316 [Dee. 7, 
recognizes the radical defects of Schleyer’s plan, and ranges himself 
positively with those who seek to place the proposed international 
tongue on an Aryan basis. 
Of course the delivery of the London Philological Society, bound 
hand and foot into the Volapiik camp, excited high jubilation among 
the warriors beneath its banners. The Volapiik journal in Vienna, 
Titund um die Welt, begins a four-page leader with the heartfelt shout, 
* Gottlob, es wird Tag!” ‘ Thank God, the day breaks !?? And the 
editor goes on to say that from the 15th of June, 1888, when Mr. Ellis’ 
Report was read, a new epoch began in the history of Volapiik. Other 
advocates of the system were not less gratified at the Philological So- 
ciety’s questionable procedure. 
There were Volapiikists, on the other hand, who saw that at least 
some of the objections urged by your Committee were unanswerable, 
and sought to avoid them by charging them to the ‘ eccentricities and 
crudities of Mr. Schleyer,’”’ adding the explanation that the Volapiik 
academies had removed most of these objectionable features from the 
worthy father’s invention. This, however, excited the ire of Father 
Schleyer himself, and he came out in June of this year with an em- 
phatic ipse dixit which must have set the Volapiik academicians in 
some confusion. ‘t Any resolution,’’ says Herr Schleyer, ‘‘ any resolu- 
tion of the Academy not accepted by the inventor is null, even if the 
whole of the members united against the inventor.”’ 
It is quite evident that our Report has let in some light among the 
Volapiikist, as the Rund um die Welt says, but not exactly in the man- 
ner the editor of thitt journal supposes. By that light it is plain to see 
that Volapiik even among its warmest adherents is splitting up into 
dialects and dissimilarities which will soon bring its advocates into the 
confusion of the builders of the tower of Babel. 
A far more important Report than that of Mr. Ellis was one pre- 
sented to the Société Zoologique de France, by MM. M. Chaper and 
Dr. P. Fischer, relative to the proposition emanating from the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society. We name it as certainly the reply the most 
scientific in spirit and intelligent in grasp of any we have received, and 
we distinguish it as such in spite of the fact that it attacks with earn- 
estness the position your Committee has assumed on many points. 
Thus it is very severe ou our opinion that modern mixed languages or 
jargons should receive especial attention in forming a proposed world- 
language; indeed, it denies that there is need of forming any new 
language at all, and declares in favor of the adoption of some now liv- 
ing tongue as the international scientific and commercial speech. On 
the other hand, it is equally emphatic in the opinion that such a gen- 
eral language is most desirable, and cordially seconds the proposal of 
our Society for a Congress to consider the question. 
Similar published approvals have come to us in the pages of La 
Cronica Itosa, Messina, Italy ; El Correo, Madrid, and various other 
