the Scientific Problems and Duties at Our Doors."' This session was followed by an informal reception to the faculty of the university and to the visiting members of the association at the home of PresiIdent and Mrs. R. L. Wilbur.

The third general session of the meeting was held on the evening of Friday, April 6, Dr. J. C. Branner, president of the Pacific Division, presiding. At this session the executive committee reported the choice of Pasadena as the place for the 1918 meeting of the division, in response to the invitation given by President Scherer, the time for the meeting to be determined later. The executive committee also reported the election of Dr. D. T. MacDougal, director of the Desert Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Tucson, Arizona, as president of the Pacific Division for the ensuing year, and Dr. Barton W. Evermann, director of the Museum of the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, as vice-president of the division and chairman of the executive committee for a term of three years. Together with the president and vicepresident of the division, the executive committee for the ensuing year includes the three members elected at the previous general session of this meeting, and four members whose terms of office had not yet expired, as follows:

W. W. Campbell, director, Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California,

E. C. Franklin, professor of chemistry, Stanford University, California,

T. C. Frye, professor of botany, University of Washington, Seattle,

C. E. Grunsky, president, American Engineering Corporation, San Francisco,

Vernon L. Kellogg, professor of entomology, Stanford University, California,

E. P. Lewis, professor of physics, University of California, Berkeley,

Wm. E. Ritter, director, Scripps Institution for Biological Research, La Jolla, California.

The following resolution introduced from the Pacific Coast Research Committee was unanimously adopted:

Since experimentation upon animals is indispensable to progress in the biological sciences, for the conquest of disease and for the relief of human suffering,

Be it resolved, That the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science hereby heartily endorses the use, under proper precautions, of unclaimed, impounded animals by the medical schools and universities of the state of California as contemplated in the Prendergast Bill (before the legislature of California).

Professor F. J. E. Woodbridge, of the department of philosophy of Columbia University, then presented a general address upon the subject, "History and Evolution.”

At a meeting of the Pacific Coast Research Committee on Friday afternoon, April 6, together with representatives of the societies affiliated with the Pacific Division, a Pacific Coast Research Conference was organized. The purpose of this conference is expressed in the following resolution, which was introduced from the Pacific Coast Research Committee, and which was unanimously adopted:

"WHEREAS, It is the opinion of this committee that the important scientific problems before men of science to-day are those problems relating to preparation for war, which require scientific, research,

"Therefore, be it resolved, That this committee, representing the scientific interests of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, offer to the State Council of Defense already formed in California, and to such other similar state or national organizations as may be organized, the full support and assistance of this committee in so far as it may be desired for the direction of research upon problems arising out of a condition of preparation for war."

Among memorable occasions of the meeting were a series of luncheons given through the courtesy of the university in the Stanford Union on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 5 to 7, to which all members of the American Association and affiliated societies were invited. The opportunity for thus meeting in an informal social hour was greatly appreciated by every one.

Eleven societies held sessions on the occasion of this meeting. These were:

California Academy of Sciences,
Astronomical Society of the Pacific,

Pacific Section, American Mathematical Society,
American Physical Society,

Cordilleran Section, Geological Society of America,
Pacific Coast Branch, Paleontological Society,
California Section, American Chemical Society,
Seismological Society of America,
Le Conte Club,

Western Society of Naturalists,

Pacific Slope Branch, American Association of Economic Entomologists.

On the evening of Saturday, April 7, a dinner was held at the Hotel Sutter, San Francisco, under the auspices of the California Academy of Sciences, which was attended by about 85 members of the societies affiliated with the Pacific Division. Mr. C. E. Grunsky, president of the Academy, presided, and informal addresses were given by the following men: Dr. Wm. E. Ritter, Scripps Institution for Biological Research, La Jolla, California; Dr. D. T. MacDougal, Desert Botanical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Tucson; Professor Douglas H. Campbell, Leland Stanford Junior University, California, and J. C. Merriam, University of California, Berkeley.

On the same evening a dinner was held by the American Physical Society at the Stanford Union, Stanford University, and by members of the American Psychological Association at the Hotel Stewart, San Francisco.

On Saturday, April 7, an automobile excursion was conducted under the auspices of the Western Society of Naturalists, into the Coast Range foothills near Stanford University, which was attended by over forty biologists. Luncheon was provided by courtesy of the university at the recently completed field laboratory of the Department of Zoology.

Altogether twenty-two sessions were held during this meeting and over 130 papers were presented. The total registered attendance, in addition to a large local attendance from Stanford University and the vicinity, included 173 members of the association and of affiliated societies from other parts of the state and coast.

ALBERT L. BArrows,

Secretary

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON At the 510th meeting of the society, held at the New National Museum, Dr. Leo J. Frachtenberg, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., presented a paper on "The Religious Ideas of the Northwest Coast Indians.''

Dr. Frachtenberg stated that four important features of the religious ideas noted among the tribes of this region are (1) an intensive animism; (2) a belief in the powers of supernatural beings, as dwarfs and giants; (3) a belief in the existence of guardian spirits, and (4) a complete absence of the social phase of religion.

According to Dr. Frachtenberg many religious ideas are common to all the tribes of the northwest coast, yet the northern and southern portions of this area differ in cosmogony. The tribes in the extreme southern portion believe that the world was created out of a watery mist, the Transformer enlarging a small piece of land until it became large enough for habitation. The tribes of the northern portion are satisfied with a world whose origin is not explained, they hold, however, that the Transformer (Creator) first made men, and members of the faunal and floral kingdoms, and later revisited and improved his creation. In the south the Transformer and Trickster are separate individuals; in the north they are unified. In the south the Transformer creates all that is good while

the Trickster is held responsible for the bad elements; in the north there is no such disassociation, both good and evil things being regarded as the work of the Transformer.

The northwest coast Indians believe that an individual comprises a body inhabited by two "souls" and a "ghost." In a slight illness the "outer soul" becomes separated from the body, in a serious illness the inner soul" wanders to the country of souls" but may be recalled by a shaman. When death occurs the "ghost"' also leaves the body and the shaman has no further power.

No ritual or systematic form of supplication is found among these Indians, indeed it may be said that guardian spirits take the place of deities. Every man and woman possesses one or more guardian spirits, each of which has its special sphere of influence. The shamans receive their power from a multitude of such spirits and are both respected and feared. Large gifts are exacted by the shamans, many of whom are believed to possess occult powers of evil.

THE 511th regular and 38th annual meeting of the society was held at the New National Museum on April 17. After approving the reports of the secretary, treasurer and auditing committee the society elected the following officers for the ensuing year: President, Mr. William H. Babcock; Vicepresident, Mr. Francis LaFlesche; Secretary, Miss Frances Densmore; Treasurer, Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt; Councillors, Mr. E. T. Williams, Mr. Neil M. Judd, Dr. Truman Michelson, Mr. Felix Neumann and Dr. I. M. Casanowicz.

Tributes to members of the society deceased during the previous year were then read, memorials to General Ellis Spear, an active member, and Mr. S. M. Gronberger, an associate member, being presented by Mr. William H. Babcock and Mr. James Mooney. A memorial to Mr. J. D. McGuire, an honorary member, was presented by Dr. J. W. Fewkes; and tributes to Professor Johannes Ranke and Professor Gustave Schwalbe, of Germany, honorary members, and Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, a corresponding member of the society, were given by Dr. Aleš Hrdlička, Dr. John R. Swanton, Dr. Truman Michelson and Dr. Leo J. Frachtenberg.

The delivery of the address of the retiring president, Dr. John R. Swanton, on "Some Anthropological Misconceptions," was postponed to a special meeting of the society to be held on May 1 for that purpose. FRANCES DENSMORE Secretary

FIG. 1. (a) N.G.C. 1501.

The classes of objects with which astronomers have to deal are very few. In our solar system we have the sun, the planets and their moons, the comets, the zodiacal light, and the meteors. To the best of our knowledge that exhausts the list. When we look beyond the solar system and out into the great stellar system we see only two classes of objects: the stars and the nebulæ ; but there is an extremely great variety of each class, tens of millions of stars and tens of thousands of nebulæ, probably no two of either class exactly alike.

The serious study of the nebulæ began with Sir William Herschel in the 1780's. In less than two decades his famous sweepings of the sky had rewarded him with the finding of 2,500 nebulæ and star clusters. He did not separate them into a list of nebulæ and a list of clusters, as he was not clear about their relations to each other. When he observed certain of them with small telescopes and low magnifying power they looked like continuous structures, as if they were little clouds of luminous gases; but when some of the same objects were subjected to greater magnification they were resolved into star clusters. Here was the serious beginning of the hypothesis that all the nebula would be resolved into stars if only our telescopes were sufficiently powerful.

Herschel was not satisfied with this

view, and in 1791 he proposed the hypothesis that nebulæ evolve into stars. He thought that nebulæ of great size would condense very gradually, or break up, into smaller nebulæ ; that the smaller ones would condense into nebulæ ever more and more regular in outline; and that these would eventually pass into the small, nearly symmetrical objects which he called planetary nebulæ, because in telescopes of low power they presented dises resembling the discs of our planets. He said the planetaries were the immediate forerunners of the stars, and that they would evolve into stars. Herschel actually classified a considerable number of the known nebulæ in accordance with this hypothesis. Speaking of a star surrounded by nebulosity, which is the condition existing in most planetary nebulæ (see Fig. 1), he said that the nebulous matter seemed "more fit to produce a star by its condensation than to depend upon the star for its existence."

Herschel's mind was profoundly philosophic, and his ideas about nebulæ attracted wide attention. They may easily have suggested Laplace's celebrated nebular hypothesis of the origin of our solar system, announced a few years later. Herschel thought of the birth of many stars from the nebulæ; Laplace's hypothesis ventured to describe in detail the process of the develop

It is necessary for the satisfactory presentation of our subject that we grasp the principal features of our stellar system, and we shall devote a few sentences to its description.

The universe of stars-our stellar system -is believed by astronomers to occupy a limited volume of space that is somewhat the shape of a very flat pocket watch; more strictly, a much flattened ellipsoid or

impression that the boundaries of the stellar system are sharply defined, nor that the stars are uniformly distributed throughout the ellipsoid (see Figs. 2, 18 and others), but only that the stars are more or less irregularly distributed throughout a volume of space roughly ellipsoidal in form. The thinning out of stars near the confines of the system may be both gradual and irregular. The equatorial plane of the ellipsoid is coincident with the central plane of