SCIENCE. 



205 



"With a modestv that contrasts strongly with the severe 

 language used by Prof. Tait, he continues : 



' To claim priority by insisting on former labors and suc- 

 cesses seems to me inadmissible ; but nobody will be able 

 to disclaim an essay, printed with its date in a scientific 

 periodical, since even unpublished papers, if they have their 

 date reliably fixed, are deemed admissible for the pur- 

 pose. 9 



"And refraining with considerate carefulness from making 

 a direct or even implied charge of plagiarism, such as 

 Duhring made against Helmholtz and Tait makes against 

 Mayer, he concludes : 



' If a scientist has deposited with an Academy or left with 

 the publisher of some periodical an article with its date in 

 a sealed envelope, he can at any time afterwards prove his 

 claim of priority by opening it ; the second discoverer is, 

 however, then justified in declaring that he had not and 

 could not have had any knowledge of the contents of that 

 letter ; this he cannot say of a periodical regularly published 

 and accessible to everybody. Ul 



Prof. Tait commits an error in supposing that the 

 original paper by Mohr was published in Liebig's Annalen 

 der Chemie. This is probably due to the fact that in the 

 Annalen der Phar made, of which Mohr was an associate 

 editor, a short synopsis of his paper appeared under the 

 general heading of a " Revue fiir das Jahr 1837." (24, 141), 

 bearing the same title, " Ueber die Natur der Wartne." The 

 charge of plagiarism which Tait distinctly and deliberately 

 makes on the supposed fact that Mayer's essay ap- 

 peared in the same Annalen where Mohr's original paper 

 was printed, can no longer be sustained ; and one may 

 reasonably hope henceforth to hear of it no more. It should 

 never have been uttered. 



In conclusion, it may be stated that, in thus presenting 

 for the first time in the columns of " Science " the complete 

 documentary evidence of Prof. Mohr's priority in regard 

 to the discovery of the great principle of the correlation 

 of forces and the conservation of energy, we have been 

 actuated by no other motive than that which underlies all 

 science, viz.: to seek and proclaim the truth and nothing 

 but the truth, and at the same time to do justice to whom 

 justice is due. And no man deserves more to be accorded 

 an honor which he is entitled to than Friedrich Mohr, 

 whose rare genius and masterly mind never betrayed him 

 into committing such errors of judgment as may be laid 

 at the door of almost every other writer on the subject. 



WYANDOTTE GOVERNMENT, 



A Short Study of Tribal Society, Delivered at the 

 Boston Meeting of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, August i, 1880. 



By Major J. W. Powell, Director, Bureau of Ethnology, 

 Washington. 



In the social organization of the Wyandottes four groups 

 are recognized, the family, the gens, the phratry, and the 

 tribe. 



THE FAMILY. 



The family, as the term is here used, is nearly synonym- 

 ous with the household. It is composed of the per- 

 sons who occupy one lodge, or in their permanent wig- 

 wams, one section of a communal dwelling. These perma- 

 nent dwellings are constructed in an oblong form of poles 

 interwoven with bark. The fire was placed in line along 



*. Eine J'rioritat durch Behauptung fruherer Arbeiten and Erfolge 

 beanspruchen zu wollen, halte ich fiir unzueassig. allein einen in einer 

 wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift eedruckten und mit dem Datum versehenen 

 Aufsatz geltend zu machen wird Niemand zuriickweisen konnen da s< gar 

 ungedruckte Aufsatze, wenn sie ein sicheres Datum haben zu diesem 

 Zwecke zugelassen werden. (s. 84.) 



10 . Hat ein Naturforscher bei einer Akademlc oder bei dcm Herausge- 

 ber einer Zeitschrift durch einen verschlossenen Krief Datum genommen, 

 so kann er nachher durch Offnung des liriefes seine Prioritatsanspruche 

 beweisen ; der zweite Entdecker kann aber dann mit Recht sagen, dass er 

 von dem Inhalte des Briefes keine Kentniss hatte und nicht haben 

 Konnte, das kann er aber bei einer regelmas sig erscheinenden unit 

 Jedem zugdnglichen Zeitschrift nicht sagen. (s. 84.) 



the centre, and was usually built for two families, one oc- 

 cupying the place on each side of the fire. 

 The head of the family is a woman. 



The gens is an organized body of consanguineal kindred 

 in the female line. " The woman carries the gens," is the 

 formulated statement by which a Wyandotte expresses 

 the idea that descent is in the female line. Each gens has 

 the name of some animal, the ancient of such animal being 

 its tutelar god. Up to the time when the tribe left Ohio, 

 eleven gentes were recognized, as follows : 



Deer, Bear, Highland Turtle (striped), Highland Turtle 

 (black), Mud Turtle, Smooth Large Turtle, Hawk, Beaver, 

 Wolf, Sea Snake, and Porcupine. 



In speaking of an individual he is said to be a Wolf, a 

 Bear, or Deer, as the case may be, meaning thereby that he 

 belongs to that gens ; but in speaking of the body of 

 people comprising a gens they are said to be relatives of the 

 Wolf, the Bear, or the Deer, as the case may be. 



There is a bod)' of names belonging to each gens, so that 

 each person's name indicates the gens to which he belongs. 

 These names are derived from the characteristics, habits, 

 attitudes, or mythologic stories connected with the tutelar 

 god. 



The following schedule presents the name of a man and 

 woman in each gens as illustrating this statement : 



Indian. 



Man of Deer gens De-wa-ti-re 



Woman " " A-ya-jin-ta 



Man of Bear " A-tu-e-tes 



Woman of Bear " Tsa'-man'-da-ka-e' 



Man of Striped Ta-ha'-so n -ta-ra- 



Turtle gens ta-se 



Woman of Striped Tso-we-yu«-kyn 



Turtle gens 



Man of Mud Turtle Sha-yan-tsu-wat' 



gens 



Woman of Mud Ya n -dash-shu-ras 



Turtle gens 



Man of Smooth Hu n '-du-cu-tl 



Large Turtle gens 



Woman of Smooth Tsu-ca-e n ' 



Large Turtle gens 



Man of Wolf gens Ha-ro'-u n -yu 



Woman " " Ya n -di-no 



Man of Snake gens Hu-ta-hu'-sa 



Woman 



Di-je-rons 



English. 



Lean Deer 

 Spotted Fawn 

 Long Claws 

 Grunting for her 



Young 

 Going Around 



the Lake 

 Gone from the 



Water 

 Hard Skull 



Finding Sand 



Beach 

 Throwing Sand 



Slow Walker 



One Who goes 

 About in the 

 Dark' a Prowler 



Always Hungry 



Sitting in Curled 

 Position 



One Who Ripples 

 the Water 



The One Who 

 Puts Up Quills 



Good-Sighted 



Man of Porcupine Ha n -du'-tu n 



gens 

 Woman of Porcu- Ke'-ya-runs-kwa 



pine gens 



THE PHRATRY. 



There are four phratries in the tribe, the three gentes 

 Bear, Deer, and Striped Turtle constituting the first ; the 

 Highland Turtle, Black Turtle, and Smooth Large Turtle 

 the second ; the Hawk, Beaver, and Wolf the third ; and 

 the Sea Snake and Porcupine the fourth. 



This unit in their organization has a mythologic basis, 

 and is chiefly used for religious purposes, in the prepar- 

 ation of medicines, and in festivals and games. 



The eleven gentes as four phratries constitute the tribe. 



Such is the social organization of the Wyandottes. 



Each gens is a body of consanguineal kindred in the 

 female line, and each gens is allied to other gentes by con- 

 sanguineal kinship through the male line, and by affinity 

 through marriage. 



To be a member of the tribe it is necessary to be a mem- 

 ber of a gens ; to be a member of a gens it is necessary to 

 belong to some family ; and to belong to a family a person 

 must have been born in the family so that his kinship is re- 

 cognized ; or he must be adopted into a family and become 



