952: 
reduction in viability is due to the diminu- 
tion in quantity or loss in quality of the 
enzyms in the seeds. Some very interest- 
ing experiments made in the experiment 
station of the University of Vermont tend 
to establish this theory, as well as to 
offer some applications of practical value. 
Various old seeds were treated with dif- 
ferent enzym solutions and were then 
placed in suitable apparatus for germina- 
tion. One lot of tomato seeds, twelve 
years old, soaked for twenty-four hours 
before germination, gave the following re- 
sults: 
Soaked in water,.......... 28 per cent germinated. 
Soaked in trypsin,........ 56 * " 
Soaked in Extractum pan- 
CLEABIS, .........0.0.0000 36 ts ue 
Soaked in Enzymol, ....52 
Another lot of seeds of another variety of 
tomato, twelve years old, gave these re- 
sults: 
Soaked in water,........... 34 per cent. germinated. 
Soaked in diastase, ........ WOK Lat a 
One of the most remarkable experiments 
was with another lot of tomato seeds, also 
twelve years old. The result stood: 
Soaked in water,........... 12 per cent. germinated. 
Soaked in pepsin, ......... sos *t “ 
Soaked in diastase, ....... fei} Ot ug 
This shows an increase of 567 per cent. and 
608 per cent. respectively in the germina- 
tion through the action of the enzyms arti- 
ficially supplied. Other seeds of other spe- 
cies and other enzymic preparations gave 
similar results. 
In view of our present knowledge it seems 
quite fair to hope that, when we understand 
better the enzyms and their relation to the 
processes of vegetable physiology, we shall 
be able to control to our advantage many 
of the critical steps in plant development. 
FRANK ALBERT WAUGH. 
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. 
SCIENCE, 
[N. S. Vou. VI. No. 156, 
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 
THE OLDEST CRANIA FROM CENTRAL MEXICO. 
In his work, ‘Anthropologie du Mexique,’ 
published in 1884, Professor Hamy gave 
the measurements of a number of skulls | 
obtained from sepultures of uncommon 
depths in various parts of central Mexico. 
Those at Tlalteloleo were from seven to 
eight feet below the surface and appeared to 
date from a remote antiquity. These skulls 
were all characterized by marked brachy- 
cephaly, with indices of 85 and upward. 
In the Bulletin du Museum d’ Histoire Nat- 
wrelle, 1897, No. 6, the same author reports 
the measurements of five skulls from very 
ancient burial sites in the district of Colot- 
lan, State of Jalisco. The cranial capacity 
is good (male 1485, female 1280), but all 
five of them were remarkably brachy- 
cephalic, the average being above 86, and 
the highest reaching 92.40! 
The modern graves, on the other hand, 
yield skulls which are distinctly dolicho- 
cephalic, and the present native population 
is of this character. They are the Guich- 
olas, speaking a dialect of Nahuatl. They 
assert that these older graves are not those 
of their ancestors, but of another race; and 
the difference in the art-remains substan- 
tiates this tradition. Professor Hamy con- 
cludes that all the oldest tribes of central 
Mexico were broad-skulled, with marked 
alveolar prognathism. 
THE OLD LAND-BRIDGE TO EUROPE. 
In the introduction to my ‘ American 
Race’ I pointed out the arguments for the 
existence of a land-bridge from North 
America to Europe in pleistocene times, 
across which the ancestors of the American 
man might have journeyed. Since the pub- 
lication of that work a number of writers 
have advocated this hypothesis, as Georges 
Hervé, Charles Tissot, M. Lapparent, etc. 
The latest is M. Philippe Salmon, ex-Presi- 
dent of the Anthropological Society of Paris. 
