132 



May 5, 1876. 



The Vice-President, Dr. Geo. E. Hates, in the chair. Twenty- 

 three persons present. A paper, On Eucle Stone Monuments, was 

 read by the author, Mr. Adolf Duschak. 



Mr. DcscHAK stated, that from the geographical distribution of 

 rude stone monuments, they are referable to ancestor worship. 

 Ancestor worship becomes an integral part of the religious system 

 of tribes, when they have reached permanent abodes, before their 

 ideas of religion are fully developed, as in the case of the Aryan 

 race. When such tribes are by their environments retarded in their 

 progress, this ancestor worship finds expression in rude stone mon- 

 uments, and this accounts for their prevalence in the west and 

 northwest of Europe. Where the conditions are favorable to a 

 full development of all the mental and physical resources of a 

 nation, as among the Greeks, Eomans and Egyptians, this ancestor 

 worship, in connection with the worship of the gods, gives rise to 

 structures of the highest architectural order. The total absence of 

 megalithic remains in countries where Semitic civilizations flour- 

 ished, Mr. Duschak adduced as sustaining the above argument, 

 since their religious ideas were formulated while they were in a 

 nomadic state, which is most unfavorable to the development of 

 ancestor worship, and this is furthermore proven by the absence of 

 apotheosis of heroes in Semitic systems of religion. Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer's argument in favor of ancestor worship among the 

 Hebrews, from some prohibitions of the Mosaic law concerning the 

 dead, Mr. Duschak thought not conclusive, since these laws can all of 

 them be traced back to Egjrptian influence, to a country where 

 necrolatry had reached its highest development. 



The following paper was read: 



Check List of the Fishes of North America, by David S. Jor- 

 DAisr, M. S., M. D., and Herbert Copeland, M. S. 



The Secretary presented a communication from the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, being the report of 

 the Committee on Weights, Measures and Coinage,* together with 

 a Memorial to Congress on the subject for signature. 



