212 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 397. 



out ; it is the geometric form of its occipital, 

 Miiich is nearly square. 



It is certain that this does not constitute 

 (and less in an isolated case such as the 

 present) a racial characteristic; it is pre- 

 sented only as data that will aid in the 

 study of the morphology of the occipital 

 bone, which it is thought will supply the ex- 

 planation of its anomaly. It is useless to 

 expound the theory of the development of 

 the occipital, for it is well known by all who 

 occupy themselves with the anatomical 

 sciences. 



In all of my studies I have never encoun- 

 tered a similar case and it is desirable that 

 this isolated datiun may be utilized. For 

 this reason it is brought to the attention of 

 the fellows of this Association. 



This paper was illustrated by a photo- 

 graph and read by title. 



Evanescent Congenital Pigmentation in the 

 Sacro-Lumhar Region: Haeriett New- 

 ell Wardle. ' 



The purpose of this paper was not to re- 

 cord any new observation, but to call to the 

 attention of American anthropologists the 

 various aspects of the questions relating to 

 the occurrence of well-defined pigmented 

 areas, chiefly in the sacro-lumbar region 

 common upon a large percentage of the 

 children of certain of the darker races. 

 The stigmata fade away in from two to 

 eight years. Their presence has been ob- 

 served sporadically over a wide geographic 

 territory reaching from Greenland in the 

 east to Madagascar in the west— Danish 

 Greenland, Vancouver, Hawaii, Samoa, 

 Korea, Japan, China, the Philippines, the 

 Celebes, Java, Malay archipelago, Indo- 

 China, Madagascar,— thus appearing in 

 many ethnic divisions. Nevertheless they 

 have been elevated to the position of a 

 racial character and called ' Mongolian 

 marks. ' No effort has as yet been made to 

 inquire into their biological significance. 



The hypothesis is offered that these evan- 

 escent congenital pigmented areas are the 

 nuclei of more general pigmentation, the 

 regions wherein occurs the first deposition 

 of the cutaneous pigment normal to the 

 darker races and peoples, and that their ap- 

 parent disappearance may be explained by 

 the deepening of the tint of the whole body 

 surface. When it is remembered that the 

 cells of the rete mucosum are derived from 

 those of the dermis, the fact becomes very 

 significant that the pigment of the so-called 

 JMongolian marks is situated, not in deep 

 epidermal cells, but in the underlying der- 

 mal tissue, for it would seem to be pre- 

 cisely in the latter layer that the earliest 

 carbonous deposit shoiUd be expected. 



This paper was read by title. 



The newly elected officers for the Wash- 

 ington meeting are : 



Vice-President, Grcorge A. Dorsey, Curator of 

 Anthropology of the Field Columbian Museum, 

 Chicago. 



Secretary, Roland B. Dixon, Instructor in An- 

 thropology, Harvard University, Cambridge. 

 Harlan I. Smith, 



Secretary. 



THE NORTH CAROM'S A SECTION OF THE 

 AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



The sixth annual meeting of the North 

 Carolina Section was held on Saturday, 

 May 17, 1902, at 11 a.m. in the office of 

 State Chemist, Agricultural Building, 

 Raleigh. 



After the transaction of some miscellan- 

 eous bu.siness the following resolution was 

 unanimously adopted : 



In the death of Hugh Lee Miller on 

 February 5 last the Noi-th Carolina Section 

 of the American Chemical Society sus- 

 tained its first and deep loss of one of its 

 charter members. After graduation from 

 the State University in 1890, where he 

 served one year as assistant in the chem- 

 ical department, he acceptably filled an 

 instructorship in the Agricultural and 



