June 24, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



951 



History in conjunction with the American 

 Ethnological Society. The program was as 

 follows : 

 Notes on an Algonkin Dialect: Dr. Wm. 



Jones. 



Dr. Jones presented a brief report on the 

 method of word-formation of the Fox dialect. 

 The dialect is Algonkin and belongs to the 

 group now inhabiting, or that once inhabited, 

 the country contiguous to Lake Huron, Lake 

 Michigan and Lake Superior. Among the other 

 dialects of the group are Ojibway, Ottawa, 

 Pottawatomi, Menomonie, Kickapoo and Sauk. 

 Morphologically all these dialects stand in an 

 intimate relation with one another. The 

 absolute forms of much of the vocabulary are 

 the same, but varying differences in the way 

 of intonation, articulation and grammar make 

 some of the dialects seem somewhat removed 

 from one another. Fox is nearest to Sauk 

 and Kickapoo and farther removed from 

 Ojibway. 



The structural peculiarities of word-build- 

 ing as shown in the Fox would come out much 

 the same in the other related dialects. The 

 system of forming words is by composition. 

 The elements entering into composition are 

 formatives and stems. Some formatives are 

 prefixes but most are suffixes. Some of the 

 suffixes refer to the pronoun and gender in 

 the same form. Stems fall into two general 

 classes, initial and secondary. Initial stems 

 come first in a combination and secondary 

 stems come after. Secondary stems can be 

 subdivided into at least two groups, one of a 

 first order and another of a second order; the 

 former stand next to initial stems, and the 

 latter, when in composition, stand, next to 

 terminal pronouns. 



The stems refer to general notions. Initial 

 stems usually express subjective states and 

 secondary stems generally refer to objective 

 relations. The meaning of one stem modifies 

 the meaning of another in a reciprocal man- 

 ner with the result of greater specialization. 

 Initial stems have greater extension and can 

 often occur alone as adverbs. 



A number of particles precede the terminal 

 pronouns. The particles refer to causal rela- 

 tions. Some have the special ofiSee of instru- 



mentality, as with the hand, foot, mouth, 

 voice and ear. 



The dialect makes a distinction between two 

 opposing categories. Objects that have life 

 and movement come in one class and objects 

 without those attributes fall in another. The 

 distinction is maintained with great vigor 

 throughout the dialect; a force like personi- 

 fication sometimes interferes with it. 



On the Growth of Children: Professor Franz 



Boas and Dr. Clark Wissler. 



Professor Franz Boas and Dr. Clark Wiss- 

 ler presented a joint paper on the growth of 

 children, in which they discussed the causes 

 of the increased variability during the period 

 of growth. As the results of previous investi- 

 gations, it had been suggested that the in- 

 creased variability may be due to differences 

 in the rapidity of development. The authors 

 have followed out this line of investigation by 

 collecting material regarding the variability 

 of the period at which certain physiological 

 changes take place. The times of dentition, 

 the beginning of puberty, the appearance of 

 the wisdom teeth, and the beginning of senil- 

 ity were selected for this purpose, and it was 

 shown that the variability of time at which 

 these phenomena take place increases with 

 increasing age, and apparently the rate of 

 increase of the variability is proportional to 

 the age. Furthermore, it was shown that 

 during the period of growth all the coefficients 

 of correlation between the sizes of different 

 parts of the body are increased. This can 

 also be best explained by the theory that the 

 phenomena of growth are largely due to accel- 

 eration and retardation. 



Paper-mahing Implements of Ancient Mexino 

 (with demonstration of specimens) : Pro- 

 fessor Marshall H. Saville. 



TJie Grammar of the Yxikaghir Language: 



Mr. Waldemar Jochelson. 



The paper reported the result of several 

 years' study of the Tukaghir language, being 

 mainly a sketch of the Kolyma dialect. There 

 are two dialects in the language, — the Tundra 

 dialect, and the Kolyma dialect. The phonetic 

 and morphological peculiarities of the former 

 are rather insignificant, but the Tundra dia- 



