December 5, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



resivmes of monographs and books, embody- 

 ing the results of original research, such 

 as Batres's 'Explorations of Monte Alban, ' 

 Belmar's 'Estudio sobre la raza Ayook 6 

 Mixe,' Chavero's 'Los signos de los dias,' 

 Ferraz's 'Sintesis de la lengua Quiche,' 

 Garcia 's 'Vida y hechos de Pedro Menendez 

 de Aviles,' Hartman's ' Archeological Re- 

 searches, ' etc., all of which, after a fashion 

 obtaining in Eiirope and in the Spanish 

 American countries, were presented in 

 printed form, as a compliment to the mem- 

 bers of the congress, something one or two 

 of the newspaper reporters seem not at all 

 to have understood. A considerable num- 

 ber of the papers on the program were, in 

 the absence of their authors, read by title 

 or in brief abstract: Brower, Castellanos, 

 Douay, Fernandez, Ferraz, de la Grasserie, 

 Hewitt, Hrdlicka, Lecocq, Lehmann, Lum- 

 holtz, Matthews, Moore, Montes, Peet, 

 Peiiafiel, Pittier de Fabrega, Rink, Shipley, 

 -Vignaud. The close of the session on 

 Saturday evening left some very important 

 papers, such as those of Professor Max 

 Uhle on Peruvian archeology, unread. This 

 is a matter of regret, as interesting facts 

 were to be presented, and important dis- 

 cussions would doubtless have arisen. The 

 quality and scientific value of the papers 

 presented to the congress were in advance 

 of those of some of the previous meetings, 

 a much larger proportion of solid contri- 

 butions to human loiowledge being in evi- 

 dence, and a smaller number of wildly 

 cheoretical and pseudo-scientific essays. 

 The appearance of titles relating to the 

 'Phenicianism' of Amerindian tongues and 

 Mr. J. F. Hewitt's mythological theories, 

 however, leaves room for improvement. 

 Mr. Juan de Ferraz's paper on the Quiche 

 language was sui generis. In it the author 

 maintains, with ingenious manipulation of 

 phonetics, that 'Quiche is an artificial 

 tongue, scientifically constructed, by a 



marvelous method, on roots taken prin- 

 cipally from the Huaxtec, Aztec and Maya 

 languages ; and in short we might proclaim 

 it an American Volapiik. ' The authors of 

 this 'American Volapiik' were the 'learned 

 men' of the race, and Mr. Ferraz thinks 

 he has in this wonderful language discov- 

 ered the master-key to Mayan hieroglyph- 

 ics, etc. His book on the subject, of which 

 this paper is a resume,, will be published 

 shortly. This was decidedly the most im- 

 aginative contribution presented to the 

 congress. 



MONDAY, OCTOBER 20. 



At 10 A.M. there was a meeting, in the 

 library of the museum, of the General Com- 

 mittee of Organization; and at noon the 

 first general session for the election of 

 permanent officers of the congress took 

 place. These were designated as follows: 



President, Morris K. Jesup (President Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History ) . 



Honorary President, the Due de Loubat (Corre- 

 spondent of the Institut de France ) . 



Vice-Presidents, Juan B. Ambrosetti (Argentine 

 Republic) ; Alfredo Chavero (Mexico) ; L6on 

 LejSal (France) ; Karl von den Steinen (Ger- 

 many) ; Hjalmar Stolpe (Sweden) ; F. W. Put- 

 nam ( United States ) . 



Oeneral Secretary, M. H. Saville (American 

 Museum of Natural History). 



Treasurer, Harlan I. Smith (American Museum 

 of Natural History) . 



These officers, together with the delegates 

 from the various governments, institutions 

 of learning, scientific and liistorical so- 

 cieties, etc., specified above, formed the 

 bureau and council of the congress. 



The morning session was presided over 

 by Mr. Jesup, who briefly welcomed the 

 delegates, and expressed his opinion that 

 to foster science was a noble ambition in 

 which American business men, who had 

 made a success of life, might well emulate 

 one another. The delegates showed by 

 their applause that they appreciated the 

 modest remarks of the president of the 



