REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 121 



The material available in Washington has been located and found 

 to be so vast in amount that it has been deemed advisable to con- 

 fine the investigation to the period preceding 1830. Most of the 

 material is in the Indian Office, although the Jackson papers are 

 particularly valuable, and about half the time — six weeks — has 

 been spent in their perusal. 



William Wirt Howe, New Orleans, La. Grant No. 199. For pre- 

 liminary inqtdry into the subject of an investigatioji on legal history 

 and comparative jurisprudence . $1 ,000. 



Abstract of Report. — The report suggests that a beginning of re- 

 search may be made b}' taking up and comparing the codes of private 

 law which have been adopted in the Americas and have been derived 

 from French and Spanish sources, and thus relate back to Roman law. 

 Fifteen such codes are mentioned, namely, those of Haiti, Bolivia, 

 Peru, Chile, Lower Canada (Quebec), Nicaragua, Louisiana (revised), 

 Guatemala, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Spain (extended to Porto 

 Rico and the Philippines, as well as to Cuba), Colombia, Brazil, and 

 Uruguay. The method of comparison and contrast adopted by 

 M. de St. Joseph in his Concordance of Continental and Other Codes, 

 Paris, 1840, is recommended ; but it is deemed better to begin the 

 work by a comparison of the four principal codes in North America 

 in the list above detailed, namely, those of Lower Canada, Louisiana, 

 Mexico, and Spain, the last being fundamental in Porto Rico, Cuba, 

 and the Philippines. They should be rendered into English, printed 

 in parallel columns, and annotated with explanatory references to 

 Roman law and to such judicial decisions as may best interpret the 

 meaning of their provisions. 



MATHEMATICS. 



Derrick N. Lehmer, Berkeley, Cal. Grant No. 190. For pay op 

 assistants to make the entries in a table of smallest divisors. $500. 



Abstract of Report. — Since receiving the grant. Professor Lehmer 

 has had one assistant constantly at work. All but about 150,000 of 

 the entries are now in, or the table of factors is about 90 per cent 

 completed, so far as the making of entries is concerned ; but the 

 remaining work will be slower, and it is difficult to foretell how long 

 it will take for completion. 



This work will contain in one volume the prime factors of all 

 numbers from one to ten million. Similar tables up to the tenth 

 million have been published at various times, but they are generally 



