Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/29
relate to man, especially savage man. In 1903 he was called to the U. S. National Museum to organize a division of physical anthropology, and he has been curator of this division from 1910 to the present time.
Of the important achievements in Dr. Hrdlička’s life we present the following. In the early 90’s he carried on investigations among the insane and other defective classes and conducted a tour through European prisons, insane asylums and museums. In 1893–1903 he had in charge the Hyde expeditions for the American Museum of Natural History. Then again he headed the expedition of the U. S. National Museum of Anthropology to Mexico in 1898, Southwestern U. S. in 1899 and 1900, Florida in 1906, Wisconsin and the Western States in 1908, Egypt, the Balkans, and Russia in 1909, Argentine, Peru, Panama and Mexico in 1910. Europe, Siberia, Mongolia in 1912, Japan, Korea, China, Hawaii in 1920, Western and Central Europe in 1922 and 1923, and India, Ceylon, Java, Australia and South Africa in 1925. These pilgrimages around the world led to important discoveries of prehistoric man: Cro-Magnon, Neanderthal, Mauer, Piltdown, Broken Hill, and Trinil. On these tours he also collected material that made highly instructive exhibits. He is particularly interested in the relies of Ancient Men, and probably knows more about those than any other living person. His work is not by guess; he measures with the utmost accuracy the ancient skulls, bones and coffins. He studies ancient teeth, and knows what men of old ate. He measures living men, too, and tells them from what prehistoric race they probably descended. For example, the races on the coasts of Alaska seem to show that a migration of great numbers of people once came over the Behring Strait from Asia into America.
Thus for seventeen years Dr. Hrdlička has beeen a “Government scientist”. If you go to Washington, visit the Museum, where you will see much of his work.
The latest volume of “Who’s Who in America” records the following distinctions that Dr. Hrdlička has received: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, life member of the A. A. A. S., member of the Association of American Anatomists, president of the American Anthropological Association, member of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Archeological Institute of America, National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, and honorary and corresponding member of various foreign academies and sciences.
Dr. Aleš Hrdlička is also author of numerous books and papers on anthropology and related subjects. One of his most recent works is entitled “Old Americans” published by Williams and Wilkins. It is a study of ancient American families, to which the author devoted fourteen years.
As stated above, Dr. Hrdlička is at present in Europe where he