October 6, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



191 



act as secretary, vacated tlie chair in favor of Prof. A. H. 

 Chamberlain, of Clark "University, Worcester, Mass. 



Papers were then read on ''Canadian Polk-Songa," by 

 Mr. J. Keade of Montreal; on "Some Popular Oaths," by 

 Mr. J. M. LeMoine, of Qaebec, and by Prof. Heli Chat- 

 lain, of Loanda, Africa, on "oome Causes of the iletarda- 

 tion of Civilization in Africa." Mr. Chatlain's pajser was 

 the first-hand testimony of one who knew them intimate- 

 ly by years of residence and close association, to the 

 superiority of the African race (the Bantu) physicallj' and 

 intellectually. He confessed that he had been educated to 

 regard the negroes as the lowest in the scale of human 

 creation, an unsuccessful attempt at man-making and a 

 clog on the wheels of progress, and that the sooner it was 

 made to give place to the European race the better it 

 would be for the world. But his prejudice had gradually 

 j'ielded to the logic of facts. He found natives of Africa, 

 he said, not only on a j)ar with Portuguese, German and 

 English, when they were given the same advantages of 

 education, but even in advance of them. He gave in- 

 stances of such superiority in business, in the professions, 

 in literature and science, from the German and Portu- 

 guese settlements in which he had resided. How then, 

 their intellectual powers being thus unsurpassed, has it 

 happened that the natives of Africa have been left so far 

 behind not only by the white, but the yellow and, some 

 say, even the red races V To this natural question M. 

 Chatlain replies that, after nine years of personal experi- 

 ence and a much larger period of study, he had come to 

 the conclusion that the causes for the stagnation of the 

 African race were: (1) Seclusion; (2) The lack of a sys- 

 tem of writing; (3) Polygamy and Matriarchy; (4) Slav- 

 ery, and (5) The Fear of Witchcraft. Each of these points 

 the essayist treated clearly from his own experience of 

 the working of the system or defect which he condemned. 

 Professor Chamberlain having thanked Mr. Chatlain for 

 his valuable paper and invited discussion on it, some of 

 the members questioned the correctness of Mr. Chatlain's 

 estimate of the negro's intellect, and declined to accept a 

 few examples of proficiency as the basis of so sweeping a 

 theory. Prof. Chatlain replied to these criticisms, giv- 

 ing the reason for his belief, which was an actual ac- 

 quaintance with the negroes of several of the Portuguese, 

 German and British colonies. 



In the evening a conversazione, which showed some 

 novel features, was held in the Recital Hall, St. Catherine 

 street, and was well attended. It consisted of illustra- 

 tions of the music of Canadian folk-songs; of examples of 

 Montreal street cries, repeated by phonograph, with lan- 

 tern views of the criers exercising their callings. The 

 musical part of the programme was in charge of Mr. H. 

 C. St. Pierre, Q. C, and Mr. St. Pierre, and the cries, the 

 success of which was largely due to Dr. W. G. Nichol,- 

 were in the care of Mr. Prowse. Ex-Mayor H. Beau- 

 grand gave a lecture on pictograjjhs, with lantern illus- 

 trations from La Hontan, etc. Altogether a pleasant and 

 not uninstructive evening was spent. 



On Thursday, the lith. Professor Penhallow presiding, 

 the reading of papers was continued. Mr. Newell treated 

 of "The Study of Polk-Lore, Its Material and Objects." 

 Having defined folk-lore, in its most comprehensive sense, 

 which transcended the boiinds set by the literal meaning 

 of "folk" as virtually equivalent to the Latin "vulgus," 

 with which it is allied, he went on to show the vast range 

 of the science. Contemplating its mental and spii'itual 

 bearings, he suggested, as possibly acceptable generations 

 hence, the term "palfeo-noology" (analogous in formation 

 to palaaontology) to indicate the scientific history of mind 

 through the long course of its development. Then, after 

 surveying the field in the old world and the new he 

 (iirected attention to the great mass of jsractically un- 



known folk-lore existing in CjiUada Of this he urged 

 the importance of a systematic quest. 



Professor Chamberlain read (in part) a paper on "The 

 Mythology of the Columbian Discovery," pointing out the 

 far-reaching revival of Hellenized Celtic and other myths 

 due to the disclosure of cis-Atlantic land four centuries 

 ago. He referred to the Terrianoge (or land of perpet- 

 ual youth), Valhalla, Avelion, St. Brendan's Voyage, 

 Chicora, Cebola, Norumbega, Eldorado, as well as to the 

 old Atlantic myth, the Garden of the Hesj^erides, the 

 InsuleB Fortunatse and other divagations of Greek and 

 Roman mythology, and from passages in Shakespeare, his 

 contemporaries and the writers that followed them down 

 to a comparatively recent date, he showed how the renas- 

 cence of these old-world stories influenced the minds of 

 succeeding generations. He mentioned the Quetzalcoatl- 

 St. Thomas hypothesis and other theories of white culture 

 heroes visiting the western world; Madoc, the Amazons, 

 the notion of Albino and negro Indians and other imag- 

 inary or monstrous beings. 



Mr. Newell read an interesting jjaper by Mr. F. D. 

 Berjeur on "Dextral and Sinistral Ceremonial Circuits," 

 which treated of j)opular ideas as to the direction in 

 which certain processes, culinary, industrial, medicinal 

 and religious, should be conducted. A paper was also 

 read on "Devil-"Worshi23pers of India," by Dr. Thomas S. 

 Bulmer, of Salt Lake City. Papers on the folk-lore of 

 the Azorian Portuguese of New England, by Prof. W. R. 

 Lang; a comparative study based on one of the Brer Rabbit 

 cycle of folk- tales, by Prof essor Gerber; a paper on Irish 

 folk-lore, by Mrs. E. Fowell ThomjDSon, etc., were pre- 

 sented by the Secretary. 



The Committee on Nominations made the following re- 

 port: 



President, Prof. Alcee Fortier, New Orleans; First Vice 

 President, Capt. W. Matthews, U. S. -A., Fort Wingate, N. 

 M. ; Second Vice President, Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, Bureau 

 of Ethnology, Washington, D. C. ; New Councillors, Pro- 

 fessor Penhallow, Montreal; Prof, M. M. Curtis, Hudson, 

 O. ; Dr. A. H. Chamberlain, Worcester, Mass.; Curator, 

 Stewart Culin, Philadelp)hia. The other officers are, W. 

 W. Newell, Cambridge, Mass., Permanent Secretary; Prof. 

 J. Walter Fewkes, Boston, Mass., Corresponding Secretary; 

 Dr. John H. Houton, New York City, Treasurer. The 

 committee proposed as honorary members the following: 

 J. Lawrence Gomme, President of the English Folk-Lore 

 Society; Prof. E. B. Tylor, LL.D., Superintendent Pitts- 

 River's Museum, Oxford; H. Gaidoz, editor of Melusine, 

 Paris; Paul Sebillot, Secretary of the Societe de Tradi- 

 tions Populaires, Paris; Dr. F. S. Krauss, Vienna; Jean 

 Karlowitz, Warsaw; Dr. Kaarle Krohn, Helsingfors, Fin- 

 land; Dr. Giuseppe Pitre, Palermo, Sicily; Prof. J. C. 

 Coelho, University of Lisbon; John Batchelder, Hako- 

 date, Jajaan; Horatio Hale, M. A., Clinton, Ont. ; Major J. 

 W. Powell, Director of the GeograjDhical and Geological 

 Survey and of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington; Dr. 

 D. G. Brinton, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 

 Pa. 



The foregoing nominations being submitted to the 

 meeting, were ajojaroved. Ne'w Orleans was proposed as 

 the next place of meeting, but no decision was arrived at. 



R. V. 



SOME REM.iRKS ON THE KINETIC THEORY OF 

 GASES.* 



BY S. TOLVEK PRESTON, HAMBURG, GERMANY. 



The theorem that the velocities of the molecules of a 

 gas vary "between zero and infinity" (between zero and a 



*Repriuted, by request of the author, from the Philosophical 

 Magazine for May, 1891. 



