March 4, 1892,] 



SCIENCE. 



129 



and in a series of tables he brings out the fact that the num- 

 ber of colonies does not by any means correspond with the 

 number of species, though in some cases it undoubtedly does 

 so. This is, in fact, an exceedingly variable quantity. It 

 also comes out that putrefactive bacteria are almost invariably 

 absent from sjjriag water; that they are most frequently 

 found where the number of species is great, and where the 

 number of colonies is between 1,000 and 10,000 per cubic 

 centimetre; that they also occur where the number of germs 

 is below fifty per cubic centimetre, but very seldom where 

 the number is over 10,000 



Dr. L. Schmelk, who recently {Centralbl. f. Bakt. und 

 Parasitenk., Bd. IV., No. 7, p. 195) pointed out that there is 

 a great increase in the number of bacteria in the water sup- 

 ply of Ohristiania during the period that the upland snows 

 are melting most actively, now (Centralbl. f. Bakt. und 

 Parasitenk., Bd., VII., No. 4, p. 102) gives further evidence 

 collected during the last three years in proof of his theory. 

 The numbers he finds for those years were ten or fifteen per 

 cubic centimetre in March to 3,500 in April, 1888; 1,100 in 

 1889, and on March 28, 1890, 5,000; the breaking up of the 

 winter snows having occurred this year much earlier than 

 usual. This is the period during which the winter snows are 

 melting, and after this is completed there is no marked in- 

 crease in the number of bacteria in the lake water until the 

 reappearance of the winter snows, some of the earlier falls 

 of which during October, November, and December melt 

 and disappear. In December the number of bacteria per 

 cubic centimetre sometimes reaches 600, the highest point 

 recorded during the year except in March. Dr. Schmelk 

 thinks that the increase is due to the action of frost in break- 

 ing up the earth's surface, from which the contained organ- 

 isms may be set free as soon as a thaw occurs and then 

 washed away along with the surface soil, just as during 

 great rain-storms. He also points out that the masses of ice 

 projecting into a river may form "collecting " points for the 

 particles suspended in the flowing water, as more bacteria 

 are always found in the water obtained from such ice when 

 melted than in the river water itself. He verified this by 

 repeated experiments. He found, however, that when float- 

 ing ice was melting in water, though it contained a few more 

 organisms than water collected near the surface, it held far 

 fewer than water taken from a considerable depth. In the 

 Ohristiania water-supply he found some thirty species of bac- 

 teria, some of which occurred very seldom, some at certain 

 periods of the year only, and a few all the year round. The 

 amount of solids in the water varies from time to time, be- 

 tween 0.92 and 0.94 grammes per litre, and traces of ammonia 

 can usually be found in water during the time that it con- 

 tains most bacteria. 



ence on the North-western Tribes of Canada : To accompany, a'EC 

 bone of fish, pek' ; to call, tm'lak; to carry on back, to'itc; to 

 dream, mo' sum nanitc; to give food, 6'ma (Chihalish); to give 

 present, k'oeEn; grandchild, kdi'm (Chihalish); last, ubot ( = 

 French au bout?); let us, hau'anse; to make, qelEmitl. 



Mamook has acquired an obscene meaning, and is no longer in 

 use on the Columbia River. Muskrat, tsini' stsinis ; fire is out, 

 tcqup ; to pursue, me'tV'E.n, or te'fcs'Ew : to put aside, up, Vorni; to 

 rest, aU'm ; to roast, p'E'nis ; robin, pil k'oate'n ( = red-belly); to 

 sew, kye'pot ; soup, bo yd (French); to stop, k'a (Chinook); tail, tel 

 (English) ; to vomit, o'E. 



One expression which is not found in the published vocabularies, 

 and which is unknown on Columbia River, was obtained on the 

 Siletz Reservation, Oregon: at that time, kopa k-od'Et. In a few 

 cases the meaning of the words differed somewhat from that given 

 in the vocabularies: to sew, mamook tipshin (Hale, " Tbe Oregon 

 Trade Language," p. 60) ; it means, on Shoalwater Bay and in 

 Clatsop, to mend. To lose the way, iseepie wayhut (Hale, p. 60), 

 is not used on Shoalwater Bay, tseepie meaning only, to miss an 

 aim. To vomit, wagh (Hale, p. 53), not in use in tbe same region. 

 To tear, kluh (Hale, p. 45), means also, to fall. 



A number of words which were considered as the sole and 

 original property of the jargon prove to be of Chinook origin: 

 anah, exclamation of pain or displeasure ; heehee, to laugh ; humm, 

 stinking; kwehkweh, mallard duck ; lata, long time; liplip, to boil; 

 na, interrogative particle; nah, interjection: ho! look herel; poh, 

 a puff of breath ; toto, to shake. 



I believe almost all onomatopoetic words of the jargon are de- 

 rived from the Chinook. The word kwaddis, whale, which is 

 given as a jargon word, is of Tillamook origin. A few other 

 words, the origin of which could not be traced, belong to the 

 lower Chinook : efcfceft, brother-in-law ; Mopi, to turn; tuhvnlla, 

 nuts. Two words, which have been derived from English, are 

 more probably of Chinook origin : till, tired {tnl in Chinook); spose, 

 if, which is generally derived from "suppose,"' but is more fre- 

 quently pronounced pos on Columbia River. Pos means in Chi- 

 nook, if; so that spose may be explained as due to folk-etymology 

 on the part of the traders, or pos as folk-etjmology on the part of 

 the Chinook. 



It is of interest to note that two Nootka words which are found 

 in the jargon have very close analoga in Chinook : chuck, water 

 (tltcuk in Chinook) ; wawa, to speak {awa'wa in Chinook). A num- 

 ber of Chinook terms which have been embodied in the jargon 

 have become extinct in Chinook proper. This is due to the fact 

 that they have been dropped after the death of persons whose 

 names resembled these words: tmemahict (jargon, mimaloose) is 

 now tEmeuwa'lEma ; it'amd'noac (jargon, tamahnnimis) is now 

 io'tlema. Franz Boas. 



Worcester, Mass., February. 



THE CHINOOK JARGON. 



During my visits to the north Pacific coast I became familiar 

 with the Chinook Jargon as spoken in various districts. The jar- 

 gon is used nowadays most extensively on Puget Sound and in 

 British Columbia, while its use on Columbia River and in the 

 neighboring parts of Oregon and Washington is rather restricted. 

 It has spread as far north as Chilcat and as far south as northern 

 California. The Jargon, as spoken on Puget Sound and farther 

 north, contains a much smaller number of words than the printed 

 vocabularies, a great number of the Chinook words being dropped. 



On Columbia River and Shoalwater Bay I found a few additional 

 words belonging to the same dialect of the jargon which was re- 

 corded by Horatio Hale and George Gibbs. In recording these words 

 I made use of the same phonetic spelling which has been used in 

 the reports to the British Association for the Advancement of Sci- 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



EXPEEIMENTAL psychology can count four new laboratories 

 among its acquisitions during the present academic year, those 

 that have been or are about to be established at Heidelberg (Ger- 

 many), Geneva (Switzerland), Cornell (New York), and the Cath- 

 olic University (Washington). 



— The Oriental Club of Philadelphia was organized in 1888 with 

 Professor Herman V. Hilfrecht as president. Professor M. W. 

 Easton, treasurer, and Stuart Culin, secretary. It has held regular 

 monthly meetings since that time, at which formal papers were 

 read and discussed. The meinbersbip of the club is limited to 

 thirty, and now numbers twenty- five, including Professor Paul 

 Haupt and Dr. Cyrus Adler of Johns Hopkins University, Pro- 

 fessors Barton, Hopkins, and CoUitz of Bryn Mawr College; Pro- 

 fessors Jastrow, Easton, Hilfrecht, Brinton, and Peters of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, the Rev. Dr. Morris Jastrow, and 

 others, it being strictly confined to oriental scholars. 



— At the February meeting of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, 

 Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson read a paper on " Two Ancient Forms of 

 Religious Symbolism, the Stone Axe and the Flying Sun-Disc." 

 " The stone axe,'' the speaker said, •' is the weapon of the power 



