[ANNALS N. Y. ACAD. SCI., Vol. XXVI, pp. 395-486. 12 May, 1916] RECORDS OF MEETINGS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES January to December, 1915 BY HENRY E. CRAMPTON, Acting Recording Secretary BUSINESS MEETING 4 JANUARY, 1915 The Academy met at 8:23 P. M. at the American Museum of Natural History, President George F. Kunz presiding. The minutes of the last business meeting were read and approved. The following candidates for membership in the Academy, recommended by Council, were duly elected: ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP Mrs. M. Archer-Shee, Ashurst Lodge, Sunninghill, Berkshire, England, George W. Brackenridge, San Antonio, Texas, A. Clayburgh, 35 Thomas Street, Raymond L. Ditmars, New York Zoological Park, Mrs. E. C. T. Miller, 3738 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, Barrington Moore, 40 East 83rd Street, Elam Ward Olney, Convent, New Jersey, Max W. Stöhr, 136 Pennington Avenue, Passaic, N. J., Arthur L. Wessell, 457 West 45th Street. The Recording Secretary reported the following deaths: Mrs. P. Hackley Barhydt, Life Member of the Academy since 1907, died 6 March, 1914, Miss Grace H. Dodge, Life Member of the Academy since 1907, died 27 December, 1914, R. A. Canfield, Active Member of the Academy since 1905, died 11 December, 1914. The Recording Secretary gave a brief summary of the report of progress made by Professor N. L. Britton, Chairman of the Porto Rico Committee, to His Excellency, Governor Arthur Yager of the Island of Porto Rico, showing that highly satisfactory work had been done during the year 1914 in reconnaissance and also in intensive work in geology and several branches of zoology as well as through the continuance of the botanical studies which have been carried on for several years by the New York Botanical Garden. The Academy then adjourned. EDMUND OTIS HOVEY, SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY 4 JANUARY, 1915 Section met at 8:30 P. M., Vice-President Charles P. Berkey presiding. The following programme was offered: E. O. Hovey, James F. Kemp, Charles P. Berkey, BIG SKOOKUM, MT. EDITH AND OTHER NEW AC CESSIONS TO THE METEORITE COLLECTION OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM. ORIGIN OF THE MAYORI IRON ORES OF CUBA. NOTES ON THE GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE OF PORTO Francis M. Van Tuyl, SOME NEW POINTS ON THE ORIGIN OF DOLOMITE. SECTION OF BIOLOGY A. B. PACINI, Secretary. 11 JANUARY, 1915 Under the auspices of the Section of Biology, a general meeting of the Academy and its Affiliated Societies was held in the main lecture hall at the American Museum of Natural History at 8:15 P. M. President George F. Kunz presiding. The following programme was then offered: J. C. Bose, PLANT AUTOGRAPHS AND THEIR REVELATIONS. SUMMARY OF PAPER Professor Bose, of Presidency College, Calcutta, described and exhibited the apparatus devised by him for recording the reactions of plants to physical and chemical stimuli. The movements of the leaves and stems in response to stimuli are magnified by appropriate levers and electrical devices and are recorded as undulations upon a revolving cylinder. Records of the physiological reactions called sleep, fatigue, shock, recovery from shock and death were exhibited, as well as reactions to sunlight and other stimuli. Several of these processes were also demonstrated upon living plants. After the lecture the speaker was the guest of honor at a reception given by the Academy, under the auspices of the Section of Biology. WILLIAM K. GREGORY, Secretary. SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY 25 JANUARY, 1915 The Section met in conjunction with the American Ethnological Society, with Professor Franz Boas in the chair. The following programme was then offered: John W. Chapman, THE MEDICINE-MEN OF ANVIK, ALASKA, AND VICINITY. Rev. Chapman, after sketching his personal observations of shamanistic practices, described some of the fundamental native theories underlying them. One method of foretelling the future is to go to the moon, where the shaman meets his informants; another is to look into the bottom of wooden bowls and there see, as in a vision, what is to come to pass. The shamans enjoy a privileged position in native society. They pretend to ward off danger from individuals and exact high fees in return. The office is not hereditary, but seems based on the conviction becoming established that a certain man possesses extraordinary powers. The intellectual atmosphere in which such a belief may thrive is characterized by certain striking features. Honors and mortuary gifts are regularly paid to the deceased. It was formerly the custom to remove a corpse from the house through the smoke-hole rather than the usual exit. There were a number of feasts, some of a purely social potlatch type, others of a ceremonial character. One of these is noted for its pantomimic exhibitions. There is a belief in the survival of the soul after death, special conditions being assigned to suicides and those who die by violence. The lecture gave rise to many questions and comments by Drs. Boas, Goddard, Lowie, and Hatt. Dr. Hatt called attention to certain interesting similarities between Anvik and Lapp beliefs and customs. ROBERT H. LOWIE, Secretary. BUSINESS MEETING 1 FEBRUARY, 1915 The Academy met at 5:30 P. M. at the American Museum of Natural History, President George F. Kunz presiding. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. The following candidates for membership in the Academy, recommended by Council, were duly elected: ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP Charles E. Slocum, 218 13th Street, Toledo, Ohio, Henry J. Cochran, 389 Fifth Avenue, Mrs. Rebecca McM. Colfelt, 925 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa., Mrs. Catherine K. Blake, 138 East 37th Street, Joseph A. Blake, Jr., 357 Yale Station, New Haven, Conn., James R. Steers, 1 West 70th Street. The Recording Secretary reported the following deaths: J. E. Parsons, Active Member of the Academy since 1896, died 16 January, 1915, Mrs. M. A. P. Draper, Active Member of the Academy since 1898, died 8 December, 1914. The Academy then adjourned. EDMUND OTIS HOVEY, Recording Secretary. SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY 1 FEBRUARY, 1915 Section met at 8:30 P. M., Vice-President Charles P. Berkey presiding. The following programme was offered: Lawrence Martin, ALASKAN MOUNTAINS AND GLACIERS IN RELATION TO RAILWAY ROUTES. The Section then adjourned. A. B. PACINI, Secretary. SECTION OF BIOLOGY 8 FEBRUARY, 1915 Section met at 8:15 P. M., Vice-President Raymond C. Osburn presid ing. The following programme was then offered: G. S. Huntington, SOME FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE STRUC TURE OF THE VERTEBRATE LUNG. H. von W. Schulte, SOME ONTOGENETIC VARIANTS OF THE HUMAN Alfred J. Brown, KIDNEY. PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONS OF THE PELVIC GIRDLE SUMMARY OF PAPERS Professor Huntington, continuing the report made during the previous year upon the collection of preparations of the lungs of vertebrates, in the Morphological Laboratory of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, illustrated many types of vertebrate lungs, especially among the reptiles and mammals, and said in abstract: It is, of course, not only unnecessary, but quite inadmissible, to suppose that extant reptilian types, if sufficiently determined, would yield an unbroken and closely graded series of pulmonary types leading directly to the mammalian lung. All our evidence, comparative and ontogenetic, speaks to the contrary, and suggests that the pro-mammalian lung debouched from a reptilian type corresponding about to the simpler lacertilian lung of to-day, or at most advanced to the stage found in the more primitive modern paludal and littoral chelonians. Such an archeal lung presented the central pulmonary cavum still continuously lined by respiratory epithelium, before the introduction of the intrapulmonary bronchial system. The more complicated and highly organized lungs of the marine chelonians and of the Crocodilia are adaptations along the line of continued reptilian development, beyond the point of the mammalian. derivation. |