624 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 463. 



dolpli Virehow. Professor Virehow is said 

 not to have missed a meeting of the asso- 

 ciation since its organization until disabled 

 by the accident which eventually ended in 

 his death. The tribute paid to him in 

 Professor W. Waldeyer's presidential ad- 

 dress waSj therefore, eminently fitting. 

 Virehow helped to do for anthropology in 

 Germany thirty-three years ago what was 

 done for anthropology in America only last 

 year by the founders of the American An- 

 thropological Association. He was a po- 

 tent factor in the growth of the science, 

 as well as of the new organization, and 

 that of both was phenomenal. Three hun- 

 dred and forty-five took part in the Worms 

 meeting. A study of the program and of 

 the audiences at every sitting was, to me, 

 a source of inspiration, and strengthened 

 my faith in the future of our own asso- 

 ciation, now scarcely more than a year old. 

 But Professor "Waldeyer's address was not 

 all tribute. He called attention to the 

 needs of an international understanding 

 as to methods in anthropometry, of more 

 thorough and general university instruc- 

 tion in anthropology; a closer union of the 

 various anthropological organizations of 

 each nation, and, for Germany especially, 

 a great central anthropological institute 

 for purposes of both research and instruc- 

 tion. Berlin was suggested as a suitable 

 location for such an institute, on account 

 of its large and varied collections. It was 

 also suggested that municipal and provin- 

 cial museums turn over to the central in- 

 stitute all needed duplicates and whatever 

 else could be spared. This is precisely 

 what is being done in Denmark, which has 

 gone even further and made the director 

 of her National Museum supervisor of all 

 the provincial museums. The director 

 pays an annual visit to each museum. If 

 he finds specimens that are needed toward 

 making the national collection more com- 

 plete, the smaller museum must, for a con- 



sideration, part with these, even though 

 they be not in the nature of duplicates. 



Professor Schwalbe's paper, the first on 

 the program, was somatological : 'On a 

 Comprehensive Investigation of the So- 

 matic Characters of the German People.' 

 The speaker passed in review what had 

 been done already in this direction. All 

 are familiar with the collection of statistics 

 relative to the color of the skin, hair and 

 eyes of 6,758,827 German school children. 

 These results, due largely to Ecker and 

 Virehow, were published in 1886. Sehaaff- 

 hausen's extensive catalogue of the collec- 

 tions of crania in the German museums 

 aided materially in determining the dis- 

 tribution of head-form in the empire. 

 Schwalbe hopes to see done for Germany 

 what has been done for France by Col- 

 lignon and Lapouge; for Italy, by Livi; 

 and for, Sweden, by Fiirst and Retzius. 

 More has been accomplished for Spain than 

 for Germany ; and even less is known about 

 Great Britain, Denmark, Holland and Bel- 

 gium. As regards the German Empire, 

 exception must be made of Baden and 

 Bavaria, thanks to the labors of Ammon 

 and Ranke, respectively. 



Observations on school children alone 

 will not suffice, and in Prussia, especially, 

 permission to make the necessary observa- 

 tions on soldiers has not yet beeo obtained 

 from the Ministry of "War. For fifteen 

 years Professor Schwalbe has made use of 

 material furnished by the anatomical and 

 pathological institutes in Strassburg. In 

 that time he has measured 4,000 Alsatians, 

 1,500 of which, including both sexes, were 

 adults. Professor Schwalbe's paper was 

 accompanied by a table designed for use 

 in taking measurements on corpses. The 

 interest in his paper found immediate ex- 

 pression in the appointment of a commis- 

 sion. 



Professor Rudolph Martin presented 

 'Some New Anthropometric Instruments,* 



J 



