70 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 471. 



that these substances are very slightly soluble 

 in themselves, but hydrolize greatly with the 

 formation of a readily soluble constituent. 

 A. Seidell, 

 Secretary. 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 37Sth meeting was held on Saturday, 

 December 12. 



William PI. Ashmead presented some ' Re- 

 marks on Japanese Hymenoptera,' stating that 

 a recent study of specimens in the U. S. 

 National Museum had raised the number of 

 known species to over five hundred and fifty. 

 Some of these were represented in eastern and 

 southern Asia, while the relationship of the 

 parasitic forms were largely North American. 

 Specimens and drawings of some of the more 

 interesting species were shown, including 

 three distinct honey bees. 



V. K. Chesnut and Harry T. Marshall gave 

 " Some Observations on ' Locoed ' Sheep." 

 Mr. Chesnut described the symptoms of lo- 

 coed animals; tendency to stray, loss of appe- 

 tite for ordinary food, evident hallucination, 

 outbreaks of violence, wasting of flesh and, 

 finally, death. He stated that animals that 

 had acquired taste for the loco weed rarely, if 

 ever, recovered, and that in parts of the west 

 the loss of stock was very considerable. The 

 property of ' locoing ' animals had been as- 

 cribed to various plants of the genera As- 

 tragalus, Aragallus and Datura. Mr. Mar- 

 shall gave the results of the examination of 

 fourteen sheep, afflicted with the loco-disease, 

 and selected from a number as showing typical 

 symptoms. These sheep exhibited no spe- 

 cial lesions such as might be considered char- 

 acteristic of the complaint, but some of them 

 were infested by various parasites. The 

 speaker stated that while he believed in the 

 existence of a loco-disease so far as these sheep 

 were concerned, the actual observations showed 

 that it had been preceded by other causes 

 and that sheep enjoying fiill health had not 

 been attacked. 



Charles Hallock spoke of ' The Bison as a 

 Factor in the Distribution of Aboriginal Pop- 

 ulation in Mid-Continental America,' stating 

 that the introduction of the horse had enabled 



the Indians of the southwest to follow the 

 bison northwards into the plains, while as the 

 country in the eastern United States became 

 settled the forest Indians were crowded west- 

 ward into the same localities, following the 

 bison as a source of food. F. A. Lucas. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



The 351st meeting was held December 1. 

 Dr. D. S. Lamb read a paper entitled ' Albin- 

 ism and Melanism,' in which he carefully re- 

 viewed the contributions to the study of this 

 subject. Dr. Lamb spoke of the wide dis- 

 tribution of albinism among human beings, 

 its occurrence among animals and plants and 

 of the experiments in the latter fields to pro- 

 duce albinism. Albinism, he stated, is con- 

 genital and inheritable. The theories on the 

 cause of albinism were reviewed. The more 

 important took civilization and the direct ac- 

 tion of the nerves as causes. It was concluded 

 that no satisfactory explanation of albinism 

 and melanism has yet been advanced. In the 

 discussion Dr. Hrdlicka showed photographs 

 and samples of hair of the Hopi and Zuni 

 albinos and observed that there are more fe- 

 male than male albinos at Moki, that several 

 are below the average intelligence and many 

 were second child in order of birth. Dr. 

 Hrdlicka expressed his belief in the causal 

 relation of the nervous system to albinism. 

 He related an extraordinary case where the 

 wings of an albino jay bird which he cut off 

 in Mexico had returned almost to their natural 

 blue color when unpacked in New York. The 

 president. Miss Alice 0. Fletcher, said that 

 housing among the difierent tribes accounted 

 for differences of complexion and that albin- 

 ism has been explained in this way. The sec- 

 retary said that the purpose of the study of 

 albinism and melanism from the anthropolog- 

 ical side was to ascertain the causes of race 

 coloration, which has been a fruitful subject 

 for theorization. The discussion was taken 

 part in by Mr. Hallock, Mrs. Lamb and Mrs. 

 Seaman. 



Colonel Paul E. Beckwith read a paper en- 

 titled ' The Rise and Decline of the Sword. 

 Colonel Beckwith pictured the conditions of 

 the life of early times and showed that man 



