REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 39 



poison, Mr. Mooncy collected a considerable quantity of the material for scientific 

 examination. By courtesy of the Department of Agriculture, the buttons were ana- 

 lyzed by Dr. Harvey W. Wiley and Mr. E. E. Ewell, of that Department, and were 

 found to yield three alkaloids, designated, respectively, as auhalonine, mescaline, and 

 alkaloid 3, besides certain resinous substances, all possessing peculiar physiological 

 properties. The physiologic action of the mescal buttons administered entire, and 

 also of the three alkaloids, has been tested by D. W. Prentiss, M. D., and F. P. Mor- 

 gan, M. D., and the results have been found of great interest, leading the experi- 

 mentalists to consider the extracts as important therapeutic agents and valuable 

 additions to the pharmacopoeia. On his return from the field Mr. Mooney began the 

 preparation of a memoir on the Kiowa calendars, which was nearly completed at the 

 end of the fiscal year, and has been assigned for publication in the seventeenth 

 annual report. 



As during past years, much attention has been given to photographing Indians 

 and Indian subjects, and a small photographic laboratory has been maintained, 

 throHgh the aid of Mr. William Dinwiddie. During the winter advantage was taken 

 of the presence of representative Indians in the national capital, and a number of 

 portrait photographs were obtained, together with considerable genealogic informa- 

 tion concerning various chiefs and leading men among several tribes. 



SOCIOLOGY. 



Except while occupied in administrative work, Mr. W J McGee, ethnologist in 

 charge of the Bureau, has been carrying forward researches relating to the social 

 organization of the Indian tribes. His work is based on the voluminous records in 

 the archives of the Bureau and on observations especially among the Papago and 

 Seri Indians. It has been the aim to render this work fundamental, and to this 

 end the primary characteristics of mankind as distinguished from lower organisms 

 have been considered with especial care, and the studies of the Seri Indians havo 

 been particularly fruitful. Among the results of the researches there may be men- 

 tioned (1) an analysis of the beginning of agriculture, (2) the recognition of the 

 beginning of zooculture, (3) a study of the growth of altruistic motive, and (4) an 

 examination of early stages in the development of marriage. These results are 

 incorporated partly in a preliminary memoir on the "Siouan Indians" printed in 

 the fifteenth annual report, partly in several administrative reports, and partly in 

 an address published in the Smithsonian annual report for 1895. 



It may be noted summarily that the researches concerning the beginning of agri- 

 culture indicate that this important art originated independently in different desert 

 regions, and was at first merely an expression of a solidarity into which men and 

 lower organisms were forced by reason of the environmental conditions character- 

 istic of the desert. Later the art was raised to a higher plane through the gradual 

 development of irrigation, and still later it was extended into areas in which irri- 

 gation was not required. The researches concerning zooculture servo to define a 

 Btage antecedent to domestication, as that term is commonly employed, in which the 

 relations between men and animals are collective rather than individual, and in 

 which the men and animals become mutually tolerant and mutually beneficial, as 

 when the coyote serves as a scavenger and gives warning, in his own cowardly 

 retreat, of the approach of enemies. Later, such of the tolerated animals as are 

 thereby made more beneficial are gradually brought into domestication, as was the 

 Coyote-dog among many Indian tribes, the turkey among some, and the reindeer 

 among certain Eskimo. The researches concerning the development of human motive 

 are involved in the study of primitive law, and indicate that regulations concerning 

 conduct are framed by the elders in the interest of harmony aud collective benefit, 

 and that these regulations are enforced until their observance becomes habitual, 

 when the habit in turn grows into motive. Tn some other directions, also, substan- 

 tial progress has been made in the study of the organizations aud institutions of the 

 American Indians. 



