ANTHROPOLOGY: A. C. FLETCHER 
231 
the selection of excessive amounts of acid fruit juices, thus inducing a 
most distressing colic and intestinal disorder; a short sojourn at a hos- 
pital was followed by convalescence. 
It is impossible in the space available in these Proceedings to attempt 
an adequate summary of the results but the accompanying chart indi- 
cates the trend of some of the most important factors measured. The 
detailed results of the research are incorporated in a 416-page mono- 
graph issued as Publication No. 203 of the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington. 
THE STUDY OF INDIAN MUSIC 
By Alice C. Fletcher 
PEABODY MUSEUM. HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Presented to the Academy, March 2, 1915 
Thirty-five years of acquaintance with Indian music gathered from 
tribes of different linguistic famiHes widely scattered over North America 
and a study, still in progress, of the music of a particular group has re- 
vealed facts relative to their music and its uses that possess an anthro- 
pologic value. 
The term music as appHed to the Indian refers solely to vocal music; 
for the natives of America possess few varieties of musical instruments 
beside the drum and rattle, both of which are used mainly to accent 
time and rhythm. 
The number of Indian songs which have come to my personal atten- 
tion number many hundreds. Those to which intensive study is being 
given have been secured from people classed as Plains Indians. All of 
these songs have been examined under their native conditions and in 
connection with the ceremonies, secular or reHgious, of which they were 
a part. When I began to observe and gather Indian songs, the grapho- 
phone was not available for field work. Securing songs by dictation 
was a difficult and unsatisfactory task for the reason that the Indians 
so frequently were averse to repeating the songs under observation, par- 
ticularly when they were rehgious in character. This obstacle has been 
entirely overcome by the use of the graphophone, as one singing will 
give a record that can be repeated any number of times for the purposes 
of transcription, verification, and other study. For over twenty-five 
years I have used the graphophone when engaged in the field study of 
native ceremonies containing rituals and songs. 
The word ^song' to our ears, suggests words arranged in metrical 
form and adapted to be 'set to music,' as we say. The native word 
