At the invitation of the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Ales Hrdlicka delivered three lectures at the university, on January 12, 13 and 14 on "Human origin and evolution." On January 16 he also delivered a lecture on "Some newer aspects of human evolution," before the Anthropological Society of St. Louis.

THE HUXLEY Memorial Medal for 1924 of the Royal Anthropological Institute was presented to Dr. René Verneau, of Paris, at a meeting of the institute held on November 25.

The Museum of the American Indian (Heye Foundation) has continued its activity in the field during the past summer, Mr. Wildshut working among the Bannock and Shoshone and the Crow, Cheyenne and Blackfeet; Mr. Saville excavating on Long Island; Dr. Gilmore collecting among the Omaha, Winnebago and Arikara; Mr. Cadzow examining Iroquois and Algonkian sites in New York; Mr. D. E. Harrower collecting among the Indians in Nicaragua; and Mr. A. H. Verrill working in Panama among the Boorabi, Terribi, and Cocle Indians.

Prof. M. H. Saville and Mr. F. W. Hodge have been elected MEMBERS TITULAIRES, and Dr. Robert H. Lowie Membre correspondents of the Société des Américanistes de Paris.

Mr. Arthur C. Parker has resigned from the office of State Archaeologist of New York and accepted a position as Director of the Municipal Museum in Rochester, N. Y.

TA

LOUIS ROBERT SULLIVAN

BY E. A. HOOTON

HE untimely death of Louis R. Sullivan deprives Physical Anthropology of one of its most competent American workers, a man who would have achieved great distinction in his chosen field had he been able to continue his work even a few years longer.

Louis Robert Sullivan was born at Houlton, Maine, May 21, 1892. He did his undergraduate work at Bates College and received the degree of A.M. from Brown University in 1916. In this same year he joined the staff of the American Museum of Natural History, of which he remained a member until his death. During the war Sullivan was occupied for some time in anthropometric work in the army. After he returned to the American Museum he completed the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in anthropology at Columbia University. He was then loaned by the American Museum to the Bishop Museum of Honolulu, Hawaii, in order to take charge of the work in physical anthropology in connection with the Polynesian expeditions that institution was undertaking. During his sojourn in the Hawaiian Islands Sullivan collected a vast amount of anthropometric data on race mixtures in Hawaii. This material constitutes the most important contribution to this vital problem which has yet been made. The death of its author before the completion of the analysis of this material leaves the fate of this invaluable research in doubt.

Some time after his return to New York Sullivan contracted pleurisy and it became necessary for him to go to Arizona to recuperate. Here he seemed to regain his health and continued to write scientific papers and to work upon his Hawaiian data. In the summer of 1924 he returned to New York, but a recurrence of his malady forced him to go back to Arizona after a few months.

Although the American Museum gave him every help in his struggle for health, he died late in April of the present year, in the thirty-third year of his age.

Sullivan's contributions to physical anthropology include a goodly number of excellent papers upon a variety of subjects, but especially upon Polynesian anthropometry. He also wrote a manual of anthropometry for field workers, "Practical Aspects of Anthropometry," which is admirable. Everything that he did was obviously the finished product of a competent professional worker. He had a keenly critical mind and was admirably equipped for research in his subject. He was independent in thought and in his methods of work. Although intolerant of the pseudo-scientific propaganda that often passes for anthropology, Sullivan was unprejudiced and cultivated no scientific bias. His attitude toward new ideas and new methods was unvaryingly receptive, though critical.

This was a man whose character and personality quickly won the respect and friendship of those with whom he was associated. Rarely has a young anthropologist been able to win such a substantial recognition of his personal and scientific merits in so short a space of time.

Added to the regret that the loss of so promising a worker inspires, is a certain resentment and indignation that such a brilliant scientist should have been forced to fight not only illhealth but also poverty during the productive years of his youth. Perhaps this premature death might have been prevented, had this young man received a living wage at the outset of his career. There is not one research anthropologist attached to a museum staff nor a single teaching anthropologist who, from his salary, can purchase for himself and his family the nourishing food and social relaxations enjoyed by a first-rate mechanic. The only anthropologists who can pursue their professions in comfort are those who have inherited or married money.

Be this as it may, anthropology has lost in Louis R. Sullivan one of its most able and devoted exponents.

PEABODY MUSEUM,

HOWARD UNIVERSITY.