192 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 30, 
themselves founded schools. The common schools have stimu- 
lated the desire for knowledge, and led to the establishment of 
academies, and these in turn to colleges and universities. The 
sluggish Mohammedan government has been aroused, and schools 
for Mussulman children of both sexes have been founded. ‘Text- 
books have been translated and composed, scientific journals 
have been established, libraries are being founded in the prin- 
cipal cities, and a general movement of mind has been inaugu- 
rated throughout the historic countries whose past reminds us of 
what they are capable. 
Already there is a beginning of political emancipation. Some 
of the municipal offices in Turkey are elective. In 1876 a par- 
liament of the Turkish empire sat for a while in Constantinople, 
and the deputies did honor to themselves and the communities 
which they represented. This parliament was not dissolved 
until it had shown that the people of Turkey had begun to 
grasp the principles and methods of constitutional government. 
Had it remained, it would have brought this empire fairly 
within the circle of modern states. 
A similar experiment was tried in Cairo in the days of Arabi 
Pasha, but the parliament proved too dangerous to the arbitrary 
government of Egypt, and was summarily dismissed. 
But the people of those lands cannot be always repressed. 
They are rapidly coming to self-consciousness, and will yet assert 
their manhood and claim the share in self-government for which 
they are being fitted by the process of education which is going 
forward. When the day of their emancipation shall have come, 
there is a great future open to Syria and Mesopotamia. Fifty 
millions of people can support themselves in those regions. Rail- 
ways to the Persian Gulf and throughout those fertile lands will 
develop their resources, and add their wealth to the world’s 
commerce. Great cities will grow up on the Syrian coast, and 
along the Euphrates and Tigris. Damascus, and Aleppo, and 
Hamath, and Bussorah, and Mosul, and Bagdad, will assume 
more than their ancient importance and wealth. And the 
Arabian race, with its copious and expressive language, will 
become the carrier of civilization and Christianity to the recesses 
of Arabia and Africa, so long desolated by the curse of islam. 
Remarks were made by the PRESIDENT and by Pror. Trow- 
BRIDGE, 
Upon motion of the Secretary, it was voted that the thanks of 
the Academy be transmitted to the General Secretaries of the 
International Geological Congress, in reply to their invitation to 
