TJic Oriental Society Meeting at Uos/tn. 



55 



Hope, thence eastwardly, leaving parties at the stations 

 named. While waiting lor the observers to determine 

 their geographical positions and to observe the transit-, 

 she will lie employed in exploring some ot the neigh- 

 boring islands, or doing work for ihe Commission. Each 

 party ia provided with magnetic apparatus sufficient 

 to determine the magnetic elements of their own station. 

 Negotiations are now in progress having in view the 

 telegraphic determination of tlio longitudes of the 

 Northern stations, and Hobart Town, with possibly New 

 Z -aland, of the Southern stations. The longitudes of 

 the isolated inlands will lie determined both by 

 means of chronometers, and by observations of star 

 oecnlatious by the rnoou. Prof. Henry Draper lias the 

 management of the photographic part of the expedi- 

 tions now well under way ; and in his work lie has de- 

 rived much benefit from the early efforts of Mr. Walker, 

 photographer to the Treasury Department, to provide 

 ou!y efficient photographers from among the numerous 

 applicants for positions on the various parties. 



THE ORIENTAL SOCIETY. 



MEETING AT BOSTON. 



A SESSION OF MORE THAN USUAL INTEREST AN 

 ETHIOPIC MANUSCRIPT PICKED UP IN THIS 

 COUNTRY PHOENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS IN BRAZIL 

 A FORGERY CRITICAL EXAMINATION AS TO AU- 

 THENTICITY, &C., OF THE OLD TESTAMENT THE 

 HEART, LUNGS, AND LIVER IN DIFFERENT 

 LANGUAGES. 



I FROM AN OCCASION 4X CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE. | 



BOSTON, May Si. Be it known to such as 



are not acquainted, with the facts, that tlie American 

 Oriental Society was born in. the year 1845, thaD it is 

 therefore twenty-nine years old; that it has uo less than 

 150 members, mostly college professors, hterateurs, dis- 

 tinguished philologists, and explorers in the Oriental 

 and the antique all, however, wearing our American 

 garb, and most of them speaking English without ac- 

 cent. Further, that it has a library in New-Haven of 

 about 4,000 volumes, which is yearly enriched by ex- 

 changing its own publications with those of nearly 

 every similar society in the Old World; that it is also in 

 possession of several important Sanscrit inscriptions, 

 and a valuable Greek inscription from Autioch, which 

 is referred to the third century before Christ, not to 

 mention a sufficient amount of trash which always con- 

 stitutes tie lumber of such societies. It is perhaps ne- 

 cessary to add for nobody would discover, it except by 

 accident that the Society holds two meetings each year, 

 one generally at New-Haven in the Fall, and the other 

 at Boston in the Spring. 



The need of this explanation is found in the fact that 

 this Society moves with muffled oars, and is enabled to 

 steal back and forch from New-Haven to Boston with- 

 out contributing in the slightest to the noise which 

 exists in the vulgar world. A further explanation is 

 that, like all polyglot societies, it is the perfect horror 

 of reporters, and that the horror is to eouie extent re- 

 ciprocal. Under these circumstances, it was not sur- 

 prising that the annual meeting held May 20 in the 

 rooms of the American Academy of Science and Ar;s, 

 at the Athenieuiu, was small in pom*-, of numbers, and 

 that it received little or no recognition from, the daily 

 press. Yet every other man of the twenty who were 

 thus ignored was of scholarly or intellectual prom- 



inence, and the meeting was one of the most 'interesting 

 the Society has hell. I send you some er ..mbi th.u fell 

 from the table. 



There svcre present Prof. El ward K. Saulsnury, 1're,- 

 ident of the Society, and I'urmcrly 1Y.H. 3OC in Y 

 College; Dr. Ezra Abbott, Krcor<linir Secretary of dm 

 Society, and Professor in H.irvari Divinil y S,-hm>l. oim 

 of the most accomplished biniieal and claa lie il selnlaiM 

 in the country ; the 11 'V. Dr. A. P. Pi ;iih, i , , Professor 

 of Moral Science in II irv.ird Univer.Mi v ; 1'roi. C. M. 

 Mead of Andover; the Rav. Dr. H il'm An I. r :>, S -ei.-- 

 lury of American Board of Foreign Miion>; I'l'-Uev. 

 Sclah Merrill of Andover, Prof. W. I). Wliiim-v ot Yale, 

 Corresponding Secretary, known not only to a'l Ori- 

 ental and liucuistic scholars in this country and Europe 

 for his original contributions to litei.i! ire, but es- 

 pecially known to your readers as the correspondent of 

 THE TRIBUNE with the Haydeu expedition lu-a year; the 

 Hon. J. H. Trurabull of Hartford, the oracle on all 

 matters relating to our Indian languages, and whose 

 Yankee skill in untying philological knots secim almost 

 intuitive; Dr. Win. H.iyes Ward, editor of The. Iu<!,-- 

 pendcnt, who, as an original explorer in II -bn-w an I 

 Phoenician, never fails to contribute to ten 

 interest of the Society; the R-v. J. W. 

 Jenks : Dr. Nathaniel Hoppeu of Cambiidge, 

 Prof. Frederick G irdmi-r of Middleto vu, Conn.; lion. 

 Stephen Saulsbury of Worcester; Prut. Felix Adler, 

 Professor of Oriental Literature in Cornell Un.vi'i-.-ny. 

 one of the youngest and boldest contributors of the 

 Society; Dr. Dimmock of Qiinccy; Prof. Charles 

 Carroll Everett of Harvard University, who has brought 

 a rara genius for philosopay to the interpretation of 

 the Oriental religions; T. S. Perry of Cambridge; ami 

 Ex-Mayor Russell. 



The routine business of the Society was soon ili" 

 patched. The officers of the preceding year were al! 

 reflected. The R :v. H. F. Jeuks of Boston ; Prof. Felix 

 Adler of Cornell University; Charles P. Obie, Profe.-sm- 

 of Modern Languages in the Massachusetts Institue of 

 Technology; Howard Osgood of Brooklyn, N. Y.; and 

 Isaac S. Hall of Naw-York, were elected members. 

 The necrology of the year shows the loss of Charier 

 Astor Bristed, Prof. Alpheus Crosby of Salem, J. F. 

 Meliue of Brooklyn and E>r. Francis Mason, and called 

 forth appropriate remarks from Prof. Waitir-y, th j 11 v. 

 Dr. Peabodv, the Rsv. Dr. Anderso.i. and D t -. Ward. 



WHO HAS LOST A MA.NU3CUIPT ? 



Prof. Whitney read the correspondence since tho List 

 meeting. A letter from, the R3V. Clurles H. Brigham of 

 Ann Harbor, Mich., may result in fluding t!ie owner of a 

 stray manuscript picked up last November on tho 

 premises of the Michigan Central Rulsvay by a laborer. 

 The manuscript is made of thin, soft parchment, in tho 

 form of a roll, and, according to Mr. Brigham's desei !;>- 

 tioa, is a genuine Ethiopic document. It was ct>; j -e- 

 tured by some of the members that tho manuscript 

 might have been obtained in Abyssinia by some one 

 who accompanied the late English expedition. 



The Rev. Mr. Trowbridge from Turkey gave an inter 

 estiug account of arrow-headed inscriptions in tho 

 vicinity of Amtab, to which place he is aiiout to return 

 to establish a new college. la monasteries in the T.mr.n 

 Mountains he had seen some very be.intifal manuscripts 

 in the ancient Armenian language. He expected great 

 good would come from the establishment of tho college, 

 which might be regarded by the people as a ropo-itorv 

 for inscriptions and manuscripts. Mr. Trowbridge was 

 encouraged by the Society to explore ancl al ruins iu 

 the vicinity of his ticid of missionary labor, and to send 



