 

 eyes of the blind crustaceans and the eyes of 

 the blind fishes, blind lizards, and blind snakes 

 collected will be described by my students and 

 myself. 



The expenses of the Cuban trip, amoimting to 

 about $400, liave been met in part by an unex- 

 pended balance of about $80 from the $150 here- 

 tofore granted by the A. A. A. S., a promise of $85 

 for a report on the fishes by the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission, and from the sale of specimens. In be- 

 half of the Committee I respectfully request that 

 the Committee be continued and that a grant of 

 $100 be made to continue the work. 



In the absence of the. other members of the 

 Committee respectfully submitted by 



Carl H. Eigenmann, 



Secretary. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE RELATIONS OF 

 PLANTS TO CLIMATE. 



To the Memlers of the Council: Gentlemen — 

 The efforts of the Committee have been directed 

 to the development of methods which would se- 

 cure continuous records of the temperature of the 

 soil, and which would make possible an analysis 

 of the comparative influence of the widely differ- 

 ent soil and air temperatures upon the general 

 development, 'physiology and distribution of 

 plants. The Committee has been so fortunate as 

 to secure the cooperation and interest of Pro- 

 fessor Wm. Hallock, of Columbia University, and 

 a thermograph designed by him has been con- 

 structed and installed for taking continuous rec- 

 ords of soil temperatures. (For description, see 

 Journal 'New York Bot. Garden, July, 1902.) 

 With the invention of this instrument, the Com- 

 mittee now finds itself in a position to study 

 some of the. main problems confronting it with 

 much promise of success in the way of valuable 

 results, and asks a further grant of sixty-five 

 dollars to enable it to construct and maintain 

 two additional instruments, and to make other 

 necessary records and experiments. In the ab- 

 sence of the other members of the Committee, 

 Messrs. Trelease and Coulter, this report is sub- 

 mitted with their general approval, and with the 

 unanimous approval of Section G. 

 Respectfully, 



D. T. MacDougal. 



Keport of the Committee on the Atomic 

 Weight of Thorium. (Will be printed 

 hereafter. ) 



The following grants were made for the 

 ensuing year : 



To the committee on anthropo- 

 metric measurements $50.00 



To the committee on the investi- 

 gation of blind invertebrates . . 75.00 

 To the committee on the atomic 



weight of thorium 50.00 



To the committee on the relations 



of plants to climate 75.00 



By the action of the Council on July 3, 

 1902, a new committee consisting of W. S. 

 Franklin, D. B. Brace and E. F. Nichols 

 was appointed to which was entrusted in- 



