July 24, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



101 



the use of the life should be economical. 

 Let me, in that point of view, invite you to 

 compare, or rather to contrast with one an- 

 other, those two sorts of experiments from 

 which we have to get our knowledge of the 

 causes of diseases. The commercial experi- 

 ments which illustrated the dangerousness 

 of sewage-polluted water supplies cost many 

 thousands of human lives ; the scientific ex- 

 periments which, with infinitely more ex- 

 actitude, justified a presumption of danger- 

 ousness cost the lives of fourteen mice." 



"We see, then, that in one way or another 

 experiment must form the basis on which 

 medical science is to be built up. The 

 question for us to decide is, " Shall these 

 experiments be few, carefully planned, con- 

 clusive, economical of animal life, or shall 

 they be numerous, accidental, vague and 

 wasteful of human life? " I think in set- 

 tling this question we may safely take for 

 our guide the words of Him who said, "Ye 

 are of more value than many sparrows." 



H. P. BOWDITCH. 



THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE INDIANS OF 

 THE NORTH PACIFIC COAST. 



It is well known that the native tribes of 

 the North Pacific coast of America orna- 

 ment their implements with conventional- 

 ized representations of animals. The tribes 

 of this region are divided in clans which 

 have animal totems, and it is generally as- 

 sumed that the carvings represent the to- 

 tem of the owner of the implement. This 

 view is apparently sustained by the exten- 

 sive use of the totem as a crest. It is rep- 

 resented on '■ totem poles ' or heraldic col- 

 umns, on the fronts of houses, on canoes, 

 on the handles of spoons, and on a variety 

 of objects. 



It can be shown, however, that by no 

 means all the carviugs made by the natives 

 of this region have this meaning, A collec- 

 tion of data made in a number of museums 

 show that certain objects are preferably 



ornamented with representations of certain 

 animals, and in many cases an intimate 

 connection exists between the use to which 

 the object is put and its design. 



This is very evident in the case of the 

 fish club, which is used for despatching hali- 

 but and other fish before they are hauled 

 into the canoe. Almost all the clubs that 

 I have seen represent the sea lion or the 

 killer whale, the two sea animals which are 

 most feared by the Indians, and which kill 

 those animals that are to be killed by 

 means of the club. The idea of giving the 

 club the design of the sea lion or killer 

 whale is therefore rather to give it a form 

 appropriate to its function and perhaps 

 secondarily to give it by means of its form 

 great efficiency. This view is corroborated 

 by the following incident which occurs in 

 several tales : A person throws his fish 

 club overboard and it swims away and 

 kills seals and other sea animals, cuts the 

 ice and performs other feats taking the 

 shape of a sea lion or of a killer whale. 

 Here also belongs the belief recorded by 

 Alexander Mackenzie (Trans. Eoy. Soc. of 

 Canada, 1891, Sec. II., p. 51): " The Haida 

 firmly believe, if overtaken by night at sea 

 and reduced to sleep in their canoes, that by 

 allowing such a club to float beside the ca- 

 noe attached to a line it has the property of 

 scaring away whales and other monsters of 

 the deep which might otherwise harm them. " 



Here is another instance in which I find 

 a close relation between the function of 

 the object and its design. Small grease 

 dishes have almost invariably the shape of 

 the seal or sometimes that of the sea lion, 

 that is, of those animals which furnish a 

 vast amount of blubber. Grease of sea 

 animals is considered as the sign of wealth. 

 In many tales abundance of food is de- 

 scribed by saying that the sea near the 

 houses was covered with the grease of seal, 

 sea lion and whales. Thus the form of the 

 seal seems to symbolize afiiuence. 



