1006 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 365. 



gave an interesting account of his voyage to the 

 Society Islands. A number of lantern views 

 of the scenery of Tahiti, the natives, their houses 

 and their arts, were thrown on the screen, ac- 

 companied by instructive remarks. The in- 

 cidents leading up to the ceremony of walking 

 over the heated stones of the taro oven were 

 detailed and a series of instantaneous views on 

 the screen showed graphically the fire walk in 

 progress. Mr. Langley dissipated the mystery 

 that has enveloped this startling ceremony since 

 it was first described. Briefly, his investiga- 

 tions show that the volcanic rocks employed are 

 non-conductors, and though very hot on the 

 under surface, are cool enough above to be 

 walked upon with bare feet. 



The paper was discussed by Mr. Townsend, 

 W J McGee and Walter Hough. A vote of 

 thanks of the Society was tendered to Mr 

 Hi^Xangley for his valuable paper. 



Dr. John E. Walsh, of the Peary Relief Ex- 

 pedition, read a'paper, entitled, ' The Eskimo, 

 their Country and Habits.' Dr. Walsh gave 

 an account of the environment of the northern 

 Eskimo as affecting their mode of life, their 

 dwellings and arts. He found no evidences of 

 social organization or religion jamong these 

 Arctic Highlanders beyond certain minor cus- 

 toms. Dr. Walsh's paper was favorably re- 

 ceived. In reference to the tattoo marks of the 

 women spoken of by Dr. Walsh, W J McGee 

 discussed the kinship of the Eskimo, adducing 

 evidence that these marks were for the purpose 

 of indicating relationship. Dr. D. S. Lamb 

 and Dr. Frank Baker remarked upon the series 

 of Eskimo skulls presented by Dr. Walsh. 

 These skulls are notably scaphocephalic. Dr. 

 Walsh also exhibited a number of ethnological 

 specimens from his collection. 



Walter Hough. 



philosophical society of washington. 



The 541st regular meeting was held Novem- 

 ber 23, 1901. Dr. W. H. Dall spoke on ' The 

 True Nature of Tamiosoma,' a fossil found in 

 California in 1856 and described by Conrad. 

 Its nature has been much discussed for nearly 

 half a century and there has been great diversity 

 of opinion as to its relationships. The speaker 

 has recently acquired sufficient material to 



show that some former studies were based on 

 broken specimens, and some on an inversion of 

 the object. It is now clearly seen to be a 

 barnacle. 



Mr= J. F. Hay ford discussed the question, 

 ' What is the Center of an Area or the Center 

 of a Population,' with especial reference to the 

 general popular notion that the latter is the 

 point which has as many people on one side of 

 it as on the other. The difficulty with this 

 definition is that the point varies according to 

 the direction chosen ; the only point that re- 

 mains fixed, whatever fundamental directions 

 are chosen, is that analogous to the center of 

 gravity of an area ; the sum of the squares of 

 the distances from this center to all the elements 

 of the area (or population) is a minimum. An 

 ingeniously cut figure showed at a glance the 



surdity of the popular idea. Mr. O. H. Titt- 

 mann read from an article written by Professor 

 Hilgard in 1872 giving predictions on the 

 movement of the center of population of the 

 United States. 



The 542d meeting was held December 7, 

 1901, Vice-President Gore in the chair. 



Mr. Radelfinger presented a curious series 

 that he had met with in differentiating a com- 

 plex variable. 



Professor T. J. J. See, of the Naval Observa- 

 tory, presented the results of his recent meas- 

 ures of the diameters of the planets by daylight : 

 the observations were made near the close of 

 the day, when the sky was sufficiently lighted to 

 prevent or at least to diminish the error from 

 irradiation. Professor Campbell had made day- 

 light measures on Mars in 1894, but all other 

 published diameters are based on night work. 

 The daylight observations are remarkably con- 

 sistent, so that the speaker thought the results on 

 Jupiter and Saturn might be relied on to 1 part 

 in 1000. All the results are sensibly lower than 

 former measures gave, e. g., Jupiter, 38^^.40 by 

 night, 37^^65 by day; Neptune, 2^^25, and 

 2^^.00, respectively. The densities of the planets 

 as computed from these new values of the diam- 

 eters are much increased. Similarly the diam- 

 eters of Jupiter's satellites and Titan were 

 measured. (The paper will appear in the As- 

 tronomische Nachrichten. ) 



