January 9, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



45 



plaa, or aid in similar eflforts elsewhere instituted, 

 by which a suitable and permanent memorial of 

 this great benefactor of his race may be secured. 

 This committee shall be authorized to prepare and 

 publish a statement of the services of the late 

 Major Reed in discovering the mode by which yel- 

 low fever may be exterminated. 



The members appointed by President 

 Remsen to serve as such committee are : 

 Dr. D. C. Gilman, Dr. A. Graham Bell, 

 General George M. Sternberg, Mayor Seth 

 Low, Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, President J. 

 G. Schurman, Dr. S. E. Chaille, Dr. W. 

 H. Welch, Dr. Charles S. Minot. 



The second resolution was as follows: 



Inasmuch as the construction of the isthmian 

 canal is through a region in which without en- 

 ergetic sanitary control there is sure to be enor- 

 mous loss of human life from preventable diseases, 

 particularly from pernicious malaria and yellow 

 fever, as well as great waste of energy and of 

 money from disabilities caused by such diseases, 

 and 



Inasmuch as the measures for the restraint of 

 these diseases, which have already achieved even 

 their extermination in Cuba under American ad- 

 ministration, require expert knowledge based upon 

 practical familiarity with tropical diseases, ex- 

 perience in the application of these measures, and 

 large authority in their administration. 



Resolved, That the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science begs most respectfully 

 and earnestly to call to the attention of the Presi- 

 dent of the United States the importance of ap- 

 pointing as a member of the Isthmian Canal 

 Commission a medical man possessed of the quali- 

 fications indicated. The association is convinced 

 that the mere employment of such a sanitary ex- 

 pert by the commission will not be likely to secure 

 the desired results. 



Resolved, That the permanent secretary of the 

 association transmit a copy of these resolution to 

 the President of the United States. 



Section F recommended to the council the 

 following resolution, which was adopted: 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science heartily endorses the plan of con- 

 verting the Donnelson estate, which has recently 

 become the property of the State of Indiana, into 

 a State Reserve, and urges upon the legislature of 

 Indiana the advisability of setting aside a part 

 of it for an experimental farm for the investiga- 



tion of cave animals and plants by American 

 naturalists. 



The grants recommended by the council 

 and announced to the general session were 

 as follows: 



To the committee on the atomic weight of 

 thorium, $50. 



To the committee on anthropometry, $50. 



To the Concilium Bibliographicum, $100. 



In addition to these it was announced 

 that the Botanical Society of America had 

 made the following grants in aid of re- 

 search: 



To Dr. J. C. Arthur, $90, to be used in the prose- 

 cution of his investigations of the plant rusts. 



To Dr. Arthur Hollick, $150, to be used in the 

 prosecution of a study of the fossil flora of the 

 Atlantic coastal plain. 



To Dr. D. S. Johnson, $200, to enable him to 

 obtain material from tropical America and carry 

 forward his studies of the endosperm and seed 

 in the Piperaceae and Chloranthaceae. 



The reports of the committees on the 

 teaching of anthropology, on indexing 

 chemical literature and on the atomic 

 weight of thorium were duly received and 

 will be printed subsequently. Other re- 

 ports were submitted and adopted, as fol- 

 lows: 



COMMITTEE ON ANTHROPOMETRY. 



This committee begs to report that anthropo- 

 metric researches have been continued at Colum- 

 bia University under the direction of its New York 

 members and with the cooperation of Professor 

 Farrand, Professor Thorndike, Dr. Wissler, Mr. 

 Bair, Mr. Davis and Mr. Miner. Tests have been 

 made on the freshmen entering the college, calcula- 

 tions have been carried out on measurements of 

 school children, and new determinations of the 

 mental traits of school children have been made 

 and correlated. The chairman of the committee has 

 carried forward an extensive anthropometric study 

 of American men of science, the preliminary re- 

 sults of which formed the subject of his address 

 as president of the American Society of Natural- 

 ists. An anthropometric laboratory has been ar- 

 ranged at the present meeting of the association, 

 with the $50 appropriated at the Pittsburgh meet- 

 ing for the purpose, and tests of the physical and 

 mental traits of members are being made. We 

 ask that this committee be continued and that a 



