1008 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 861 



Drs. Hrdlieka and Lamb each read a paper and 

 exhibited specimens illustrating the diseases of 

 pre-Columbian inhabitants of the western hemi- 

 sphere. Dr. Hrdlieka 's paper was based on his 

 explorations in Peru. The speaker pointed out 

 that among the skeletal material there was not a 

 single instance of rachitis. There was one case 

 which may have been tuberculosis, but the evidence 

 was not absolutely conclusive and the age of the 

 grave (at Chicama) was unknown. Two burials 

 were encountered in which the bones were unde- 

 niably syphilitic, but both these graves were 

 among the more recent and likely post-Columbian. 

 Thirty other long bones had more or less marked 

 inflammatory alterations which might have been 

 syphilitic, but the diagnosis could not be made 

 with certainty. An examination of the many 

 thousands of long bones determined that a very 

 large majority of them had no lesions whatever. 

 Only two of the 3,400 skulls brought away, pre- 

 sented a case of ulceration or a lesion that could 

 be attributed with confidence to syphilis. In the 

 Chicama cemeteries and to a lesser extent in those 

 of Pachamac, there was marked rarity in the frac- 

 tures of bones. The setting was generally de- 

 fective. The wounds of the skull, especially at 

 Pachamac, were very numerous. There was but 

 one positive case of trephining, at Pachamac; 

 but there were several skulls in which it is impos- 

 sible to say whether they are examples of par- 

 tially healed wounds from clubs or scars from 

 trephining. 



Dr. Lamb's paper was based on the collections 

 of the Army Medical Museum. The specimens 

 numbered nearly 250 and with few exceptions 

 were abnormal, showing some anomaly, disease or 

 injury. They come from the United States, 

 Alaska and Peru. Anomalies such as the ole- 

 cranon perforation, pilasteric femur, platyknemio 

 tibia and deep channelling of the concave surfaces 

 of the bones of the forearm and leg, were abun- 

 dant, suggesting always a primitive people or a 

 people of low type. There are many fractures, 

 usually well healed but with deformity; among 

 them two showing false joints. Many of the 

 specimens had inflammation of the bone, hyperos- 

 tosis, exostosis, osteomyelitis, osteitis deformans; 

 and a few dislocations. Some showed bone syph- 

 ilis, but none tuberculosis. 



Both papers were discussed at length. Among 

 the speakers were Drs. Lamb, Kober, La Card, 

 Carr, Shands, Michelson. 



T. Michelson, 



Secretary 



THE SOCIETY OF RESEARCH WORKERS IN EXPERI- 

 MENTAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE, 

 WASHINGTON, D. C. 



The last meeting of this society for the season 

 was held on May 27, 1911, at the University Club. 



On this occasion Dr. William Salant, chief of the 

 Division of Pharmacology, Bureau of Chemistry, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, read a paper, 

 ' ' On the Action of Drugs under Pathological 

 Conditions. ' ' Particular emphasis was placed on 

 the fact that the present-day method of deter- 

 mining the action of drugs upon normal animals 

 does not always show how the drug under exam- 

 ination wiU act under pathological conditions. 



This meeting closed the third year of the exist- 

 ence of this society, which is comprised of mem- 

 bers of the various scientific laboratories in Wash- 

 ington, D. C. (U. 8. Public Health and Marine 

 Hospital Service, the Bureaus of Chemistry, Plant 

 Industry, Soils and Animal Industry of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, the Geophysical Labo- 

 ratory of the Carnegie Institution and the U. S. 

 Naval Medical School), and which has no regular 

 officers except the chairman, who is chosen for 

 each season. Dr. Heinrich Hasselbring, of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, has been elected as chairman, vice 

 Salant, for the coming year. 



Lewis W. Petzer 



the american chemical society 

 new york section 



The ninth regular meeting of the session of 

 1910-11 was held in Eumford Hall on June 9. 

 Professor Chas. Baskerville in the chair. 



The following papers were presented: 



' ' Determination of Copper : a Modification of 

 the Iodine Method, " E. C. Kendall. 

 ' "Eeport of the Sub-committee on Glycerine 

 Analysis," A. C. Langmuir. 



"Consistency of Paint by the Stormer Viscosi- 

 meter, " Allen Eogers. 



"Fish Oil as a Paint Vehicle," Maximilian 

 Toch. 



"Studies on the Eeduetion of Perric and Ceric 

 Salts" (read by title), Morris Loeb and S. E. 

 Morey. 



"An Equilibrium in the Cobaltamines, " A. B. 

 Lamb and J. W. Marden. 



' ' Chemistry of Anaesthetics. IV., Chloroform, ' ' 

 Chas. BaskerviUe and W. A. Hamor. 



C. M. Joyce, 



Secretary 



