100 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXII. No. 551 



or an altar-stone, or a ceremonial mask, and the religions 

 that are nearest us are no less in importance than those 

 that are remotest. Everj' one who is cognizant of the 

 universality of law must recognize that all the changes in 

 the recent religious life of Christendom, for example, are 

 subject to the same laws of religious evolution and disso- 

 lution that have governed the whole religious history of 

 the globe. 



If these allegations are correct, a collection in which 

 all the principal religions of the Christian and non- 

 Christian world are presented in the way in which they 

 are understood and practised by their own followers, 

 must be of incalculable value, bringing together an enor- 

 mous body of materials, such as could not have been col- 

 lected by individual enterprise, even at the cost of years 

 of labor and observation. 



Were it an exclusively scientific assemblage, it would 

 not be the vast repository of data which it is to be, and 

 it could do nothing else than to further the breeding in 

 and in, as it were, of scientific thought and speculation on 

 a line where a vastly enlarged field for induction is the 

 chief desideratum. 



The proceedings of the jaarliament will form an invalu- 

 able addition to the materials for the study of religions, 

 but as many as iDossible of those who take a scientific in- 

 interest, in the subject, should attend the parliament in per- 

 son, so that they may in face-to-face intercourse with the 

 picked representatives of the Christian, Jewish, Moslem 

 and pagan sects and sub-sects, if not by their action in 

 the great congress itself, bring out and note for their own 

 use, and the future uses of science, the many facts which 

 will otherwise fail to be collected. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The following are the officers of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science elected for the 

 ensuing year: President, Daniel G. Brinton, Media, 

 Pa. ; Vice-Presidents — Section of Mathematics and 

 Astronomy, George C. Comstock, Madison; physics, 

 Wm. A. Rogers, Waterville, Me. ; chemistry, T. H. 

 Norton, Cincinnati, O. ; mechanical science and en- 

 gineering, Mansfield Merriman, South Bethlehem, Pa. ; 

 geology and geography, Samuel Calvin, Iowa City, la. ; 

 zoology, Samuel H. Scudder, Cambridge, Mass. ; bot- 

 any, L. M. Underwood, Greencastle, Ind. ; anthropol- 

 ogy, Franz Boas, Worcester, Mass. ; economic science 

 and statistics, Harry Farquhar, Washington, D. C. ; 

 Permanent Secretary, F. W. Putnam, Cambridge, 

 Mass. (re-elected) ; General Secretary, H. L. Fair- 

 child, Rochester, N. Y. ; Secretary of the Coun- 

 cil, James L. Howe, Louisville, Ky. Secretaries of 

 the Sections — Mathematics and astronomy, W. W. 

 Beeman, Ann Arbor, Mich. ; physics, B. "W. Snow, 

 Madison; chemistry, S. M. Babcock, Madison; me- 

 chanical science and engineering, J. H. Kinealy, 

 St. Louis, Mo. ; geology and geography, Wm. H. Davis, 

 Cambridge, Mass. ; zoology, Wm. Libbey, Prince- 

 ton, N. J.; botany, C. R. Barnes, Madison; anthro- 

 pology, A. F. Chamberlin, Worcester, Mass. ; eco- 

 nomic science and statistics. Manly Miles, Lansing, Mich. 

 Treasurer — Wm. Lily, Mauch Chunk, Pa. (re-elected.) 

 Considerable discussion has taken place in relation to 

 the place of meeting for 1894, but it is still undecided. 

 Boston and Worcester, Mass., Providence, R. I., and 

 Brooklyn, N. Y., have all been referred to, but the 

 matter is left in the hands of the President and the 

 Permanent Secretarj'' for decision. San Francisco is 

 spoken of as the place for meeting in 1895, and an in- 

 vitation has been received from, Nashville, for 1896. 

 — The U. S. Bureau of Education has issued a large 

 paper-covered volume on "Benjamin Franklin and the 



University of Pennsylvania. " It is edited by Francis N. 

 Thorpe, professor of American constitutional history in 

 the university, and the part directly relating to Frank- 

 lin and his views upon education is written by Mr. 

 Thorpe. He begins with an account of Franklin's own 

 self-education, the Autobiography being mainly drawn 

 upon as authority, and Mr. Thorpe expresses the opin- 

 ion that "the influence of Franklin on American educa- 

 tion has been even greater through his Autobiography 

 than through the institutions which he founded, or 

 which were founded by his followers." The move- 

 ments that led to the establishment, in 1749, of the 

 Public Academy of Philadelphia, the patent of the pres- 

 ent university, are carefully recorded, and several im- 

 portant documents relating to its history are presented, 

 including the circular by Franklin, in which he pro- 

 posed its establishment and also the constitution of the 

 academy itself. A chapter is then given to setting 

 forth Franklin's ideas on education, followed by a com- 

 parison of his views with those ot his eminent contem- 

 poraries, Adams and Jefferson. Franklin's theory of 

 education was utilitarian, though not in the narrow, 

 materialistic sense, and the University of Pennsylvania 

 still shows, in its organization and its general spirit, the 

 influence of his ideas. Rather more than half the pres- 

 ent volume is devoted to a sketch of the university 

 itself, the different departments of the subject being 

 treated by different writers, a mode of treatment which 

 makes the sketch rather scrappy, but gives, neverthe- 

 less, a fairly intelligible account of the institution. At 

 the present time the number of students in the various 

 medical and physiological departinents outnumber all 

 the rest, but there has been a movement at work for some 

 years to broaden the scope of the university, and this 

 movement, which has already led to the establishment 

 of several new departments, gives promise of still bet- 

 ter results in the future. 



— The subjects to be brought before the Interna- 

 tional Congress of Anthropology, to be held at Chicago 

 during the week beginning August 28, will be taken in 

 the following order: Monday, Presidential Address, 

 Physical Anthropology ; Tuesday, Archaeology ; Wed- 

 nesday, Ethnology; Thursday, Folk-Lore; Friday, Re- 

 ligions; Saturday, Linguistics. The morning pro- 

 ceedings will take place at the Memorial Art 

 Palace, Michigan avenue and Adams street, and 

 will commence each day at 9 a. m. At noon the 

 meeting will adjourn for an afternoon session to be 

 held at Jackson Park, at 2 p. m. At the afternoon 

 meetings the papers to be read will have special refer- 

 ence to the anthropological exhibits at the Columbian 

 Exposition, particularly those in the Anthropological 

 Building, the U. S. Government Building, the foreign 

 government buildings and the Midway Plaisance. It 

 is proposed to visit the exhibits, after the reading of 

 the papers, for inspection of the objects referred to. 

 The following is the afternoon programme : Monday, 

 Anthropological Laboratories; Tuesday, Folk-Lore; 

 Wednesday, U. S. Government and Smithsonian Ex- 

 hibits, Government Building; Thursday, American 

 Archaeology; Friday, Ethnology; Saturday, Ethnolog- 

 ical Exhibits of Foreign Governments. The Midway 

 Plaisance. The proceedings of the congress will be 

 published in due course, and will consist of such papers, 

 in full or in. abstract, as shall have been formally pre- 

 sented to the congress, and be recommended for pub- 

 lication by a committee appointed for that purpose. A 

 subscription of five dollars ($5.00) will entitle the sub- 

 scriber to a copy of the volume to be published. Ad- 

 dress all communications : Mr. C. Staniland Wake, 

 Local Secretary, Department of Ethnology, World's 

 Columbian Exposition, Chicago. 



