the water repeatedly and drank. Presently B imitated him, and he too drank repeatedly. Both pecked at white of egg held in forceps, seizing at about the third shot, but shook it out of the bill. Perhaps some was swallowed. I then put them to bed in their basket.

Two hours later they were taken out and waddled about with more accuracy of motor coördination. When they came to the water they both at once drank. They pecked at white of egg placed on a black tray to make it more conspicuous, but shook it out of their bills.

After another two hours A was dropped into a fairly deep bath. He floated and kicked vigorously, dropping excrement. In less than a minute he swam round and round the bath and pecked at marks on the side.

A little later both made for the tin of water and sat in it. They pecked with more accuracy and without suggestion (i. e., moving it about with pin) at white of egg on the tray, still shaking the head vigorously, but swallowing freely. A scratched his head two or three times, but tumbled over in the process.

Later in the evening of the same day they ate white of egg freely. The pecking coördination was much more accurate, but not quite accurate. I placed B in the bath. He kicked excitedly and dropped excrement; then swam about vigorously, pecking at the sides.

Next morning when taken from their basket both A and B made for the water in their tin and drank and sat in it. They ate keenly of white of egg, swallowing large morsels. Both scratched their heads occasionally, tumbling down. Both preened their down, rubbing their bills over their breasts. They applied their bills to the base of the tail and rubbed their heads along their backs in the most approved duck fashion. They stood up and clapped their downy winglets, toppling over backwards on to their tails from imperfect coördination.

In the middle of the day I placed a blue-bottle fly, from which the wings had been snipped off, near them. A followed, pecking at it, but failed to seize. It escaped under the newspaper which formed the floor of my yard. I routed it out. A again followed pecking, but the fly escaped through the wire netting. I placed it again in the yard. A followed and caught it at the third peck, swallowing it apparently with satisfaction. Put A in the basket. B then caught another fly after numerous abortive attempts. Both A and B ate their own excrement and that of chicks, showing less signs of dislike than do chicks.

Tried the ducks with all sorts of odd things, bits of paper, chopped-up matches, leaves, flowers, small stones, red currants, anything of suitable size I could lay hands on. Each was seized and mumbled, and then either rejected or swallowed.

When three days old I threw to them the yellow and blackbanded caterpillar of the cinnabar moth. Each seized it, but dropped it at once. Very soon no notice was taken of it. Next day on repeating the experiment A seized a caterpillar, but dropped it. B took no notice. They ate freely of green caterpillars from gooseberry bushes, and distinguished between these nice morsels and the nasty yellow and black caterpillars. They ate tadpoles placed in their water, noticing them directly they began to swim about.

I daily placed for them at about 9 A.M. in my experimental yard a large black tray with a shallow tin of water. To this they at once ran and drank, sitting in the water and washing. On the sixth day I put down the tray and tin as usual; but the tin was empty. They ran to it, went through all the action of mumbling the water and drinking. They sat in the empty tin wagging their little tails and ducking down their heads as if they were enjoying a good bath. They continued this procedure for about ten minutes. I then gave them some water. The next morning I repeated the same experiment, but though the ducks searched for water with their bills they did so with less vigor and zest.

A winged bee was thrown in. B seized it, but dropped it. A seized it, and after mumbling it for a moment, swallowed it. Possibly he was stung. He kept on scratching the base of his beak first on one side then on the other and seemed uneasy. But he was all right again in half an hour. There was no instinctive avoidance

of bees. Subsequently he would not touch a bee. There was an intelligent avoidance of bees. Nor would they touch the bee-like fly, Eristalis. Its mimetic form served as a protective character. Subsequently A seized a humblebee and after mumbling it in the water swallowed it and seemed none the worse.

The above jottings are extracted from my note-book and are given without comment. I may add that as compared with chicks the ducklings show less intelligence and develop psychically more slowly. Their greediness and vulgarity are painful to observe and to contemplate.

BACTERIA IN HEN'S EGGS.

BY MELVIN A. BRANNON, FORT WAYNE, Ind.

THAT cider should turn to vinegar and milk become sour excites little wonder among common people or even individuals of considerable education. The mere statement of fact in such ordinary phenomena seems to satisfy the masses, but fortunately for scientific and sanitary interests, there is a class of individuals persistently questioning such phenomena till reasonable explanations are secured. Consequently the souring of cider and milk was found to be caused by the presence of organisms which produced acetic and lactic acids, respectively, whenever the proper medium was exposed in an atmosphere of moderate temperature. Not only have these common but interesting phenomena, "souring" of cider and milk, been explained by the presence of bacteria, but many other phenomena, less common and more concealed, have been directly traced to the action of some form of bacteria associated with the matter in which the phenomena occurred.

Of course, no intelligent student holds bacteria responsible for every chemical change in organic matter, but it is well understood and universally admitted that the greater number of chemical changes in living and decaying organic material are induced by some bacterial form.

Recognizing the importance of recording every phenomenon relating to the presence and action of bacteria, it seemed proper to recite to readers of Science some of the details in a very peculiar case recently noted.

An acquaintance whose intelligence and acuteness of observation make his testimony thoroughly reliable, stated that one of his Plymouth Rock hens was laying eggs, every one of which had an unpleasant odor, although broken a few hours after it was laid. He also said that the hen was laying regularly and appeared healthy in every respect save that she had the gaps. A few days succeeding this statement he reported the fowl butchered and closely examined. In her craw was found a ball of threads pulled from manilla matting which she had access to. The ball entirely filled the craw and was very hard and compact, except in the central region, through which ran a cylindrical opening, affording a passage-way for the food. This ball of manilla threads and the craw gave the same offensive odor as did the eggs when broken. The heart, liver and digestive apparatus -excepting the craw-were normal in size and appearance.

A perfect egg was taken from the hen and personally examined. It looked and smelled like a perfectly fresh egg, but when broken it gave forth the same disgusting odor that had characterized her craw and previously laid eggs. This odor was exactly like that observed in decaying meat, and, had the broken egg been concealed, any person entering the laboratory would have suspected that decaying meat was exposed in that room.

The egg contents gave a strong alkaline reaction when tested with litmus paper. The general appearance of yolk and white was normal, but a portion of albumen mounted and carefully observed under the microscope, magnification 250 diameters, revealed the presence of a great number of bodies varying in shape from almost round to distinctly oblong. These forms closely resembled bacteria, but lack of time for tests and cultures made the determination of them impossible.

From these few observations and experiments it would be unscientific to definitely conclude that these eggs were decaying from the action of bacteria, but in view of the fact that the odor so closely simulated that of decaying flesh and that the egg con

tents were strongly alkaline, which would favor the development of bacteria, is it not exceedingly probable that this fowl had clogged her craw and set a great culture of bacteria developing there, till at length bacteria had gained admission to the oviduct through the blood and thus developed infected eggs?

This rather brief description in no wise pretends to explain this phenomenon. It has been given with a dual hope: First, that some bacteriologist whose experience has familiarized him with similar cases may give the desired explanation of how these bacteria, if they were bacteria, gained admission to these fresh eggs; second, that the attention of physicians and officers of boards of health may be attracted to this subject.

There is evidently as much necessity for caution in feeding hens as in feeding milk cows or in fattening beeves and swine. Chickens should not be fed all sorts of refuse matter and then be expected to return therefor good healthy eggs and meat. Yet we all know the universal practice in small cities and villages, where many of the market fowls and eggs are obtained, is to give over the office of scavenger to the feathered inhabitants. If the subject were properly regarded by physicians and the people were rightly educated, we might look for better things; till then the occurrence of such peculiar phenomena as the one related and even more unique, should not surprise scientific students.

A MALAY FIRE-SYRINGE.

BY F. W. RUDLER, MUSEUM OF GEOLOGY, LONDON, ENGLAND. By the kindness of my friend Mr. Henry Louis, the wellknown mining engineer, who has recently returned to England from Singapore, I have received a fire-syringe which he obtained towards the end of 1890 from a part of the Malay Peninsula never previously visited by a white man. So far as I can ascertain, the use of the fire-syringe has not been hitherto recorded from this locality. Mr. Walter Hough, in his admirable description of the fire-producing appliances in the United States National Museum, published in the Smithsonian Reports for 1888 and 1890, refers to the syringes of Borneo and Burma, but makes no reference to those of the Malay Peninsula. No syringe from this locality is to be found in the very extensive ethnographical collections in the British Museum. Moreover, Mr. A. R. Wallace does not know of its use by the Malays, nor is it known to Professor Terrien de Lacouperie, who has lately written on the production of fire by the Chinese in his Babylonian and Oriental Record.

Mr. Louis obtained the specimen in question from a Malay who stopped with a party of others at his camp on a small stream known as Ayer Katiah, one of the tributaries of the River Teluban, on the southeast coast of the Malay Peninsula, and about 100 miles from the mouth of the river. The district is sparsely inhabited by Malays, and the party from whom the syringe was obtained had come from some of the neighboring Kampongs. They squatted down and began smoking, one of the men lighting his cigarette in the most matter-of-fact way by means of his firesyringe. There is no reason to suppose that be was singular or had imported his apparatus from a distance. If the rest of the party elicited sparks by means of quartz and iron it was, they admitted, simply because they preferred this method as being less troublesome and more trustworthy than that of compressing air. The Malay syringe consists of a tube of hard wood 24 inches long, closed at one end, towards which the tube slightly tapers. It is surrounded with neatly plaited strips of thin rattan which, while they ornament the object, serve also to strengthen it and prevent the wood from splitting longitudinally in the direction of the fibre. The piston is made of similar wood and is packed with string. The tinder was carried in the hollowed-out skin of a large bean, like the seed of Entada.

In order to use the instrument a small piece of dry tinder is placed in the slightly hollow end of the piston and pressed down to keep it well in place; the piston is then inserted in the cylinder, smitten sharply with the palm of the hand and very rapidly withdrawn, when the tinder becomes sufficiently heated to slightly smoulder, and by then gently blowing it a bright glow may be obtained. According to Mr. Louis, the native never

seemed to fail in bis use of the syringe, but the knack is not easy to acquire, and those who have employed a similar apparatus for demonstration at physical lectures know that it is far from easy, even with a well-made instrument, to ensure success.

Contrary to what might have been expected, it was rather a young man who preferred this strange mode of producing fire to the more convenient flint-and-steel method. There can be no doubt that the use of the fire-syringe, never widely spread, is rapidly dying out, and hence every fact bearing on the geographical distribution of so curious a custom deserves to be put on record.

L'ORIGINE DES ARYENS.

PAR LE PROF. G. DE LAPOUGE, UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTPELLIER, FRANCE. LES revues scientifiques et Science en particulier ont publié cette année une quantité d'articles qui avaient la prétention d'éclaircir la question aryenne, mais qui me paraissent avoir surtout produit le résultat inverse. Il me semble que l'obscurité vient surtout de ce qu'on ne s'entend pas sur la valeur de mots qui, détournés de leur signification primitive, sont maintenant bien près de n'en avoir aucune, tant elle devient vague. Partisan très actif de l'origine européenne et occidentale de la race blonde et de son identification avec les premiers auteurs de la culture aryenne, j'ai contribué sans le vouloir à créer cette équivoque. Je voudrais arriver à la dissiper.

Le titre d'Aryens est historiquement applicable aux IndoIraniens seuls. Ceux-ci étaient loin de former la partie la plus pure, au double point de vue morphologique et sociologique, de la race que nous appelons aryenne. C'est pourquoi je crois préférable de laisser le terme d'Aryen à l'histoire et à l'ethnographie, et de lui conserver son sens strict, plutôt que de continuer à l'étendre comme on l'a fait, d'abord en philologie d'un sous-groupe à un groupe entier de populations parlant des langues apparentées et pratiquant des coutumes analogues, et ensuite en anthropologie à la race qui parait avoir joué chez ces peuples le rôle de ferment. En regardant comme démontré ce qui est encore discuté, à savoir que les langues et les idées aryennes sont nées dans une tribu ou dominait la race blonde et sous l'influence de son génie propre, faire remonter d'une partie des peuples conquis au premier noyau des conquérants un nom ethnique plus récent d'un nombre considérable de siècles, c'est à peu près comme si l'on voulait dans dix mille ans appeler les Francais d'aujourdhui Dahoméens, parceque l'Afrique serait en grande partie devenue, c'est une pure hypothèse, francaise de moeurs et d'institutions.

Il conviendrait de s'entendre pour adopter désormais dans le langage précis la terminologie suivante: Aryens, les Indo-Iraniens primitifs; langues aryennes, institutions aryennes, les langues et les institutions de ces peuples et de leurs descendants immédiats; Indo-Européens, les peuples, d'origine quelconque, qui ont fait usage de ces langues, et de ces institutions, mais à partir seulement du moment ou cet usage a commencé chez eux. La terminologie ainsi rétablie, on arrive à s'apercevoir que le problème aryen n'existe pas et qu'il y avait simplement logomachie. On se trouve en face des questions suivantes, aux quelles il est plus facile de répondre dès que l'esprit n'est plus tiraillé par les acceptions multiples et discordantes des termes.

Quel a été le berceau des langues et des institutions indo-européennes ? Question d'histoire et de philologie, à laquelle on est actuellement porté à répondre: l'Europe.

Ces langues et ces institutions paraissent elles avoir été particulièrement propres à certains peuples caractérisés par la prédominance d'une race, et laquelle? Autre question d'histoire et de philologie à laquelle on est obligé de répondre: oui, la race dolichocéphale blonde. En effet il n'y a pas de peuple ou cette race domine qui fasse usage de langues ou d'institutions nonaryennes, tandis que les peuples ou cette race ne domine pas font en partie usage de langues ou d'institutions d'un autre groupe, en ont fait usage à une époque historique rapprochée (partie de la Russie et de l'Allemagne), ou paraissent en avoir fait usage dans l'antiquité (Gaule, Espagne).

L'évolution qui a produit ces langues et ces institutions a t'elle eu pour point de départ un peuple ou la race blonde avait la

supériorité soit numérique, soit sociale? et paraît elle le fruit du génie de la race? Question délicate, car il faut juger d'après des probabilités soulement, mais à laquelle il est permis de répondre oui.

Quel a été le berceau de la race dolichocéphale blonde? Question d'archéologie préhistorique et de physiologie. Réponse: c'est la région où le type ostéologique le plus voisin du type dolichocéphale blond s'est trouvé soumis aux conditions météorologiques nécessaires pour le réduire à un état voisin de l'albinisme.

Où doit etre localisé ce berceau? le type dolichocéphale blond se rattachant par le squelette aux races quaternaires et néolithiques de l'Europe occidentale son berceau ne peut être cherché qu'en Europe, les conditions nécessaires d'inactinisme et d'humidité permanente qui ont déterminé sa décoloration ne se sont trouvées réalisées que dans la région voisine de la Mer du Nord, à la fin du quaternaire, et mieux encore dans la partie de cette mer alors exondée.

On arrive ainsi aux propositions suivantes :

Le type polichocéphale blond, H. europæus, Linné, abusivement appelé aryen, s'est développé dans le N. O. de l'Europe, telle quelle était à la fin des temps quaternaires, par l'action des milieux sur les races dolichocéphales indigènes, ou sur une seule de ces races. Il s'est fixé par un long séjour dans ces régions. Il en est sorti par des émigrations successives à mesure que le sol s'engloutissait sous ses pieds.

Les langues et les institutions indo-européennes se sont formées quelque part en Europe sous l'action du génie de la race blonde. Cette formation est de date relativement récente, et si les blonds ont apporté de leur primitive patrie une langue proto-aryenne, elle était à un stade d'évolution qui ne permettrait probablement pas d'en reconnaitre la nature. On sait la rapidité avec laquelle varient les langues non écrites. L'état des langues indo-euro

péennes prouve d'autre part leur origine récente.

Les langues et les institutions indo-européennes ont été ensuite implantées dans les deux tiers de l'Europe et dans une petite partie de l'Asie, par les conquètes des peuples qui en faisaient usage. Un peuple passé probablement d'Europe en Bactriane par la mer Caspienne, ou Asiatique mais conquis par des Européens a porté les langues et les institutions indo-européennes dans l'Inde. rameau seul appartient le nom d'Aryen.

А се

Tout s'éclaircit donc dès qu'on n'embrasse plus ensemble la question d'origine des langues aryennes et celle de la race blonde, dès qu'on ne confond plus les peuples indo-européens avec les blonds, conquérants d'abord, puis absorbés et devenus classe dirigeante chez des peuples de race différente.

THE SCIENTIFIC ALLIANCE OF NEW YORK.

BY JOSEPH F. JAMES, M. SC., WASHINGTON, D.C. THE "Scientific Alliance of New York" is composed of the following societies: New York Academy of Science, Torrey Botanical Club, New York Microscopical Society, Linnæan Society of New York, New York Mineralogical Club, New York Mathematical Society, New York Section of American Chemical Society.

Two meetings have been held, of which the proceedings have been published, and as the scheme seems to mark an era in scientific matters, especially in New York City, and as it is one that is likely to result in permanent benefits to science, a notice of it does not seem out of place.

The council of the Alliance is composed of the president and two members of each of the component societies. Its president is Charles F. Cox, and its secretary and treasurer N. L. Britton. The first meeting was held on November 15, 1892, and at it addresses were made by various prominent men. Hon. Seth Low, President of Columbia College, spoke upon the advantages to the city of New York of the Alliance, and he was followed by Mr. C. F. Cox with an address on the advantages of the alliance to the scientific societies. Mr. Cox pointed out the necessity of coöperation by the various organizations if the best results are to follow. He referred to the fact that the real materialists of the world are the so-called practical men, who measure scientific knowledge by commercial standards and in whose eyes science

He

The third address was by Hon. Addison Brown on the need of endowment for research and publication. He referred to the example set by Professor Tyndall, who established three scholarships with $30,000 received by him from a series of lectures delivered in this country. He has been followed by others with equally munificent gifts. He pointed out the necessity to the practical man of work in the region of pure science, but as the workmen in this region are generally those who have neither the time nor the means for original research, the necessity for an endowment to enable them to continue their work is evident. Reference was made to the difference between the German universities, where the professors are expected to do original work, leaving the teaching for instructors, and the American so-called universities and colleges where the professors seldom have the time to devote to anything outside of mere routine work. mentioned the humiliating fact that at the Zoological Station at Naples, where Germany and Italy each maintain eight tables, Russia, Spain, Austria, and England three each, and Switzerland, Belgium and Holland one each at a cost of $500 per annum, the United States had none, and has been dependent heretofore upon the generosity of foreign nations for the occasional use of a table. This loss is not compensated for by the fact that there are several small laboratories along the Atlantic coast of this country. The endowment of research through fellowships in colleges was also considered, and lastly a detailed reference to scientific societies in this country and England. The comparison is not flattering to our pride. In England the property, funds and equipment of the societies is nearly ten-fold greater than in America. The publications are double. No laboratories and no professors are maintained here for original research. "The English societies," he said, "distribute yearly from $25,000 to $35,000 for from sixty to seventy-five different scientific purposes, while ours make no such appropriations simply because there are no funds."

ance.

Dr. H. Carrington Bolton, in his plea for a library of science in New York, gave many interesting facts relative to libraries of New York and its sister cities, arguing in favor of bringing together under one roof all the libraries of the societies in the AlliThese libraries aggregate 13,700 volumes and would form an excellent nucleus for a scientific library. Reports received from sixty libraries of New York and its vicinity show that there are 1,916,000 volumes in them, the scientific books varying from 5 to 100 per cent. Fifteen of the libraries have over 40,000 volumes each. To house the libraries Professor Bolton outlined a plan. He advised having a building 100 × 120 feet square, four stories high in front, with a lecture room, in the rear, large enough to seat 1,000 persons. The library room should have shelves to accommodate 300,000 volumes. There should be an office for general business, several small rooms for ordinary meetings of the separate societies, photographic and microscopic laboratories and a general reception room. The plan is extensive, but let us hope that some wealthy New Yorker may make it feasible.

The second joint meeting of the Alliance was held on March 27, 1893, in memory of Dr. J. S. Newberry. The important business transacted after the reading of a memoir by Professor H. L. Fairchild, was a report of a committee recommending the establishment of an endowment fund of $25,000 for the purpose of encouraging original research. The fund is to be known as the John Strong Newberry Fund, and is to be administered under the direction of the Council of the Scientific Alliance. Blank forms for subscriptions of any amount will be cheerfully furnished by Dr. N. L. Britton, Columbia College, New York. The money will be used for furthering researches in geology, paleontology, botany and zoology, in all of which subjects Dr. Newberry was interested. About $600 in sums varying from $5 to $100, had been subscribed about a month ago.

A NOTE ON THE APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD TO LITERATURE.

BY C. MICHENER, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.

PEOPLE have lately begun to study literary products inductively; but that study has been almost entirely systematic. Words, sentences, paragraphs, figures of speech, etc., are counted and classified, and from the results obtained some slight conclusions are drawn as to the development of style. This is undoubtedly good work. But it is easy work and perhaps it is on that account that we so readily see that it is good.

In the present paper I wish to propose something more difficult. I wish to indicate the use of a science as a tool in the study of literary products scientifically. The history of any science is a story of development by stages, each successive stage of advance caused by the application of another department of science to the investigation of the one in question, for example, mathematics to electricity.

Literature is a product of the mind, and its use and purpose are by and for the mind. Is it not then intimately connected with psychology, and should not an investigation and comparison of the facts of each be of benefit in determining the laws of each?

Let us take, for example, that exceedingly important part of most literary products, Plot. As an outline for the study of plot (not to be confounded, of course, with plot content), I would propose the following:

(A) The psycholgical bases of plot. Here the main part of the work is to be done. The exceedingly delicate mental phenomena included loosely under such terms as attention and interest are to be investigated by experiments as wide in range as possible; and from all this should result facts enough for the construction of the ideal plot and the determination of its structure. This we might call

The typical plot, that is, plot stripped of all accidental factors and limitations. The next step would be to consider the various adaptive modifications which this typical plot would undergo when subjected to the restraints and environment of the various great classes of literary products; and our investigations under the first head, and I think I may say such investigation only, will enable us to understand the differentiation. We should thus be led to consider the plot of the lyric, the epic, the drama, the novel, etc.

B. The temporal development of plot. Here we should commence from the other end as it were, and from the existing literary products trace the growth of plot from its beginning to the present; and from these records obtain the history of the development of those mental functions which plot presupposes. This second division is the natural and necessary complement and check of the first and should be as useful to psychology in this department and, in an analogous way, as paleontology is to zoology or botany.

That the method here outlined is merely tentative I confess. It would, of course, be severely limited and the conclusions impaired by any limitation in the range of experiments under the first head; and in the present state of scientific psychology to be at all possible, the method would bave to be materially modified to produce any result at all. I have, however, in this present note, only attempted to be suggestive, not conclusive.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

A Case of Protective Mimicry.

THIS morning, as I was passing a small apricot tree standing in my yard, my attention was arrested by what appeared to be a short stub of a branch, about 1 inches long, projecting from the side of the tree about 20 inches from the ground. Having recently pruned the tree carefully, I wondered how I had happened to leave that stub, and at once applied my pocket-knife to remove it. Much to my surprise, I found that the supposed stub of a branch was a moth attached by its head to the side of the tree. The accompanying sketch represents its appearance.

The grayish-brown mottled color of the closed wings of the moth matched the color of the bark completely, and the angle

made by the axis of its body with the tree was such as a branch would naturally make. It was attached with its ventral surface uppermost, and the extremity of the abdomen, which projected beyond the closed wings, was nearly white, as seen from above, thus imitating very perfectly the central woody portion of the broken branch. Having turned the moth over in my attempt to remove the supposed branch, it assumed the natural position of such insects on the side of the tree, but upon returning a half-hour later I found it again in the position shown in the figure. Several

As every additional find in reference to the Maya manuscripts is of interest to some of the readers of Science, I submit the following item.

In the bottom line, Pl. 46, Dresden Codex, is the glyph shown in Fig. 1, which, as all students of these Codices admit, is the symbol for the Maya month Kayab. Here it is without the appendage which sometimes accompanies it. In Fig. 2, from the bottom line of the Dresden Codex, Plate 61, the form is more complete, and the appendage is present.

The signification given by Perez to the name of this month is "singing," from the Maya word Kay, "to sing, to warble," but a study of the symbol leads to quite a different interpretation. According to the interpretation heretofore given by me (American Anthropologist, July, 1893, p. 246) the character in the upper right-hand corner of the glyph has b as its chief phonetic element,

which is also one of the consonant sounds of the word Kayab, and the appendage is the month determinative. But I was unable at the time the article referred to was written to indicate the portion of the symbol denoting the ' element. A more thorough examination, as given in Fig. 2, has called my attention to the fact that in the left portion and general form we have precisely the symbol for Aac (Ac, Ak), the "turtle," as given in the upper division of Plate 17, Cortesian Codex. Following this interpretation, the true name of the month is Acyab or Akyab, which, for the sake of euphony, has been changed to Kayab. The derivation, according to this interpretation, will be from Ac or Ak, "turtle," and Yab or Yaab, "many, abundant, plentiful." Adding the month determinative, we obtain as the full signification, "The month when turtles abound." Whether or not turtles are most abundant on the coast of Yucatan during the month of June I am unable to say. The only evidence I have at hand relating to the subject is found in Mrs. LePlongeon's charming little work, "Here and There in Yucatan." In this she describes a trip along the coast in June, at which time turtle catching was in progress and attended with great success, the fishermen's pens being full. Dr. Schellhas (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1892) notices the resemblance of this character to the turtle symbol.

This apparently furnishes, at least, a straw pointing in the direction I have been moving in my study of the Maya hieroglyphs. CYRUS THOMAS.

Washington, D.C., July 15.

Historical Statements in Century Dictionary Contradicted by Other Authorities.

Napier's rods (or bones), a contrivance commonly attributed to John Napier (1550-1617), but in fact described in the Arithmetic of Oronce Finée (1532).-Century Dictionary under rod.

Die erste Beschreibung gab Nefer in seiner Rabdologia (Edinburg, 1617).-Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik, von Moritz Cantor, zweiter Band, Seite 660.

The earliest known writers on the subject (magic squares) were Arabians, among whom these squares were used as amulets.Century Dictionary, under magic.

The earliest known writer on the subject was Emanuel Moscopulus, a Greek, who lived in the fourth or fifth century, and whose manuscript is preserved in the National Library at Paris. -Encyclopedia Britannica, under magic squares.

These seem to me to be contradictions. the truth in regard to these historical facts reader of Science.

Eureka College, Eureka, Ill., July 24.

I should be glad to see plainly set forth by a GEO. A. MILLER.

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"Aryan" Dr. Brinton will find, by consulting the Transactions of the British Association for 1879, that fourteen years ago I conclusively showed that the Khmers should be grouped not with the surrounding Mongolic, but with the Caucasic division of mankind. In the "Monograph on the Relations of the Indo-Chinese and Inter-Oceanic Races and Languages," read before the association, and again before the Anthropological Institute and printed in the journal of that society for February, 1880, and issued separately by Trübner at same date, I argued generally that "both of the great Asiatic types conventionally known as Caucasian and Mongolian, have from prehistoric times occupied the Indo-Chinese peninsula," and particularly that here the Caucasic stock is represented by the widespread Khmer group, that is to say, the Cambojans proper, the Kuys or Khmerdom ("original Khmers"), as the Cambojans call them, the Stiengs, Charays, Chams and many others, some still in the tribal state, some long civilized or semi-civilized. It is the civilized that mainly engage Dr. Maurel's attention, and that he rightly regards as Aryans (read Caucasians), but wrongly supposes to have migrated in comparatively recent times from India to Indo-China, "bringing with them the Aryan culture of that country as proved by the stately ruins of Ang-Kok (read Ongkor-Vaht)." There was no such migration "probably about the third or fourth century of the Christian era," for the Khmers are not recent arrivals, but the true aborigines, as shown by the presence of the Khmerdom and the kindred wild tribes, and also by their untoned polysyllabic speech, radically distinct both from the Indo-Chinese toned monosyllabic group and from the Indic (Sanscritic) branch of the Aryan, but closely allied to the untoned polysyllabic Malayo-Polynesian linguistic family.

This point, which I think I have established to the satisfaction of most ethnologists and philologists (Professor Sayce amongst others), is of far-reaching consequence. It affords the solution of the extremely difficult problem connected with the presence of Logan's "Indonesians," my Caucasians, side by side or intermin

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