350 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 792 



the only American is the case reported by 

 Stiles. Since Blanchard's paper appeared, he 

 has reported one new case at Paris, while one 

 has been reported by Francaviglia for Italy, 

 making a total of sixty-two reported cases. 

 While, therefore, Bipylidium caninum can 

 hardly be regarded as a rare parasite of man. 

 Dr. Coville's case is worthy of record as oc- 

 curring in this country. 



From the view-point of the student of the 

 relation of insects to disease, these cases are 

 of interest because the intermediate hosts of 

 this tapeworm are the dog louse, Trichodectes 

 canis, and the flea, Ctenocephalus canis. In- 

 festation can not take place directly from 

 swallowing the eggs of the parasite, any more 

 than in the case of other typical tapeworms, 

 but only through ingestion of the infested in- 

 sect. The dog normally becomes infested by 

 biting the flea or louse. Man may accident- 

 ally ingest one of the insects and the parasites 

 are able to complete their development in the 

 unusual host. 



This accounts for the fact that the great 

 majority of cases reported are of young chil- 

 dren, whose association with dogs and cats 

 is more intimate, and who are likely to scru- 

 tinize less closely articles of food or drink. 

 From Blanchard's summary, it appears that 

 about Y7 per cent, of the reported cases are of 

 children under three years of age. Six are of 

 adults and, counting Dr. Coville's case, three 

 are of children between the ages of nine and 

 twenty years. In the one under consideration, 

 the boy's constant playmate was a bull terrier 

 which was afterwards found to harbor the 

 Dipylidium. Wm. A. Eilet 



ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE BOSTON MEETING, 

 WITH PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H 

 As was the case a year ago, the American An- 

 thropological Association and the American Folk- 

 Lore Society met in aifiliation with Section H of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. The sessions which began on December 

 27 and lasted till noon on December 30 were held 

 in the Engineering Building of the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology. The attendance was bet- 

 ter than a year ago and a number of important 

 papers were presented. Professor William H. 



Holmes was present as vice-president of Section H 

 and president of the American Anthropological 

 Association, while Dr. John K. Swanton presided 

 over the single session in charge of the American 

 Folk-Lore Society. 



SECTION H 



Officers for the Boston meeting were nominated 

 as follows: Member of the council, Professor 

 Franz Boas; member of the general committee, 

 Dr. Charles Peabody. Sectional offices were filled 

 by the nomination of Professor Roland B. Dixon, 

 Cambridge, Mass., as vice-president for the ensu- 

 ing year; and Professor Geo. B. Gordon, member 

 of the sectional committee to serve five years. In 

 accordance with a change in the constitution en- 

 larging the sectional committee, the section recom- 

 mended to the council that the American Anthro- 

 pological Association, the American Folk-Lore 

 Society and the American Psychological Associa- 

 tion be designated as societies suitable for affilia- 

 tion with Section H. 



Addresses and Papers 



The address of Professor R. S. Woodworth, re- 

 tiring vice-president of Section H, entitled " Racial 

 Difi'erences and Mental Traits," was published in 

 Science on February 4. It was followed by an 

 important discussion on related topics such as: 

 brain weight in relation to race, intelligence and 

 the finer structure of the brain; and the relative 

 influences of heredity and environment, in which 

 Professors H. H. Donaldson, Frederic Adams 

 Woods, E. E. Southard, Franz Boas and J. MoK. 

 Cattell took part. The address of Dr. John R. 

 Swanton, president of the American Folk-Lore 

 Society, on " Some Practical Aspects of the Study 

 of Myths," will be published in the Folk-Lore 

 Journal. 



Most of the papers read at the joint meeting 

 are represented in this report by abstracts. These 

 are: 

 Some Fundamental Char aot eristics of the TJte 



Language: Dr. Edwaed Sapie. 



The Ute language, originally spoken in much 

 of Colorado and Utah, forms the easternmost 

 dialect of the Ute-Chemehuevi subgroup, accord- 

 ing to Kroeber's classification, of the plateau 

 branch of the Shoshonean linguistic stock. It is 

 itself spoken in at least two slightly different 

 dialects, which may be termed Uintah and Uncom- 

 pahgre Ute. The phonetics of Ute are only super- 

 ficially easy, actually they are characterized by 

 many subtleties. The consonantal system in its 

 original form can, by internal evidence, be re- 



