Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/291

Rh Texts' by Franz Boas and. George Hunt, and 'The Night Chant, a Navaho Ceremony' by Washington Matthews. The amount of 'Bulletin' matter published is the largest in the history of the museum. Nine numbers of the Museum Journal and six 'guide leaflet' supplements were issued. The supplements describe collections in the museum, and their popularity is shown by the fact that several thousand were sold in the year at the entrances.

Several courses of lectures were offered under various auspices: To teachers, to members of the museum, and to the public (holiday course), under a grant from the state; to teachers, by the museum, in cooperation with the Audubon and Linnæean Societies; to the public, by the City Department of Education in cooperation with the museum.

In summing up his report, the president mentions several items that indicate the progress of the institution: "In concluding this my twenty-second report, I take pleasure in assuring the members of this board that the past year has been one of achievement. The increase in the annual appropriation, the growing popularity of the lectures, the large sums spent for laboratory research, the long list of publications, the opening of new exhibition halls, the appropriation by the city of $200,000 for a new power house, the receipt of large invoices of ethnological material from Siberia and China, the conclusion of negotiations leading to the purchase of the Cope collection, and the departure of several exploring expeditions, are only a few of the indices of activity at the museum, of the generosity of our friends, and of appreciation on the part of the city officers and the visiting public."

the complex organization of American scientific societies, the American Philosophical Society 'held at Philadelphia for the promotion of useful knowledge' seems to be maintaining a place of its own. It was originally a national society founded on the model of the Royal Society, and the general meetings held last year and this show that it has to a certain extent maintained this position. Members from Philadelphia and the vicinity acted as hosts, and were able to welcome a considerable number of members from different parts of the country. Both the arrangements for social intercourse and the program compared very favorably with those of the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, held at Washington in the same month. The meeting lasted for three days. In one of the evening sessions Dr. Edgar F. Smith, professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania and president of the society, made an address on its origin and early history, drawing from original documents much interesting information in regard to the beginnings of science in America. At the same session Dr. D. C. Gilman, president of the Carnegie Institution, spoke of its work during the past year. After these addresses, which were given in the hall of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, there was a reception, and on the following evening a dinner was given at the Hotel Bellevue, at which Professor W. B. Scott, of Princeton University, was toastmaster.

The meetings were held in the hall of the society, and a considerable number of interesting papers were presented. The American Philosophical Society includes philology and economics in its scope, and papers were presented by Professor March, of Lafayette College, on the development of the English alphabet; by Professor Haupt, of the Johns Hopkins University, on archeology and mineralogy; by Professor Jastrow, of the University of Pennsylvania, on the Hamites and Semites in the tenth chapter of Genesis, and by Professor Schelling, of the University of Pennsylvania, on the