July 1, 



S.] 



SGIENGE. 



17 



■custom is the theme of a thorough study by 

 Dr. Paul Sartori iu the Zeitschrift fur 

 JEthnolocjie, Heft I., 1898. 



Having demonstrated its wide extension 

 he seeks for the psychical motives which 

 prompt it. They are complex. Sometimes 

 the offering was to the spirit of the place or 

 to the gods for the undertaking ; or it was 

 to obtain a guardian divinity in the soul of 

 the victim ; or it was magical, by the spill- 

 ing of blood to drive away evil spirits ; or 

 it was a procedure in sympathetic magic, 

 the offering or victim being eaten with joy, 

 so that joy should abide in the house ; or 

 the sacrifice was in some way vicarious, a 

 substitute for what fate might otherwise de- 

 mand of the house owner. 



The article is a good example of exposi- 

 tion and analysis applied to a widespread 

 rite. 



THE CUSTOM OF ' DHAENA.' 



The legal practice in India of Dharna, or 

 sitting at a debtor's door and not eating 

 until the debt is paid, still obtains in that 

 country and is as old as the laws of 

 Manu. The debtor must either pay up or 

 move away, or else the creditor will starve 

 himself to death. This would seem to us a 

 very silly proceeding on the part of the 

 creditor ; but Dr. S. E. Steinmetz, in a 

 study of the custom printed in the Rivista 

 Sociologia Italiana for January of this year, 

 points out that when the meaning and 

 origin of the usage are appreciated, it is by 

 no means so foolish as it looks. Should 

 the creditor die from hunger, the debtor is 

 held responsible for murder, and the ter- 

 rible penalties of blood revenge will be 

 wreaked upon him by the family of the cred- 

 itor. Not only the debtor himself, but all 

 his kin or gens will become the targets of a 

 merciless vendetta. With this certainty in 

 view, any sacrifice on his part would be 

 wiser than to allow the creditor to perish. 

 D. G. Beinton. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



THE MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



A PROPOSITION to invite the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science to meet 

 in Philadelphia in 1899 was referred by the 

 Council of the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 for consideration to a committee consisting of 

 Messrs. Samuel G. Dixon, Thomas Meehan, 

 Rev. Henry C. McCook, William Powell Wil- 

 son, Henry Skinner and Edward J. Nolan. 

 After consultation with representatives of other 

 scientific institutions and educational interests 

 at a well attended meeting held iu the Academy 

 on the22dinst., the following was unanimously 

 adopted : 



As the first meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science was held in Philadel- 

 phia in 1848, and as it is fourteen years since the 

 most successful meeting in its history was also held 

 here, 



Resolved, That this meeting, in the belief that the 

 second half century of the Association's career should 

 begin in the city of its birth, approve of the sugges- 

 tion that an invitation to meet in Philadelphia in 

 1899 be conveyed to the session to be held in Boston 

 next August. 



After a statement by Dr. Nolan regarding 

 the successful methods of the local committee 

 in 1884, and remarks in support of the propo- 

 sition from Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, those in at- 

 tendance signed a form of invitation to be 

 transmitted to the Association in time to be 

 acted on by the Boston session, and the Secre- 

 tary was directed to obtain the signatures of 

 representatives of the municipal government 

 and others endorsing the movement but unable 

 to be present. 



The brilliant success of the meeting of 1884, 

 and the desirability of starting the Association 

 on its second half century under the most favor- 

 able auspices, after what will undoubtedly be a 

 largely attended session in Boston, are sufficient 

 reasons for the movement thus inaugurated. 

 It is especially fitting that the preliminary steps 

 should have been taken by the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, not only because of the hon- 

 orable position it has always maintained in the 

 scientific world, but also because the first meet- 

 ing in 1848 was held within its walls. If the 

 invitation to meet nest year in Philadelphia be 



