RECORDS 485 



parts of the world. The social aspect of totemism with its 

 marriage regulations still remains a problem. 



The material on which Professor Boas' 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 heaven 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 pre- 

 scribed 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 transgressions make 

 the hands of the deity sore. This enrages her, and she causes 

 famine and misfortunes of all kinds. 



Charles H. Judd, 



Secretary 



PUBLIC LECTURE. 



April 30, 1900. 



Under auspices of Section of Astronomy, Physics and 

 Chemistry. 



Professor William Hallock, The Nature of the Atom as 

 Indicated by Recent Spectrum Analysis. 



This is the age of effects. Formerly people were discovering 

 laws. The Zeeman effect is the one which has given most in- 

 formation recently on the subject of the nature of the atom. 

 Chemical investigations brought us to the atomic theory. The 

 complex nature of the atoms was shown by the spectrum analy- 

 sis of Bunsen and Kirchhoff. They showed that in its number 

 of modes of vibration, the atom was more complicated than a 

 musical instrument. Faraday discovered the rotation of the plane 

 of polarization of light by the magnetic field. He tried and 

 failed to get any effect of the magnetic field on the source of 

 light itself, the vibrating atom. Zeeman finally succeeded a few 



