xxii. Proceedings. [May 4th, 1920, 



Ordinary Meeting, April 20th, 1920. 



Sir Henry A. Miers, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. {President), 



in the Chair. 



A vote of thanks was passed to the donors of the books upon 

 the table. 



Mr. W. J. Perry, B.A., read a paper entitled :— " The 

 Origin of Warlike States." 



In a previous communication to this Societ}^ and elsewhere 

 ("An Ethnological Study of Warfare," Mem. Manchr. Lit. and 

 Phil. Soc, Vol. 61, 1917; "War and Civilisation," Lecture at 

 Kylands Library, Sept. 13th, 1918 : The " Megalithic Culture of 

 Indonesia," Manchester, 1918), the theory has been put forward 

 that, speaking generally, warlike states are those with a heredi- 

 tary military aristocracy. An examination of the ruling groups 

 of the chief historical peoples, Teutonic, Turko-Tartar, Semitic, 

 does not give any signs of their origin in a simpler form of 

 society. The facts suggest their beginning as small groups 

 claiming divine descent. These groups seem to have sprung 

 from the ruling families of a former stage of society which is 

 well known, that called " matriarchal," in which descent in 

 social groups, inheritance to property, succession to rank, went 

 through women, and the chief feature of religion was the cult 

 of the Great Mother. Just after the new groups of rulers had 

 been formed, the institutions had become patrilineal, and the 

 Great Mother was replaced by gods. 



The practice of Heraldry is widespread among ruling classes 

 in all parts of the earth, and the study of it gives results which 

 go to verify the theory which comes out of the study of ruling 

 groups ; namely, that, all over the world, dynasties have sprung 

 from former ruling classes, and have not sprung up sponta- 

 neously in various places. This law of " dynastic continuity," 

 if true, leads to the conclusion that all ruling classes in the 

 world are derived from one original group. This result is in 

 harmony with the claim of Professor Elliot Smith, that all 

 civilisation originated in the Egypto-Sumerian region. 



General Meeting, May 4th, 1920. 



Mr. William Thomson, F.R.S.E., F.I.C. {Vice-President), 



in the Chair. 



Dr. Jean J. Bloch, Pharmaceutical Chemist, Manager of the Hollinwood 

 Chemical Co. Ltd., Hollinwood, 400, Manchester Boad, Hollinwood; 

 Mr. William Smalley, Engineer, Spring field. Castle ton, near Manchester; 

 Mr. Frank William Bailey, Wood Pulp Mill Manager and Chemist, 

 Lee Mount, Glossop, Derbyshire; Mr. Frank Bamford, B.Sc, (Lond.), 



