OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 19 



mankind. Thc-sc in(lispcnf?ablc terms finally appeared in jxifniKs and nrnUa for 

 uncle and aunt on the father's side, and in avunculus and matertera for uncle and 

 aunt on the mother's side, which, with suitable augments, enabled the civilians to 

 indicate specifically the first person in the second, third, fourth, and fifth collateral 

 lines on the father'* side and on the mother's side. After these were secured, the 

 improved Roman method of describing collateral consanguine! became possible, as 

 well as established. The development of these relationships, in the concrete, was 

 the principal, as well as the greatest advance in the system of relationship, made by 

 any of the members of the Aryan family. 



All languages are able to describe kindred by a combination of the primary 

 terms ; and this method is still used, to the exclusion of the secondary terms, 

 when it becomes necessary to be specific, unless the Roman method is employed. 

 In the description we commence at Ego, and ascend first to the common ancestor, 

 and then down the collateral line to the person whose relationship is sought, as in 

 the Enf^lish ; or, reversing the initial point, commence with the latter, and ascend 

 to the common ancestor, and then descend to the former as in the Erse. To 

 describe a cousin, in the male branch of the second collateral line, we use in Eng- 

 lish the phrase father's brother's son ; or, in Erse, son of the hrotlier of my father ; 

 for a second cousin, in the same branch of the third collateral line, we say, in Eng- 

 lish, father's fathers brother's son's son ; in Erse, son of the son of the brother of the 

 father of my father. Where the relationship of grandfather is discriminated by a 

 specific or a compound term, we may say grandfather s brother's grandson ; but as 

 this would fail to show whether the person was on the father's side or on the 

 mother's side, a further explanation must be added. The inconvenience of this 

 method, which was the primitive form of the Aryan family, is sufficiently obvious. 

 It was partially overcome, in process of time, by the generalization of the rela- 

 tionships of uncle and aunt, nephew and niece, and cousin, and the invention of 

 special terms for their expression in the concrete. A little reflection upon the 

 awkwardness and cumbersomeness of a purely descriptive system of relationship 

 will illustrate the necessity, first, for common terms for the nearest collateral 

 degrees, and, secondly, of a scientific method for the description of consanguine!. 

 It will also enable us to appreciate the serious difficulties overcome, as well as the 

 great advance made, by the Romans in the formal system which they established, 

 or, rather, engrafted upon the original form. 



If, then, we construct a diagram of the right lineal line, male, and the first five 

 collateral lines, male and female, on the father's side, and limit each collateral 

 line at its commencement to a single brother and sister of Ego, and to a single 

 brother and sister of each of the lineal ancestors of Ego, and these several Imes 

 are projected from parent to child, the collateral lines will be parallel with each 

 other and divergent from the lineal in the actual manner of the outflow of the 

 generations. The diagram (Plate I.) will aff'ord a more distinct impression of the 

 relation of the lineal and several collateral lines to each other, and of the nomen- 

 clature of the Roman system, than could be given by a description. It exhibits 

 the lines named, arranged with reference to a central person, or Ego, and indicates 

 the relationship to him of each of the persons in these several lines. The great 



