JULT 15, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



71 



connected with the continent of America 

 and were the result of enormous subsidence. 

 Previously the opinion was almost universal 

 that they had resulted from elevation and 

 volcanic action. He supported his views 

 in a number of papers and lectures ; and, 

 while meeting with strong opposition, he 

 had the satisfaction of making several dis- 

 tinguished converts. 



About a year ago we were called upon to 

 mourn the departure of a leader in the 

 study of the beings of long-gone ages, Pro- 

 fessor E. D. Cope ; now paleontology has 

 suffered the loss of Dr. George Baur, cut off 

 in the midst of a brilliant career. 



O. P. Hay. 



U. S. National Museum. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 THE LATEST ASIATIC-AMERICAN AFFINITY. 



It is painful to see good ink and paper 

 wasted to prove affinities between Amer- 

 ican and Asiatic tribes, when the only fact 

 proved is the ignorance of him who asserts 

 them. 



The latest example is M. Ed. Blanc, who 

 in the Journal de la Societe des American- 

 istes, of Paris, ISTo. 3, undertakes to ex- 

 hibit the relationship between the ISTahuatl, 

 spoken by the Aztecs, etc., in Mexico and 

 the language of the Avars in the northern 

 Caucasus ! He also considers the incidents 

 of this imaginary migration. 



When, by turning to General von 

 Erckert's fine volume on the Caucasic 

 languages or the earlier works of Profes- 

 sor F. Miiller, M. Blanc could have learned 

 that the Avar (Awarisch) is a well recog- 

 nized member of the Lesghian linguistic 

 stock and is quite familiar to students of 

 such matters, it is scarcely pardonable that 

 he should have burdened the pages of a 

 scientific periodical with his fantastic hy- 

 pothesis. 



THE study of local ETHNOGRAPHY. 



Professor M. D. Learned, of the Uni- 



versity of Pennsylvania, has undertaken the 

 study of the ethnography of Pennsylvania 

 on lines which it were well to have gener- 

 ally adopted. He distributed circulars of 

 inquiry relating to ethnographic material, 

 such as dialectic peculiarities ; ballads ; 

 local history, traditions and folk-lore ; 

 changes in names of persons and places ; 

 collections of books and antiquities ; manu- 

 scripts, etc. 



The answers he has received have been 

 gratifying, and he expects to incorporate the 

 results in a series of publications treating 

 separately each ethnic element, the German, 

 English, Swedish, Welsh, etc. Ethno- 

 graphic charts will be added ' setting forth 

 the cultural epochs and racial complexion 

 of the present population and indicating 

 the speech boundaries.' 



This is in the line of what the proposed 

 ' Ethnographic Survey of the United States ' 

 hoped to accomplish. (For further partic- 

 ulars see the University Bidletin, Vol. II., 

 No. 4, May, 1898.) 



WOMEN AS ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDENTS. 



We have in Washington the only ' Wom- 

 an's Anthropological Society ' in the world, 

 but by no means all the women who study 

 anthropology. 



The roll of French anthropologists con- 

 tain not a few names of the fair sex who 

 have accomplished notable work. Madame 

 Clementine Eoyer, of Paris, is one of dis- 

 tinction ; Madame Chantre, of Lyon, has 

 published excellent anthropometric mate- 

 rial ; and in the last Bulletin of the Anthro- 

 pological Society of Paris for 1897 Madame 

 Martin presents an instructive study of the 

 statistics of the population of France in 

 1895, and Madame Chellier a series of an- 

 thropometric observations from Aur^s, 

 French Africa. 



It might be difficult to name an equal 

 array among the Germans ; but in the 

 Globus, May 21st, Dr. the Countess von Lin- 



