9 



guistic results in the analogy between their several developments. The mental pro- 

 cesses are nearly the same in both cases, and the psychology of language may be 

 studied in the older and lower means of communication as the physical and mental 

 organization of man has been profitably compared with that of the lower animals. 

 The examination of signs and of picture-writing, which is intimately associated with 

 them, throws light upon the grammatic machinery of language, the syntactic prin- 

 ciple, and the genesis of the sentence. Not until a large body of facts has been gath- 

 ered by several classes of observers, and compared by competent scholars, can it be 

 possible to ascertain with precision the principles of the primitive utterance of man- 

 kind. An exhaustive treatment of the subject will also bring to light religious, socio- 

 logic, and other ethnologic information of special interest. It is in this work that the 

 Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution solicits the cooperation of learned 

 men and observers in all lands, whose contributions, when received, will always be 

 l^ublished with individual credit as well as responsibility. 



G. M. 



