May 25, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



827 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The evening of May 5tli, that of the 324th 

 regular meeting, was devoted to a joint meet- 

 ing of the Chemical Society and Biological 

 Society, the subject for discussion being the 

 ' Chemical and Biological Properties of Proto- 

 plasm.' The discussion was introduced by O. 

 Loew, H. N. Stokes, H. J. Webber and A. F. 

 Woods, the first two speakers paying special 

 attention to the chemical side of the question, 

 the others taking the ground that chemical 

 changes alone could not account for the vital 

 phenomena exhibited. 



H. J. Webber, 

 Secretary of Joint. Meeting. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

 SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 



The regular meeting of the Section was held 

 on April 23d. Dr. Livingston Farrand spoke on 

 'Recent Researches in Central Australia,' call- 

 ing attention to certain points of particular 

 significance in Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's 

 book, ' The Native Tribes of Central Australia,' 

 which appeared last year. Special emphasis was 

 laid on the suggested origin of the religious side 

 of totemism as indicated in the ' Intichinma ' 

 ceremonies of the Arunta tribe, which are 

 directed apparently solely toward the end of 

 increasing the supply of the totem animals and 

 plants of the district, each totem group being 

 charged with the treatment of its own totem 

 object and its multiplication for the benefit of 

 the other members of the tribe. The well- 

 known prohibition against killing and eating 

 the totem seems to hold in this region, but tra- 

 dition and ceremony point to a time when this 

 was not the case. This economic explanation 

 of the custom is the' first satisfactory one yet 

 offered and is plausible for the tribes under dis- 

 cussion even though it may not hold for other 

 parts of the world. The social aspect of 

 totemism with its marriage regulations still 

 remains a problem. 



The second paper was presented by Dr. 

 Franz Boas on the subject ' The Eskimos of 

 Cumberland Sound.' 



The material on which this paper was based 

 was collected by Captain James Mutch. A full 

 version was given of the myth of the creation of 



land and sea animals, and a description of the 

 beliefs of the people in regard to souls and in 

 regard to a series of heavens and underground 

 worlds which are the abodes of the deceased. 

 A number of taboos were described, and their 

 explanation as given by the Eskimos was stated. 

 They believe that the transgression of a taboo 

 prescribed after the death of an animal causes 

 the transgression to become fastened to the soul 

 of the animal, which goes down to the mistress 

 of the lower world, where the transgression 

 makes the hands of the deity sore. This 

 enrages her, and she causes famine and misfor- 

 tunes of all kinds. 



Charles H. Judd, 



Secretary. 



THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 



At the meeting of the Academy of Science of 

 St. Louis on the evening of May 7, 1900, the 

 following subjects were presented : 



Mr. Charles Espenschied gave an interesting 

 address on modern flour milling, tracing the 

 history of the preparation of grain for human 

 food, the developments since 1865, when it was 

 discovered that 'middlings,' when properly 

 cleaned, could be reground into the best of 

 flour, and the introduction of chilled steel rolls 

 to replace the older millstones, so that to-day a 

 good mill separates practically all of the flour 

 in a grain of wheat in its most perfect form and 

 is almost automatic in operation. It was stated 

 that while larger mills are in operation, the 

 most economical mill in use at the present time 

 is that having a daily capacity of about one 

 thousand barrels of flour. 



Dr. H. von Schrenk made some remarks con- 

 cerning the propagation of fruit trees, particu- 

 larljr the apple, illustrating by a large series of 

 specimens the methods of budding and root- 

 grafting which are used for commercial pur- 

 poses, and discussing at some length the ques- 

 tion of the quality of the root system obtained 

 for the new plant by the various modes of 

 propagation. 



Professor F. E. Nipher exhibited some pho- 

 tographic positives on glass, and spoke briefly 

 on the relation between negative and positive 

 in photographic plates, showing that there is a 

 certain relation between intensity of actinic 



