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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1025 



as duTiag the entire period, but the Russians and 

 Syrians rose to the next two places in the list. 



At a special meeting of the society held April 7, 

 at the National Museum, Sefior F. A. Pezet, Mm- 

 ister of Peru, read a paper on "Contrasts in the 

 Development of Nationality in Latin and Anglo- 

 America. ' ' These flow from differences in char- 

 acter, born with the individual or developed 

 through the environment. Tie Anglo-Americans 

 had been persecuted by religious intolerance; the 

 Latin Americans were adventurous soldiers of for- 

 tune. The mixing of the Latin and Indian races 

 was encouraged. The offspring became the "jMes- 

 tizos. " Later the Creoles came into existence, the 

 offspring of European parents born in America. 

 Before 1800 a.d. the Mestizo population of Peru 

 exceeded 250,000. There is now in Peru a large 

 percentage of pure Indian and of Mestizo blood. 

 For more than two centuries the Europeans and 

 the Creoles ruled the Mestizos and the Indians. The 

 Mestizo is nearer the Caucasian than the Indian; 

 physically and morally he is superior to the In- 

 dian. Although of less active intelligence than the 

 European or the Creole, he is more strong-willed 

 and painstaking. The Mestizos were prevented 

 from obtaining social position and education. 



At a special meeting of the society held April 

 14, Mr. S. M. Gronberger read a paper on "The 

 Origin of the Goths." The ancient home of the 

 Goths was undoubtedly situated, he said, on both 

 the northern and southern shores of the Baltic. 

 About 300-200 B.C. another division of this race 

 immigrated into the Scandinavian peninsula, prob- 

 ably across the Danish isles. At the time of the 

 earliest Gothic movement southward, about 215 

 A.D., the immigrants were probably joined by their 

 Scandinavian brethren, who emigrated from 

 ' ' Scandza. ' ' Names of regions and localities in 

 Scandinavia testify to their association with the 

 Goths, the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. The two 

 races are now merged together and constitute the 

 modern Swedish nation. The Anglo-Saxon poem 

 "Beowulf," furnishes powerful testimony as to 

 the early home of the Goths in Scandinavia and 

 the Danish isles. The Baltic island of Gotland 

 received its name from the Goths, and great num- 

 bers of Eoman and Byzantiae coins and other ob- 

 jects which have been unearthed there afford 

 further proof. Jordanes, Cresiodorus, Tacitus, 

 Procopius and Paulus Diaeonus, not to mention 

 the earliest though doubtful evidence of Pytheas 

 of Marseilles, and many other Greek and Koman 

 historians, testify to the Scandinavian or Baltic 



origin of the Goths. The most ancient tradition 

 relating to the Goths was that they had come 

 originally from Asia. One of the most remarkable 

 runic inscriptions in Scandinavia is that of the 

 so-called Eok Stone, discovered in western Ostro- 

 gothia, Sweden. It dates back to 830-840 a.d., or 

 the time of the introduction of Christianity into 

 Scandinavia, and contains an allusion to Theodoric 

 the Great, who afterward ruled as king of Italy. 

 It also refers to four kings of the Danish island 

 of Zealand whose names can be identified with the 

 names mentioned in Jordanes 's saga. 



The evidence of relationship between the Gothic 

 and the modern Scandinavian and Germanic 

 tongues is also of great importance. The most es- 

 sential point of resemblance between these lan- 

 guages is the mutual retention in certain cases of 

 "gg" before "w" and "j," as in the genitive 

 plural old English "tweza" (two), Danish 

 "twaeggie, " Gothic "twaddje, " modern Swedish 

 ' ' twegge. ' ' 



At the 474th regular and 35th annual meeting of 

 the society, held May 5, at the National Museum, 

 Dr. Edgar J. Banks, field director of an expedition 

 to Babylonia, read a paper, illustrated with lantern 

 slides, on "Bismya; or, the Lost City of Adab. " 

 Bismya flourished in central Babylonia from 4,000 

 to 2,000 B.C. Inscriptions were found of Dungi, 

 king of Ur, of about 2,200 B.C., and of Naram-Sin 

 and Sargon, the first known Semitic kings, of about 

 2,800 B.C. Lower were traces of the earlier civili- 

 zation of the Sumerians, a cultured people who had 

 occupied Mesopotamia for several thousand years. 

 An important discovery was a large marble statue 

 of a Sumerian king called Lugal Da-udu of about 

 4,000 B.C. Large numbers of stone vase fragments 

 were here found, some inscribed with the names of 

 the kings of the fifth millenium before Christ. 

 The lowest pottery fragments showed that perhaps 

 15,000 years ago a people with considerable civiliza- 

 tion occupied that spot. An ancient Sumerian 

 crematory was found. The Semitic dead were 

 buried. Many collections of clay tablets were 

 found which contained the business documents of 

 Bismya. This people was among the oldest which 

 had a highly developed civilization. 



The following oificers of the society were elected: 

 President, Mr. James Mooney; Vice-president, Dr. 

 John E. Swanton; Secretary, Dr. Daniel Eolkmar; 

 Treasurer, Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt; Councilors, Mr. 

 Felix Neumann, Dr. I. M. Casanowicz and Mr. 

 Francis LaPlesche. Daniel Folkmab, 



Secretary 



