January 25, 190/] 



SCIENCE 



139 



ing the modeling that was such an attract- 

 ive feature of the preceding stage. At 

 Altamira the color employed is red and the 

 drawing is deplorable. As a rule these 

 examples are not well preserved. Those 

 from Marsoulas, in either black or red, are 

 not much better. The best work of this 

 phase is to be seen at Font-de-Gaume and 

 is executed in black or brown. It is often 

 combined with engraving of a high order, 

 done before the color was applied. 



In the fourth phase the engravings lose 

 their importance. The lines are broken and 

 difficult to follow. The small figures of the 

 mammoth at Font-de-Gaume and of the 

 bison at Marsoulas show this tendency to 

 emphasize detail at the expense of the en- 

 semble. 



Paleolithic painting reached its zenith in 

 the fourth phase. The outlines are drawn 

 in black, as are the eyes, horns, mane and 

 hoofs. The modeling is done with various 

 shades produced by the mixing of yellow, 

 red and black. Engraving always accom- 

 panies the fresco, serving to emphasize the 

 details. These polychrome figures are seen 

 at their best on the ceiling of the left 

 chamber near the entrance; also at Mar- 

 soulas and Font-de-Gaume. 



Shortly before his death, M. P. Jamin, 

 a well-known Parisian artist, exhibited in 

 the Paris Salon of 1903 a large oil painting 

 inspired by the discovery of these poly- 

 chrome frescoes. This canvas also formed 

 part of the French art exhibit at the Louisi- 

 ana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, in 

 1904. It represents the cave-dweller artist 

 in the little side chamber of Font-de- 

 Gaume at work on one of the thirteen 

 figures of the bison while members of his 

 family look on and applaud. In a panel 

 above his head is the unfinished group of 

 reindeer. It has long been the custom for 

 artists to copy the old masters. M. Jamin 

 has rendered a valuable service to both art 



and archeology by introducing the modern 

 French school of painters to the earliest 

 school of art developed on what is now 

 French soil. The ages of Phidias and of 

 the Italian Renaissance, viewed in the light 

 of their antecedents, are wonderful mani- 

 festations; but not more wonderful than 

 that of the Vezere troglodyte, a contem- 

 porary of the mammoth and rhinoceros, 

 the bison and the reindeer. 



George Grant MacGurdy 

 Yale Univebsitt 



AMERICAN SOCIETY OF BIOLOGICAL 

 CHEMISTS 



For several years the biological chemists 

 of this country have been considering the 

 advisability of organizing a national bio- 

 chemical society. The growth of the So- 

 ciety of Physiological Chemists (New York 

 City), which was founded in 1899, the de- 

 velopment of the biochemical section of the 

 American Chemical Society, which was 

 organized in 1905, the increasing number 

 of chemical papers on the programs of the 

 American Physiological Society, and the 

 great success of the recently established 

 Journal of Biological Chemistry, were 

 among the influences that stimulated 

 thoughts of a national organization of bio- 

 chemical workers. 



At the suggestion of Professor John J. 

 Abel, a meeting for the purpose of effecting 

 the establishment of such a society was held 

 in New York City, at the headquarters of 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science (Hotel Belmont), on the 

 afternoon of December 26, 1906. About 

 seventy-five American biological chemists 

 had been invited by Professor Abel to at- 

 tend the meeting, but many were unable to 

 go to New York at the time stated. There 

 were few, however, who did not heartily 

 favor the project. Of those who had been 

 invited to attend the meeting the following 

 were present: 



