470 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVU. No. 429. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. SECTION OF 

 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 



The regular meeting of the section was 

 held January 26, in conjunction with the 

 American Ethnological Association, Professor 

 Thorndike presiding. The first paper was 

 presented by Dr. Maurice Fishberg, 'The An- 

 cient Semites and the Modem Jews.' The 

 somatic characteristics of the ancient and the 

 modern Semites were discussed in detail, the 

 purest representatives of the latter being the 

 Arabian Bedouins. Their anthropological type 

 is distinctly African. The bas-reliefs of the 

 ancient Semites, as represented on the As- 

 syrian and Egyptian monuments, are of the 

 same type. The modern Jews are, on the 

 other hand, a distinctly Asiatic type physic- 

 ally; they are brachycephalic — cephalic in- 

 dex 82 with less than five per cent, of heads 

 having an index of Y5 or less. Their head 

 form shows very little variability, but one 

 important feature is that in countries where 

 the non-Jewish population is round-headed 

 the Jews are also round-headed. In Caucasia 

 their cephalic index is 87; in eastern Europe, 

 where the cephalic index of the non-Jews 

 ranges between 80 and 84, that of the Jews 

 is about the same. In Africa, among the 

 long-headed Gentile population, the Jews are 

 also dolichocephalic. The same is observed 

 to be the case with stature. The Jews are 

 taller in countries where the general popula- 

 tion is tall. The type of the Jew is dark, but 

 12 per cent, of pure-blood types, having fair 

 hair and blue eyes, are to be found. The 

 nose of the modem Jew is not as frequently 

 hooked as is generally supposed. Statistics 

 show that only 12 per cent, are of this variety. 

 The only characteristic which often betrays 

 a Jew is the ' Ghetto eye.' But such Jews 

 who have lived outside of the pale of the 

 Ghetto for a few generations do not present 

 this phenomenon. Physically there are two 

 types of Jews — one derived from Asia, com- 

 monly called Ashhenasim, and constituting 

 more than 90 per cent, of the modem Jewry. 

 It has no relation at all with the second type, 

 of African origin, commonly referred to as 

 8ephardim. These, constituting less than 

 10 per cent, of the Jews, alone are more or 



less related to the ancient Semites, although 

 they have not everywhere preserved them- 

 selves as pure as in Africa. Besides these 

 there are to be discerned other subtypes, in 

 which Teutonic, Slavonic and Mongolian 

 blood appears most prominent. From the 

 standpoint of physical anthropology, the view 

 that all the modem Jews are descendants of 

 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, can not be seri- 

 ously considered. The only thing which 

 binds the modern Jews together is their re- 

 ligion. In blood there is no more relation 

 between the Jews than there is between the 

 people who profess the protestant, methodist 

 or unitarian religion. 



Mr. H. H. St. Clair, 2d, then read a paper, 

 ' Investigations among the Comanche and 

 Ute Indians.' The investigations were made 

 during the summer of 1902 upon the Co- 

 manches on the Kiowa-Comanche Reserva- 

 tion, Oklahoma, and the Utes of the Uintah 

 Eeservation, Utah. Both tribes belong to 

 the great Shoshonean family. These tribes 

 have a very loose social organization and no 

 elaborate religious ceremonial. There are no 

 calendar-records nor any traces of heraldry 

 among the Comanches. The designs painted 

 on rawhide bags or woven in beads have no 

 meaning as with the Shoshones, but are 

 merely ornamental, and there is lack of the 

 symbolic eonversationalism found among such 

 people as the Arapahoes and Sioux. In their 

 stories the coyote figures as the most frequent 

 character representing the fool and schemer. 

 There are striking similarities between the 

 Shoshone and Nahuatl languages of Mexico, 

 each using the same r grammatical processes 

 in its pronoun, noun, preposition and verb, 

 and the order of words and structure of the 

 sentence being practically the same in both. 

 James E. Lough, 



Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



THERMODYNAMICS OF HEAT-ENGINES. 



To THE Editor of Science: In undertaking 

 to express to you, and through your columns 

 to Dr. Thurston, my appreciation of his very 

 generous review . of my ' Thermodynamics of 

 Heat-engines,' will you allow me to call at- 



