December 11, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



85: 



The nucleus for a good Mexican collection 

 has been made, and there are exhibited col- 

 lections illustrating the culture of several 

 of the civilized tribes of ancient Mexico, the 

 Nahuas, the Zapotecas, Mixtecas, the Mayas, 

 and Tarascos. In northern Mexico the ex- 

 pedition under Dr. Lumholtz has given the 

 Museum a most complete collection of the 

 ceramic art of the old Pueblo stock of Casas 

 Grandes in Chihuahua. In our own coun- 

 try a recent acquisition is that of the Hyde 

 collection of antiquities from the cliff dwell- 

 ings and ancient pueblos of New Mexico 

 and southern Colorado. This collection will 

 be largely increased by the exploration of 

 ancient pueblos carried on by the Messrs. 

 Hyde during the present year. 



There is on exhibition the Mearns collec- 

 tion from cliif dwellings in the Yerde val- 

 ley, Arizona, which is one of the first made 

 in this region. Eecent explorations carried 

 on under the auspices of the Museum have 

 given it an interesting series of objects from 

 the village sites and burial places of the 

 Ohio valley. A small portion of the 

 famous Squier and Davis collection from 

 the mounds of Ohio was acquired by the 

 Museum some years ago and is shown in 

 the Ohio valley exhibit. The Jones collec- 

 tion from the Southern States is quite com- 

 plete and many of the specimens were fig- 

 ured by Mr. Jones in his well-known work 

 on the Southern Indians. A small collec- 

 tion from New York State and the material 

 obtained on Staten Island at a burial place 

 at Tottenville will interest those who are 

 studying the Indian remains in the vicinity 

 of New York. The Chenoweth and J. 

 Bradley James collections from New York 

 City are also shown. California and the 

 West are represented by the Terry collec- 

 tion. During the year the Museum has 

 been carrying on a thorough exploration 

 near Trenton, N. J., in order to secure an 

 authentic collection from this most impor- 

 tant region in relation to the very early oc- 



cupation of the Atlantic coast by man. 

 Many specimens have been obtained during 

 this exploration, but they cannot be exhibi- 

 ted until the new halls are ready. Owing 

 to lack of space many other interesting ob- 

 jects and collections are in storage, await- 

 ing the completion of the new wing. 



On the walls of the ground floor of the 

 main building is the well-known collection 

 of Charnay casts of prehistoric sculptures 

 from ancient cities in Mexico and Central 

 America, recently presented by the Duke of 

 Loubat. Among these is the famous Tablet 

 of the Cross from Palenque. 



THE INFLUENCE OF LIGHT UPON THE BIS- 

 CHABGE OF ELECTRIFIED BODIES. 



Of the many interesting phenomena that 

 are continually being discovered in all 

 branches of physical science, none are more 

 important than those which point to the 

 existence of hitherto unknown relationships 

 between the different branches of physics ; 

 for it is by the careful study of such rela- 

 tionships that we may hope to proceed most 

 rapidly with the further development of the 

 science. This fact has been generally recog- 

 nized by investigators, and the attempt to 

 find new relations between apparently iso- 

 lated classes of phenomena has led in the 

 past to many important discoveries. The 

 discovery by Oersted of the magnetic action 

 of the current may be cited as one well 

 known example. 



In recent years the theory of light has 

 gained greatly by the recognition of the 

 close relationship between optical and 

 electro-magnetic phenomena. The discov- 

 erj'- by Faraday of the magnetic rotation of 

 the plane of polarization afforded the first 

 experimental proof of a relation between 

 light and magnetism ; the fact that certain 

 dielectrics become doubly refracting when 

 subjected to electrostatic stress (Kerr) in- 

 dicated a connection between light and 

 electrical phenomena; while the experi- 



