458 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 481. 



covery of the island, finally running it back 

 to the story of a sailor who had accompanied 

 Magellan. At present the inhabitants of 

 Guam make fire by the plow and saw methods, 

 the latter introduced from the Philippines. 



The title of Professor L. P. Ward's paper 

 was ' Monogenism or Polygenism.' Professor 

 Ward added much from the biological side that 

 is new and germane to the topic of man's 

 descent, which^long agitated anthropologists 

 until the weight of opinion fell to the balance 

 of monogenism. There is no such thing in 

 nature as a first pair; nature is a becoming; 

 there is no abrupt beginning; monogenism, 

 therefore, is the theory that the human races 

 have all descended by various lines from a 

 common ancestry. Biologists are practically 

 at one as to the descent of all living creatures 

 from one primary source. Polygenism is 

 regarded by them as impossible either for the 

 human race or for animals or plants. 



The diificulty is to make this clear to non- 

 biologists, and Professor Ward began by ex- 

 plaining that function is simple, while struc- 

 ture is immensely varied. Functions are the 

 ends to which structures are the means. 



For example, there is only one kind of life, 

 and only one kind of mind or reason. There 

 are comparatively few vital functions and the 

 same function may be performed by entirely 

 different structures. This is illustrated by 

 what are called analogies in biology. Flight, 

 for example, is a function, but the wings of 

 insects, birds and bats are all different struc- 

 tures. While functions are always the same, 

 there is complete fortuity in structures, and 

 the same structure would never be independ- 

 ently developed twice. Man is a bundle of 

 structures, and the chances are infinity to 

 one that another being could have independ- 

 ently arisen exactly like him. Following out 

 this idea. Professor Ward said that the in- 

 habitants of Mars, should there be such, could 

 not be like any of our types of animals. Fer- 

 tility inter se, which obtains in all the human 

 races, was also urged as an argument against 

 the possibility of polygenism, and as showing 

 that the lines of descent of the human races 

 are very short. 



One of the most important corollaries from 



the nionoijhyletic origin of man is that all 

 races are of the same age; i. e., all are equally 

 old. There are no ' primitive ' races. Man 

 is characterized only by degrees of culture and 

 advancement, but all have taken the same time 

 to reach the point of development in which 

 they are now found. 



The paper was discussed by Dr. 0. F. Cook, 

 who objected to the use of both monogenism 

 and polygenism and suggested eurygenism as 

 denoting the tendency of all life to ramify. 



The 350th meeting was held February 23. 

 The report of the committee on the preserva- 

 tion of American antiquities was heard and 

 the bill which they have prepared read to the 

 society. The matter was referred to the next 

 meeting for discussion. 



Dr. Ales Hrdlicka exhibited and described a 

 true fossil human skeleton from the western 

 coast of Florida. Very few such remains have 

 been found in which the organic matter of 

 the bones has been replaced by mineral. The 

 specimens shown are in the National Museum, 

 one of them a skull converted into limonite, 

 the other a fragmentary skeleton, mineralized 

 in somewhat different manner. The former 

 was described by Professor Leidy in 1879. 

 The bones have been analyzed and are found 

 to contain only eight tenths per cent, of or- 

 ganic matter, but the physical characteristics 

 of the skeleton are Indian-like, and do not 

 point to any great antiquity. 



Dr. I. M. Casanowicz read a paper entitled,. 

 ' Sacrifice as a Means of Atonement and Com- 

 munion with the Deity.' The origin of sacri- 

 fice was assumed to be a homage actuated by 

 fear and the offerings were naturally of food, 

 and the act was a providing for the wants of 

 the god. In ancient belief the spirits of the 

 gods gathered like flies around the sacrifice. 

 It came to be thought that the gods smelt th© 

 sweet savor of the sacrifice and that men de- 

 pended on the gifts of the gods, and conversely 

 the gods depended on the offerings of men. 

 Later the dependence of the gods on men was 

 eliminated and we have sacrifices of another 

 kind, as the human sacrifice, which may 

 emanate from the belief that the value of the 

 gift is proportioned to the privation of the 



