14 proceedings: anthropological society 



twice the structural formula. Voegtlin spoke of the application of en- 

 zymes in analyzing the acids into their component groups. In reply 

 to questions by Johnston, Acree, Chesnut and others the following 

 points were brought out: There is no evidence that tliere is more than 

 one animal nucleic acid and one plant acid of the polynucleitide struc- 

 ture, tho there are several mono-nucleitides. The origin of the sugar 

 groups is not knoAATi; experimentally, the breaking up of the hexoses by 

 enzymes always leads to two 3-carl3on chains, never to a pentose. The 

 animal acid contains a hexose, whose structure is not yet kno^vn. A 

 living animal enzyme is necessary for the analysis of the animal acid, 

 and the technique involves the skill of the surgeon as well as that of 

 the chemist. 



Robert B. Sosman, Secretary. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 469th regular meeting of the Anthropological Society of Wash- 

 ington, was held November 25, 1913, in the National Museum. 



Dr. Daniel Folkmar, who has charge of the report on "Mother 

 Tongue" in the census, addressed the Society on Some results of the 

 first census of European races in the United States. Statistics of the 

 mother tongue, or native language, of the "foreign white stock" of the 

 United States are presented in the report soon to be issued by the Bureau 

 of the Census. It was prepared under the supervision of the chief 

 statistician for population, assisted by the speaker as expert special 

 agent. There are presented, for the first time in the census, figures 

 directly relating to the ethnic composition of the white population of 

 the United States, in so far as that is indicated by the native language. 

 This term is taken to mean the language of customary speech in the 

 homes of the immigrants before immigration. 



One of the most interesting facts disclosed in this report is the great 

 numerical preponderance, which is still held by the mother tongues of 

 northwestern Europe as a whole, notwithstanding the high rank numeri- 

 cally which has been gained by a few individual mother tongues from 

 eastern and southern Europe — especially the Italian, Polish, and Yid- 

 dish. These three now stand third, fourth, and fifth in rank. The Eng- 

 lish mother tongue is by all odds the one most largely represented in the 

 foreign white stock of the United States. The numbe.', 10,037,420, is 

 considerably greater than that of the German mother tongue, which 

 latter, contributes more than one-fourth (27.3 per cent) of the total for- 

 eign white stock of the Ignited States, as reported in 1910. Italian, 

 Polish, and Yiddish come next in rank, but none of them number as 

 much as one-fourth of the German. To these three mother tongues, 

 intermediate in rank but considerable in number, may be added the 

 Swedish, French, and Norwegian, all l)elonging to northwestern Eu- 

 rope, except a portion of the French. No other mother tongue than the 

 eight thus far enumerated furnishes as much as 2 ])er cent of the total 

 of the foreign white stock of the United States, or numbers as much as 



