June 23, 1893.J 



SCIENCE. 



341 



the Somali and Galla are much the most profoundly semitized, 

 the Saho and Afar (Danakil) much less so. All these dialects 

 stand in close relationship to the geographical features of the 

 country, showing that they originated on the spot. They have 

 both influenced, and been influenced by, the Ambaric (Ethiopic) 

 Semitic stock, and to some extent by the Soudanese tongues. 

 Pari passu with the language, the blood of the tribes has suf- 

 fered from this intermixture. 



The extreme interest of these conclusions cannot but impress 

 all Semitic and Egyptologic students. 



Fossil Human Remains in South America. 



The critical scrutiny of the evidence of paleolithic man in 

 North America, which has lately occupied considerable attention, 

 has perhaps been pushed too far. When, as in the Ohio field, 

 discoveries have been made which cannot be gainsaid, it is 

 scarcely fair to prefer every conceivable explanation of them to 

 the simplest one — that the articles were originally deposited 

 where found. 



Meanwhile, in South America, some interesting facts are com- 

 municated by Mr. Roth, of Buenos Ayres, to Professor KoUmann, 

 and published by him in the Mittheilungen aus dem Anatomi- 

 schen Institut, at Basel. Mr. Roth was the discoverer of the 

 skull of "Pontimelo," which, by the way, he informs us is a 

 typographical error for " Fontizuelos." This skull, together 

 with some other human bones, was found under the carapace of 

 a glyptodon of extinct species, and Mr. Roth argues that the man 

 and the animal were contemporaries. He does not seem to have 

 contemplated the possibility that men of later times may have 

 found the carapace, and with it piously covered the remains of 

 one of their dead. He asserts, however, that Doring, Burmeis- 

 ter, Ameghino, Moreno, and other leading geologists of the Ar- 

 gentine Republic, have acknowledged the contemporaneity of 

 man and the glyptodon. 



Roth cites a number of instances where human remains have 

 been found in the upper Pampas formation. In 1887, he un- 

 earthed for the first time some in the middle Pampas strata ; and, in 

 the same, both he and others have found numerous pieces of pot- 

 tery, an artificial shell-heap, and occasional silex points of hu- 

 man workmanship. He insists that there is no room for doubt 

 that whenever the so-calle 1 " Pampeajio Intermediar " was 

 deposited, man was then living there. This time, if Ihering is 

 right (see my note in Science, April 14), was in Pliocene (tertia- 

 ry) days. 



Professor KoUmann brings this into connection with other early 

 finds in South America, and reaches the conclusion: " That the 

 discoveries of ancient human remains in America prove that the 

 various American races inhabited their continent quite as remote 

 in time as did those of Europe and Asia, their respective locali- 

 ties;" which expression leads to the inference that he is a 

 polygenist, or, else, seeks the cradle of the species outside these 

 three continents. 



Th • Ethnic Origin of the Jews. 



In spite of the persistency of the typical Jewish physiognomy, 

 jt is proved by history that the Jews are far fi-om a pure Semitic 

 strain. They lived among and constantly intermarried with the 

 Canaanites, Amorites, Philistines and true Hittites, none of 

 whom were of Semitic blood; they bought Greek concubines, 

 called in the Bible "pilegesh "; and, in turn, the males of many 

 of the tribes around them, lured by the ever famous and still 

 maintained beauty of the Jewish maidens, were quite willing to 

 vow, " Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." 

 In the Talmud these are called " proselytes of the King's table," 

 and they were accorded honorable positions. 



Such conversions by no means ceased with the destruction of 

 Jerusalem by Titus. In the eighth century, Bulan, Prince of the 

 Chasars, with all his people, embraced Judaism, and the repeated 

 edicts in medieval time forbidding marriages between Christians 

 and Jews can only be explained because such unions led the 

 former to the faith of the latter. 



At present, in all parts of the world, the prevailing anatomi- 

 cal type of the Jew is tliat of the brunette, with curly dark hair, 

 dark eyes, often olive complexion, the skull long — dolichoce- 



phalic — the face rather narrow. This holds good for about 

 ninety j)er cent of them; but nearly everywhere the remaining 

 ten per cent — in Germany, over eleven per cent — are blondes, 

 with light hair and eyes and round skulls — brachycephalic. In 

 a much smaller percentage, the type is characteristically Mongo- 

 lian, especially in the women, and about an equal number pre- 

 sent negroid features. These aberrations from the ethnic type 

 must be regarded as reversions through heredity to some of the 

 numerous non-Semitic strains, which have, as above intimated, 

 from time to time modified the pure current of Hebraic blood. 

 That in spite of the number and extent of these admixtures the 

 type has been preserved on the whole with such fidelity from the 

 earliest Babylonian epoch, is a remarkable lesson in anthropolo- 

 gy. An interesting discussion of the whole question by Von 

 Luschan, Virchow and Alsberg may be found in the Correspon- 

 denz-Blait der Deutschen Geselhchaft far Anthropologic, October, 

 1893. It effectually disposes of the absurd theory of Professor 

 Gerland, of Strasburg, that the Semitic stock is aderivitive from 

 tl>e African negro — a theory which can only be explained by an 

 anomalous degree of anti-Semitism obscuring his intellectual fac- 

 ulties. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 A MEMBER of the Anthropological Society of Washington has 

 placed in the hands of the treasurer of the society a sum of 

 money to be awarded in prizes for the clearest statements of the 

 elements that go to make up the most useful citizen of the 

 United States, regardless of occupation. The donation has been 

 accepted and tlie society has provided for the award of the fol- 

 lowing prizes during the present year (1893) under the following 

 conditions: Two prizes will be awarded for the best Assays on 

 the subject specified above, viz. : A first prize of $150 for the best 

 essay, and a second prize of $75 for the second best essay among 

 those found worthy by the commissioners of award. These 

 prizes are open to all competitors in all countries. Essays of- 

 fered in competition for the prizes shall not exceed 3,000 words 

 in length, and all essays offered shall thereby become the proja- 

 erty of the Anthropological Society of Washington, the design 

 being to publish the essays, at the discretion of the Board of 

 Managers, in the official organ of the society, the American An- 

 thropologist, giving due credit to the several authors. Each 

 essay should bear a pseudonym or number, and should be accom- 

 panied by a sealed envelope bearing the same pseudonym or 

 number, and containing the name and address of the competitor; 

 and the identity of competitors shall not in any way be made 

 known to the Commissioners of Award. Essays must be type- 

 written or printed, and must be submitted not later than Novem- 

 ber 1, 1893. While it is not proposed by the society to limit the 

 scope of the discussion, and while each essay will be considered 

 on its merits by the Commissioners of Award, it is suggested, in 

 view of the character of the society and the wishes of the donor 

 of the prize fund, that the treatment be scientific, and that the 

 potential citizen be considered (1) from the point of view of an- 

 thropology in general, including heredity, anthropometry, via- 

 bility, physiological psychology, etc, ; (2) from the point of view 

 of personal characteristics and habits, such as care of the body, 

 mental traits, manual skill, sense training and specialization, 

 and all-around manhood; and (3) from the ethical point of view, 

 including self-control, humanity, domesticity, charity, prudence, 

 energy, esprit de corps, patriotism, etc. The essays offered in 

 competition for the Citizenship Prizes of the Anthropological So- 

 ciety of Washington will be submitted, on or about November 2, 

 1893, to five commissioners of award, including, it is proposed, 

 one anthropologist, one jurist, one statesman, one educator, and 

 one other not yet specified, all of national reputation, of whom 

 at least one and not more than two shall be members of the so- 

 ciety; and the award shall be made in accordance with the find- 

 ings of these commissioners. Essays submitted in competition 

 for the prizes should be delivered not later than November 1, 

 1893, to the secretary of the Board of Managers of the Society, 

 Mr. Weston Flint, No. 1101 K street, N. V>\, Washington, D. 

 C, to whom all correspondence relating to the prizes should be 

 addressed. 



