NOVEMBER 19, 1897. ] 
sound a note of warning. Nothing can be less 
Indian than the words in which the tales are 
couched, nothing more misleading than the 
illustrations which represent the Indians of the 
coast as living in tepees and dressed in the style 
of Indians of the plains. The few sketches of 
Indian masks and paintings are given fanciful 
interpretations. Most of the stories are highly 
modified versions of stories from the region be- 
tween Columbia River and Alaska, but the 
author has also introduced the Sedna legend of 
the Eskimo of Baffin Land (see Sixth Annual 
Report Bureau of Ethnology, p. 583 ff.) under 
the title ‘Cawk, the Beaver’s Daughter.’ The 
figures representing the thunderbird (pp. 286 
ff.) have been taken from the Tenth Annual Re- 
port of the Bureau of Ethnology (p. 483) and 
belong to a variety of tribes. As a representa- 
tion of Indian life and thought the book is en- 
tirely misleading. 
FRANZ BOAs. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE NEW YORK SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
THE regular November meeting of the New 
York Section of the American Chemical Society 
was held on the 5th, at the College of the City 
of New York. A paper on ‘ Corrected Assays’ 
was read by E. H. Miller, and on the ‘ Chem- 
istry of Formaldehyde in Disinfection with 
Exhibits’ by Dr. E. J. Lederle. 
Apparatus was exhibited for the production 
of formaldehyde in house disinfection, and an 
active discussion followed on its chemical prop- 
erties, methods of estimating strength of solu- 
tions, effects of impurities, etc. It was stated 
that none of the so-called 40% solutions con- 
tain more than 33 to 36% of formaldehyde, and 
on account of the numerous impurities the 
specific gravity is no guide to the strength of 
the solutions. Its combination with glue was 
said to be perfectly stable, and if once thor- 
oughly dried, perfectly insoluble. 
A paper on the ‘ Chemistry of Substance used 
in Perfumery’ was announced for the next 
meeting, and an interesting exhibit of natural 
and synthetic products is anticipated. 
DURAND WOODMAN, 
Secretary. 
SCIENCE. as) 
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—SECTION 
OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 
THE Section meets bi-monthly at the Mott 
Memorial Library. The first meeting of the fall 
was held Monday evening, October 25th. Pro- 
fessor Cattell presented a report from the pen of 
Professor A. C. Haddon, of England, on An- 
thropology at the Toronto meeting of the Brit- 
ish Association, and Dr. A. Hrdlicka reviewed 
the work in Anthropology and Psychology at 
the American Association. 
‘Dr. Franz Boas and Dr. Livingston Farrand 
made a preliminary report of their work during 
the summer on the Jesup expedition sent out 
by the Museum of Natural History. 
Their work was mainly among two of three 
tribes in the western part of British Columbia. 
Many interesting details were brought out with 
reference to tribal organization, language, cus- 
toms and traditions. Attention was called to 
the rapid changes going on as a result of their 
location upon government reservations. 
The general plan of the work undertaken by 
the Museum was outlined by Dr. Boas. It will 
extend over a period of years and will include 
an exhaustive study of the tribes on the north- 
eastern coast of Asia as well as all the remain- 
ing tribes on the northwestern coast of 
America. 
The next meeting of this section of the Acad- 
emy will be held on the last Monday in January. 
¢. P. Briss, 
Secretary. 
NEw YORK UNIVERSITY. 
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 
American Chemical Journal, November.—‘The 
Action of Carbon Dioxide upon Sodium Alumi- 
nate and the Formation of Basic Aluminium 
Carbonate,’ W. C. DAy: Evidence in favor 
of the existence of a carbonate of aluminium. 
‘Aliphatic Sulphonie Acids,’ E. P. KouLrEr: 
General methods of preparation of the unsatu- 
rated aliphatic sulphonic acids. ‘The Dissocia- 
tion of Electrotypes as Measured by the Boil- 
ing-Point Method,’ H. C. Jonrs and S. H. Kine. 
‘On Diacyl Anilides,’ H. L. WHEELER, T. 
E. SmirH and C. H. WARREN: Crystallo- 
graphic study. ‘Synthesis of Hexamethylene 
