132 
species, a spirillum from the stomach of the dog.— 
Gabriel Bertrand, M. and Mme. Rosenblatt: Increase 
in the activity of the sucrase of Aspergillus in presence 
of various acids.—Pierre Gérard: The amount of 
potassium and sodium in the different organs of the 
dog. 
CaLcurta. 
Asiatic Society of Bengal, March 6.—G. R. Kaye: 
Medizval references to ‘Indian mathematics.’ This 
paper gives numerous references to so-called ‘‘ Indian 
mathematics,’ &c., by Western medizval authors— 
Arabic and European. Mahommed Vin Musa, Avi- 
cenna, Mastdi, ‘‘Omar-al-Khayyam,” Leonardo Fin- 
bonacci, John of Holywood, Jordanus Saxo, Maximus 
Planudes, and many others have often been quoted as 
expositors of Hindu mathematics, and many of them 
actually themselves designate their arithmetic and the 
arithmetical notation they use as ‘“‘Indian.’’ But the 
“Indian "’ arithmetic they exhibit has practically no- 
thing in common with the Hindu mathematical works 
of Aryabhati, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara, &c., and the 
“Indian”? symbols they show are all of Arabic forms. 
We have, then, to choose between the exotic and the 
indigenous or orthodox Hindu exposition. The pre- 
sent author prefers to accept the Hindu works as really 
representative, and rejects the Western evidence 
where it does not agree with the Hindu evidence.— 
W. Kirkpatrick: Primitive exogamy and the caste 
system. The Sirki Wdlds, or the reed-mat folk, ‘‘he 
that lives under a mat,” are an aggregate of tribes 
of a Gipsy character distributed over the United 
Provinces. There are numerous branches of this 
nomadic race. The fact that none of these branches 
intermarry only points to their being endogamous 
sections of one original family. Each endogamous 
section is subdivided up into exogamous septs of 
occupational, ethnic, eponymous, and totemic origin. 
All these casteless people are gradually coming under 
the influence of the caste system. Caste in India, in 
whatever direction its evolution, is dominated by the 
Jus Connubii. The constant creation of separate con- 
nubial groups in modern Hinduism has its origin in 
the instinct which taught man to seek his bride from 
another camp, which goes back to marriage by cap- 
ture, which is exogamy in its most primitive form. 
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