546 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. Hll 



The Evolution of the Stars: F. E. Moultion. 

 The Minor Planets discovered by James C. Wat- 

 son: A. O. Lbuschner, Watson Medallist. 



Afternoon Session 

 2:3CK-6:00 p.m. — Auditorium, National Museum. 

 Biography of Professor Theodore Nicholas Gill: 



Wm. H. Dall. (By title.) 

 Biography of Professor Edward Singleton Sol- 

 den: W. W. Campbell. (By title.) 

 Biography of Professor Simon Newcomb: W. W. 



Campbell. (By title.) 

 Seport of the WorTo of the Committee upon the 

 Panama Canal Slides: Chakles R. Van Hise, 

 Chairman. 

 The Mechanics of the Panama Slides: H. Field- 

 ing Eeid. 

 The Present State of Knowledge of the Extremt, 

 Vltra-Violet : Theodore Lyman, Director Jef- 

 ferson Physical Laboratory, Harvard University. 

 (By invitation of the Program Committee.) 

 The paper aims to present a resume of the re- 

 sults which have been obt^ned in the region of 

 very short wave-lengths since the researches of 

 Schumann came to an end. The limit of the 

 spectrum and the means which may be used to 

 extend it, form the dominating feature of the 

 article. 



A Redetermination of e and N: Bobert A. Mil- 

 likan. 



In view of the far reaching significance of the 

 electronic charge and the apparent adaptability 

 of the ' ' droplet method ' ' to its very exact de- 

 termination, an effort has been made during the 

 past year to push this method to the limit of its 

 possible precision. Droplets made from different 

 substances and falling in different gases have been 

 used. All the constant factors involved in the 

 experiment- have been redetermined. Details of 

 the measurements will be published elsewhere. 

 The final result is in exceedingly close agreement 

 with the value obtained by the author and pub- 

 lished in 1913, namely e = 4.774 X 10-^° electro- 

 static units. 



The Relation of Investigational Work to the En- 

 forcement of the Food and Drugs Act: Carl L. 

 Alsberg, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, 

 United States Department of Agriculture. (By 

 invitation of the Program Committee.) 

 Recent Exploration on the Mesa Verde National 

 ParTc, Colorado: J. Walter Fewkes. 

 Wherever we turn in certain sections of our 

 southwest, we find mounds, ruins and evidences of 

 prehistoric buildings. Their very multiplicity 



tends to confuse the mind, especially when it at- 

 tempts to interpret their significance in culture 

 history. The first step in anthropology, as in 

 other natural sciences, is classificatory : Prehis- 

 toric culture is largely determined by architecture 

 and ceramics. We need a reliable classification 

 of these data. Manifestly linguistics or even 

 physical anthropology are not adequate to give a 

 satisfactory picture of the culture history of the 

 people who inhabited a large part of our south- 

 west. We must look to archeological data, espe- 

 cially architecture, for a knowledge of an unlet- 

 tered prehistoric people. The object of the pres- 

 ent communication is to record the progress of 

 archeological work in the Mesa Verde National 

 Park for the purpose of enlarging our knowledge 

 of the prehistoric culture of southwestern Colo- 

 rado. Incidentally it is an endeavor to show what 

 the author regards as the scientific method of 

 excavating southwestern ruins and of preparing 

 and preserving them for future students. It has 

 special reference to the field work in the summer 

 of 1915 and is a continuation of work already ac- 

 complished in the years 1908, and 1909, when two 

 large ruins — Spruce-tree House and Cliff Palace — • 

 were excavated and repaired to serve as type 

 ruins of cliff dwellers. The plan of the field 

 work in 1915 was the excavation of a mound on 

 the point of the mesa opposite Cliff Palace. It 

 was believed that a ruin belonging to a type un- 

 like cliff dwellings was covered by this mound. 

 The work was successful, and not only a new 

 type of building was exposed, but the features 

 brought to light indicate that it was constructed 

 for rites connected with worship, in which the sun 

 plays a prominent role. The method of excava- 

 tion, repair and preservation of Sun Temple, as 

 well as unique features developed, will be illus- 

 trated by lantern slides. 



Further Evidence on the Nature of Crown Gall 

 and Cancer and that Cancer in Plants Offers 

 Strong Presumptive Evidence both of the Para- 

 sitic Origin and of the Essential Unity of the 

 Various Forms of Cancer in Man and Animals: 

 Erwin F. Smith. 



wednesday, april 19 

 1:00 P.M. — Auditorium, National Museum. 

 Second William Ellery Hale Lecture, by Henry 

 Fairfield Osborn, President of the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History. Subject "The Origin 

 and Evolution of Life on the Earth." (Illus- 

 trated.) 



