June i, 1868. 



Dr. Wislizenus, Vice-President, in the chair. 



Seven members present. 



Dr. C. W. Stevens reported that the artesian well at the Insane 

 Asylum, near St. Louis, had reached the depth of 3,076 feet, and 

 that the boring was still going on at the rate of about two feet a 

 day. On comparing the actual measurement of the thickness of 

 the strata, it was found that they agreed very nearly with the geo- 

 logical estimates of Prof. Swallow. 



June 15, 1868. 



Dr. Wislizenus, Vice-President, in the chair. 



Three members present. 



Letters were read, and exchanges from foreign societies were 

 laid upon the table. 



Judge Holmes called the attention of the members to an inter- 

 esting paper, entitled "The Ancient and Modern Ligurian Race 

 in Italy," by G. Nicollucci, Member of the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences of Naples (Atti dell' Acad, delle Scienze, vol. ii. No. 1, 

 Napoli, 1865). 



The learned writer gives very satisfactory reasons for believing that the 

 ancient Ligurians of Piedmont, and other parts of Italy, were identical in 

 race and language (with some difference of dialects) with the ancient Ibe- 

 rians of Spain, Southern France, and other parts of Europe. They are 

 traced historically, and are identified, not merely upon philological data, 

 but upon craniological and physiological peculiarities, as belonging (to- 

 gether with the Finno-Ugrians of Northern Europe) to the aboriginal Tu- 

 ranian stock which was indigenous over Europe before the advent of the 

 Aryans (Pelasgian, Celtic, or Teutonic). Weighty reasons are given for 

 believing that this Turanian people inhabited Europe as far back as the stone 

 age. They were the same in race, (though comprising various nations,) 

 and were called Liguri and Siculi in Italy, Iberi in Spain, Finni and 

 Tatari in Northern Europe, and Scythi in the East. They were brachy- 

 cephalic in type of skull, in complexion brunette, medium in stature, with 

 eyes black and horizontal, and square visage, and black flowing or curly 

 hair; while the Aryan or Indo-Germanic stock is characterized in general 

 as dolichocephalic, with blue eyes, light complexion and hair, and larger 

 stature, with the exception of the Sclavonians, in whom the Turanian ele- 

 ment appears to prevail over the Aryan. 



