172 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 108. 



than ordinary interest. To one of these — his 

 conclusion that Cortez, in his expedition to 

 Honduras, visited Palenque, and found it then 

 inhabited — I call the special attention of the 

 readers of Science. 



This conclusion is based chiefly upon his 

 study of Cortez' route in his journey south- 

 ward. He identifies as Palenque the town 

 which Herrera names Titacat, and which, ac- 

 cording to Bernal Diaz, was the first reached 

 after the execution of Cuauhtemoctsin, and 

 where Cortez, unable to rest at night, " went 

 into a large apartment where some of the idols 

 were worshipped," missed his way, and fell 

 some ' twelve feet,' receiving a severe wound 

 in the head, and in reference to which Cortez 

 writes as follows : — 



" It is a very beautiful village : it is called Teotic- 

 cac, and has fine temples, especially two, in which 

 we are lodged, and from which we have cast out the 

 idols, for which they do not show much regret; for I 

 had already spoken to them of it, and had shown 

 them the error in which they rested, and that there 

 was but one God, creator of all things. ... I learned 

 of them that one of these two houses, or temples, 

 which was the most important, was sacred to a god- 

 dess in whom they placed much confidence and hope, 

 and that they sacrificed to her only young and beau- 

 tiful maidens. If they were not such, then she would 

 be very angry with them; and for this reason they 

 always took great care to seek them, that she might 

 be satisfied; and they brought up from infancy those 

 who were of good appearance to serve this purpose." 



Our author comments on this letter as fol- 

 lows : — 



"This description by Cortez applies perfectly to 

 Palenque. There are, indeed, at this place, besides 

 numerous temples and buildings, two principal edi- 

 fices. One contains the great hall of mural inscrip- 

 tions: the other is the convent of the virgin priest- 

 esses, which has been wrongly taken until now for 

 the palace of the king." 



Is this conclusion justifiable? It has gener- 

 ally been admitted that the route followed must 

 have brought the Spanish conqueror within a 

 few miles of this place : hence the opinion 

 advanced cannot be considered as doing vio- 

 lence to the history of the expedition in this 

 respect. If inhabited at that time, it is not 

 probable that he would have approached within 

 twenty-five or thirty miles without visiting it, 

 as it must have been, during occupancy, a 

 place of considerable notoriety and impor- 

 tance. 



Stephens was led by his examinations to 

 believe the ruins of Yucatan were inhabited 

 villages and cities down to a comparatively 

 modern elate, some of them being occupied 

 until the conquest by the Spaniards. Char- 

 ney's explorations led him to the same belief. 



He remarks in one of his letters published in 

 the North- American review, — 



"It is certain, that, at the time of the conquest, 

 the coast of Yucatan and Tabasco was covered with 

 towns, pyramids, and monuments, all of which were 

 inhabited. And if such were the case with the coast, 

 what is the inference that must be drawn as to the 

 interior ? ... If the palaces of Comalcalco were en- 

 tire and inhabited at the time of the conquest, we 

 may feel bound to conclude those of Palanque were 

 in the same condition. . . . Altogether, it seems 

 to be sufficiently established that these monuments 

 were inhabited at the date of the conquest, and that 

 they are the productions of a comparatively modern 

 era." 



And now Maler, who has gone carefully over 

 the ground in person, and studied the country 

 and the ruins for himself and in his own way, 

 comes to precisely the same conclusion. We 

 are therefore convinced that there is nothing 

 in the age of the ruins to forbid the idea that 

 Cortez visited the place, and found it inhabited. 



It is also worthy of notice that Charne}^ 

 agrees with Maler in considering Palenque a 

 ' hoi}- place,' a ' religious centre,' and that the 

 so-called ' palace ' must have been ' the home 

 of priests, and not of kings.' 



Our author's theoiy will afford at least a 

 partial explanation of some of the figures 

 found on these ruins ; as, for example, the fre- 

 quent representations of children in the arms 

 of males and females, the repeated occurrence 

 of female figures, and the fact, as shown in 

 Stephens's plates, that the heads of most of 

 these are obliterated, which I have long sus- 

 pected was due to the fanatical zeal of Catho- 

 lic priests, who visited the place at an early 

 da} r . Cortez' visit will furnish a complete ex- 

 planation of this fact, which does not appear to 

 have attracted the attention its importance de- 

 mands. Cyrus Thomas. 



DO ANIMALS EXCRETE FREE NITRO- 

 GEN? 



Many of the older experiments upon the nutrition 

 of animals included determinations of the nitrogen 

 of the food and of the visible (solid and liquid) 

 excreta. Almost invariably the latter quantity was 

 notably less than the former, and as a consequence 

 it was commonly held that the difference was ex- 

 creted in gaseous form through the lungs. In pro- 

 cess of time, however, as the methods of experiment 

 were refined, this deficit began to diminish in amount, 

 until now it is indisputably shown that the great dif- 

 ference found by the earlier experimenters was very 

 largely due to mechanical losses of the excreta. A 

 certain insoluble residue, however, still remains, 

 which has been the occasion of not a little contro- 



