236 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



scope, designed to transmit photographic images by means of electricity, by the 

 use of selenium resistances. — Electrical Review. 



ARCHEOLOGY. 



DID THE ROMANS COLONIZE AMERICA? 



M. V. MOORE. 



I. Problems and Factors. — Who first colonized the Western Continent ? 



From what far-off land came the primal pioneer to the shores of America ? 

 When and where, and over what trackless seas did he sail? 



Who was the mother, who was the father, and what was the language lisped 

 by the first-born under the western skies ? 



These are profound questions, which have agitated the minds of men for 

 centuries. Science has wrestled long and earnestly with the mysteries surround- 

 ing the Red man; but the wisdom of the wisest has failed in reaching any satis- 

 factory conclusions. The voice of History is silent, giving no response to the 

 long-pressed queries, and-even the tongue of Tradition tells not its vague and 

 uncertain tale concerning the origin of the earliest peoples of the western world. 

 There remains not so much as a hieroglyphic in which may be traced the faintest 

 vestige of the birthplace or language of their sires. 



The Indian is enigmatic. He is the profoundest historical problem of all 

 the ages. He is not, however, involved in such mazes of darkness and confusion 

 that there is no clue to the truth. We have well-defined bases upon which to pro- 

 ceed. There are three well-known factors presented in the problems; upon these 

 alone now depend all legitimate calculations if we expect to obtain any trust- 

 worthy results. 



The prehistoric peoples of America are revealed to us in custom or character ; 

 and also in art and in language. There are fragmentary remains of each of these 

 all over the continent. The naturalist takes a fossil, and from that fossil he 

 delineates an extinct species. Can we take the fragmentary remains pertaining 

 to the dead races of the continent, and construct therefrom the skeleton of a 

 truth ? The testimonies we have indicate that there was once a people in America 

 possessed of a high order of civilization. The savages of to-day represent the 

 degenerate and retrograding sons of illustrious sires. Hints of the culture of the 

 ancient Americans are yet found in many places in the land. Our prehistoric 

 ruins reflect not only a high order of art, but art founded upon pre-existent 

 models known in old civilizations. This art displays a mind and a hand trained in 

 the schools of science. The civilization and art of the American were yet flour- 

 ishing when the conquests of the Spaniards, Cortes and Pizarro, put an end to 



