JANUARY 26, 1900.] 



SCmNGE. 



137 



hundred. The plan was used of connecting 

 all the sections by a telephone system, and 

 of having in each room a blackboard with 

 the titles of the papers being read in all the 

 other sections ; a person attending one sec- 

 tion would remain until the announcement 

 of the occurrence of some paper which he 

 wished to hear in another section. The ex- 

 cursions to the gas fields, the coal mines of 

 Hocking Valley, to Ft. Ancient, etc., were 

 specially interesting features provided with 

 a generosity truly Ohioan. The success of 

 the meeting was largely due to the activity 

 of the local committee and its chairman, 

 Professor Thomas. 



Professor Amos W. Butler, of Indianapo- 

 lis, was elected to be Chairman, and Dr. 

 Frank Eussell, of Cambridge, Mass., to be 

 Secretary of Section H, at the next general 

 meeting of the Association. This meeting 

 will occur during the third week in June, 

 1900, in Kew York City. Dr. Eussell 

 kindly performed part of the duties of 

 Secretary at the Christmas meeting. 



The special winter meeting of this Sec- 

 tion was held in New Haven, Conn., on De- 

 cember 27th to 29th. 



At the opening of the meeting Professor 

 Wilson spoke on the need of introducing the 

 Bertillon system uniformly into the meas- 

 urements of criniinals, conscripts, etc., 

 and avoiding the present confusion of two 

 systems and no system. Professor J. Mc- 

 Keen Cattell spoke of the projected station 

 for measuring the members of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, at the next meeting in New York. 

 Dr. J. W. Seaver's account of the result of 

 the measurements of the women in the 

 Freshmen classes in the three colleges at 

 Wellesley, Oberlin, and the University of 

 Nebraska, created considerable comment. 



Professor Joseph Jastrow's paper on the 

 anthropology of the occult, suggested the 

 fundamental factor of thought involved in 

 the vagaries of mind of the astrologers, al- 



chemists, mesmerists, faith-cures, and simi- 

 lar folk. 



' The art of the Thompson Indians ' was 

 described and illustrated with blackboard 

 sketches by Professor Franz Boas. The 

 graphic art of this tribe differs widely from 

 that of the natives along the coast : they 

 employ simple motives, each of which has 

 a symbolic meaning ; in some cases deco- 

 rating extensive surfaces by repetition of 

 the elements of the design. The following 

 paper by R. B. Dixon upon ' Some basketry 

 designs of the Maidu Indians of California,' 

 gave an account of an art perhaps some- 

 what more advanced but illustrating the 

 same principles of conventionalism and 

 repetition. A paper upon a kindred topic, 

 ' Symbolism of the Arapaho Indians,' by 

 Dr. A. L. Kroeber closed the morning ses- 

 sion. 



At the opening of the afternoon meeting. 

 Prof. Franz Boas presented the results of the 

 investigations of Captain G. Comer among 

 ' The Eskimos of Hudson Bay.' The na- 

 tives of Southampton Island are of special 

 interest to the anthropologist, owing to the 

 fact that they have escaped thus far the 

 contamination that inevitably results from 

 contact with white ' civilization.' They 

 are literally a Stone Age people. The paper 

 upon the ' Archaeology of the Thompson 

 River Region,' read by Dr. Harlan Smith, 

 was illustrated by a number of lantern 

 views, showing the talus slopes and other 

 localities where graves were examined, as 

 well as the disposition of their contents, to- 

 gether with various artifacts of the peoples 

 inhabiting the region prior to the arrival of 

 the whites. John R. Swanton, in a paper 

 upon the ' Morphology of the Chinook verb,' 

 stated that the Chinook language exhib- 

 ited many characteristics peculiar to itself 

 that differentiated it from other American 

 languages. Ales Hrdlicka presented the 

 results of his ' Observations on the Ute In- 

 dians,' which included an account of their 



