!3 2 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



recorded by Bishop Lancia, and the Phoeni- 

 cian alphabet ; and he suggests analogies 

 between American and Old-World word- 

 roots. No branch of speculation is more 

 seductive than this, and none more easily 

 misleading. The authenticity of the Landa 

 alphabet has been questioned by Dr. Valen- 

 tini ; but Dr. Le Plongeon is represented as 

 claiming that he has demonstrated it, and 

 has discovered affinities between the Maya 

 and the ancient Egyptian and the Aryan 

 languages. His testimony thus comes in 

 aid of Mr. Donnelly's conclusions. It is in 

 place to remark here, also, that at least four 

 papers read at the late meeting of the 

 American Association those of Dr. Phene 

 on " Affinities between America and other 

 Continents," of Dr. Haliburton on " Atlas 

 and the Atlantis," of Mr. Hale on the " Ori- 

 gin of the Indians," and of Professor De 

 Hass on " Geological Testimony to the An- 

 tiquity of Man in America " embody views 

 parallel with some of the arguments in this 

 book. Mr. Donnelly is sometimes carried 

 away by his enthusiasm, and leaves his 

 readers in danger of being carried away 

 with him. No thought of looking at the 

 other side, or of critical examination, is ap- 

 parent. The work is a kind of lawyer's 

 brief, on which the reader may ask to be 

 excused from making up his mind till the 

 other side has been heard and the court has 

 delivered its charge. It brings forward a 

 strong array of circumstantial evidence of 

 the possible former existence of the Atlan- 

 tean Continent, and of the origin of man- 

 kind and civilization from it, against which, 

 so far as we know, no positive evidence is 

 offered by history or science. The theory 

 would explain a thousand things which are 

 not explained and seem otherwise inexpli- 

 cable, and would not make a single problem 

 more difficult. But its verification, we fear, 

 must await the realization of Jules Verne's 

 vision, which enabled the travelers in the 

 fancied submarine ship to reach and make 

 a complete exploration of the sunken city, 

 (he capital of the antediluvian empire. Mr. 

 Donnelly even foreshadows such a realiza- 

 tion, and suggests that it is not impossible 

 that " the nations of the earth may yet cm- 

 ploy their idle navies in bringing to the 

 light of day some of the relics of this buried 

 people," and that as a hundred years ago 



we knew nothing of Pompeii or Hereulane- 

 um, or of the Indo-European bond of lan- 

 guages, or of the monumental history of 

 Egypt and the Mesopotamian empires, or of 

 the ancient civilizations of Yucatan, Mexico, 

 and Peru " who shall say that one hun- 

 dred years from now the museums of the 

 world may not be adorned with gems, stat- 

 ues, arms, and implements from Atlantis, 

 while the libraries of the world shall con- 

 tain translations of its inscriptions, throw- 

 ing new light upon all the past history of 

 the human race, and all the great problems 

 which now perplex the thinkers of our 

 day ? " 



Report on the Meteorology of Tokio, 

 for the Year 2540 (1880). By T. 0. 

 Mendenhall, Ph. D., Professor of Ex- 

 perimental Physics in Tokio Daigaku. 

 Tokio, Japan : Published by the Univer- 

 sity. Pp. 81, with numerous Charts. 



The present report covers the second 

 year during which meteorological observa- 

 tions have been systematically taken at the 

 University of Tokio. The tabulation of re- 

 sults is so arranged as to correspond in order 

 with the tables of the previous year, and to 

 facilitate comparison as much as possible. 

 Hourly observations were maintained dur- 

 ing March, June, September, and Decem- 

 ber, months which afford a good representa- 

 tion of the varying meteorological condi- 

 tions of the year. In addition to these 

 constant observations, an expedition was 

 made to the summit of Fooseeyama to de- 

 termine the force of gravity there ; thermo- 

 electric measurements of earth-temperature 

 were undertaken, but abandoned on account 

 of the difficulty of getting suitable insulat- 

 ing material ; experiments were made with 

 success for the determination of the velocity 

 of the sound-wave under widely varying 

 meteorological conditions ; and co-operation 

 in seismological observations is contem- 

 plated. It having long been known that 

 the disastrous fires with which the Japanese 

 capital is often afflicted are most frequent 

 in certain months, and that their occurrence 

 is intimately related to the direction and 

 velocity of the wind, Professor Yamagawa, 

 of the university, has devoted much time 

 to an investigation of the origin and course 

 of these fires, and to their classification in 

 reference to atmospheric movement. 



