686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the intellectual development of a race — its higher numeral 

 system. 



It would be easy to add many other illustrations from history, 

 from physical traits, and from linguistic data, but they will hardly 

 be deemed necessary. The conclusion to which we are brought 

 by all the evidence is, that while the conquering energy of the 

 European nations is doubtless due to the infusion of Aryan blood, 

 their higher intellectual qualities and their love of freedom are 

 derived almost entirely from the earlier races, who form the main 

 elements in the mixed European breed. The gradual elimination 

 of the Aryan blood and character, with the return of these earlier 

 elements to ascendency, is the most impressive and important 

 phenomenon in the modern history of Europe, and indeed of the 

 civilized world. We see its results in the extension of free insti- 

 tutions, in the growth of science, in the multiplicity of inventions, 

 in the lessened barbarity of war, in the abolition of slavery, in the 

 increased sense of brotherhood among nations, in the diffusion of 

 education, in the countless societies for charity and for learning, 

 and in all the other evidences of material and moral progress 

 which distinguish our age. 



THE AMERICANISTS IN" CONGRESS. 



THE Seventh International Congress of Americanists met in 

 Berlin, on October 2d, and was opened by Honorary President 

 Gossler, the Prussian Minister of Worship. Although Germany, 

 the speaker said, " had not had any remarkable part in the dis- 

 covery of America, or in the earliest steps in planting European 

 civilization in the new quarter, it had participated in a rising de- 

 gree in the scientific discovery of the continent. Americanist 

 studies had, through the brothers Humboldt, already gained 

 burger-rights among us, and had consequently received faithful 

 care ; so that the congress finds among us a well-prepared audi- 

 ence, fully appreciating its aims. We understand that a quarter 

 which includes within itself all the zones, all earth-forms, all 

 degrees of civilization, must be closely examined as to its inner 

 relations before the important question whether the peculiar feat- 

 ures of the New World indicate any primary connection with the 

 Old can be answered. We recognize, also, that in some districts 

 of America history and prehistory lie far apart ; that power- 

 fully organized states, with elaborate constitutions and carefully 

 regulated religious rituals, were destroyed centuries ago, while in 

 the same neighborhoods numerous tribes are still living appar- 

 ently in a state of nature. The words that were spoken at the 



