Mat 10, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



757 



ing from Colombia northward through Cen- 

 tral Am erica, toward southern Mexico, to be 

 correlated with the investigations now being 

 carried on in Middle America. 



3. Another line of connection between South 

 America and North America probably ex- 

 tended over the Antillean Islands toward the 

 Atlantic coast of the North American con- 

 tinent. The investigations of explorers have 

 demonstrated that Caribbean and Arowak in- 

 fluences extended from southern Brazil north- 

 ward to the eastern coast of the Gulf of 

 Mexico; and North American archeology 

 makes us suspect the existence of an earlier 

 connection, which may have extended between 

 South America and the southern and central 

 portions of the United States. In this re- 

 search is involved an investigation of the 

 many scattered and isolated tribes inhabiting 

 the Ajnazon valley and neighboring regions. 



4. While the indications of North and South 

 American contact are fairly definite on some 

 lines, we have much vaguer indications of 

 foreign influence on the Pacific coast of South 

 America, where certain traits of culture, as 

 well as physical appearance, suggest possible 

 contact with the Polynesian Islands. Not- 

 withstanding the vagueness of the indications, 

 this question is theoretically of fundamental 

 importance. Equally uncertain are the indi- 

 cations of relation with the old world on the 

 Atlantic side, but the possibility of contact by 

 way of the Atlantic Islands to Northwest 

 Africa may be considered. 



Resolved, That to take up the four lines of 

 research here outlined, an annual appropria- 

 tion of not less than twenty thousand dollars 

 would be required; and the extension of the 

 work, which would necessarily follow, would 

 make it advisable that an anthropological de- 

 partment, charged with the investigation of 

 the particular problem of the ethnical rela- 

 tion of South America to other continents, 

 should have a continuous appropriation of not 

 less than forty thousand dollars, and that its 

 work should not be limited to a definite num- 

 ber of years, because even now, in the imper- 

 fect state of our knowledge, we can see that 

 the solution of the problem will require many 



distinct and important lines of research. The 

 work should therefore be continued as long as 

 results of importance are secured in the vari- 

 ous lines of research. Respectfully submitted, 



(Signed) F. W. Putnam, Chairman, 



for the Archeological Institute of America. 

 EoLAND B. Dixon, 

 for the American Folk-Lore Society. 

 W. H. Holmes, 

 for the Anthropological Society of Wash- 

 ington. 



A. L. Kroebee, 

 for the American Anthropological Associa- 

 tion. 



Franz Boas, Secretary, 

 for the American Ethnological Society, and 

 for Section H of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Dr. Feancts Galton has been appointed to 

 deliver the Herbert Spencer Lecture for 1907, 

 at Oxford, and proposes to lecture this term 

 on 'Probability the Foundation of Eugenics.' 



Oxford University has conferred its doctor- 

 ate of science on Dr. A. Graham Bell. 



McGiLL University has conferred its doc- 

 torate of laws on Professor Ernest Ruther- 

 ford, who is leaving McGill to accept a chair 

 at Manchester, and the doctorate of science 

 on Dr. H. M. Ami, of the Canadian Geological 

 Survey. 



Professors E. 0. Pickering, of the Har- 

 vard CoUege Observatory, H. Poincare, of 

 Paris; W. Ostwald, of Leipzig, and Ramon y 

 Cajal, of Madrid, have been elected members 

 of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Professor Albeecht Penck, professor of 

 physiography at Berlin, and Professor Max 

 Noether, professor of mathematics at Erlang- 

 en, have been elected foreign members of the 

 Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen. 



Professor Wilhelm Roux, professor of 

 anatomy at Halle, has been elected a corre- 

 sponding member of the Biological Society of 

 Paris. 



Professor J. Wiesner, professor of botany 

 at the University of Vienna, has been made 



