1881. ] Anthropology. IOI5 
also Vol. 111, No. 1, contains the reports of the curator, Professor 
F, W. Putnam, and that of the treasurer, together with a list of 
donations to the museum. In this notice the last shall be first. 
The authorities of the museum could do no wiser thing than to 
practice the most scrupulous care in giving credit to its benefac- 
tors. It is astonishing what an amount of hard work many indi- 
viduals will perform merely to see their name in print in honora- 
ble connections. To put it in their language: “I want my chil- 
dren or my friends to see what I have done for science.” In this 
matter of credit the Peabody is not only scrupulous, but is very 
wise in being so. The amount charged to the curator for the year’s 
work is $11,295.44, which no doubt has been properly audited, 
though we have not much talent in detecting errors in that direc- 
tion. The useful part of the report is the account of the year’s 
work by the curator. 
CHANGES IN Mya AnD LUNATIA SINCE THE DEPOSITION OF THE 
New Encianp SHELL-HEApPS, by Edward S. Morse, before the A. 
A. A. S. in Cincinnati—This communication embraced a compari- 
son between the shells peculiar to the ancient deposits made by 
the Indians along the coast of New England and similar species 
living on the coast at the present time. He referred to similar 
comparisons which he had made in Japan, wherein he had found 
marked changes to have taken place; changes which showed 
that the proportions of the shells had greatly altered. He had 
made a large number of measurements of shells from a few shell 
heaps of Maine and Massachusetts, and had obtained very inter- 
esting results. The common clam (Mya) from the shell heaps of 
Goose island, Maine, Ipswich, Mass., and Marblehead, Mass., in 
comparison with recent forms of the same species, collected in the 
immediate vicinity of these ancient deposits, showed that the an- 
cient specimens were higher in comparison with their length than 
the recent specimens. 
A comparison of the common beach cockle (Lunatia) from the 
shell-heaps of Marblehead, Mass., showed that the present form 
had a more depressed spire than the recent form living on the 
shore to-day, and this variation was in accordance with observa- 
tions he had made on a similar species in Japan. 
ANCIENT JAPANESE Bronze Betts, by Edward S. Morse, /did.— 
Mr. Morse described the so-called Japanese bronze bells which are 
dug up in Japan. These bells had been described and figured by 
Professor Monroe, in the Proceedings of N. Y. Acad. of Sciences. 
Mr. Kanda, an eminent Japanese archeologist, had questioned 
their being bells, from their peculiar structure. r. : 
seen a number of different kinds of bells, some of considerable 
antiquity, but none of them approaching these so-called bronze 
bell . Kanda had suggested that they were the ornaments 
which were formerly hung from the corners of pagoda roofs, but — 
