324 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 140. 



can only be because there actually exists a definite 

 and weU-defined organic type of modern Jews.' 



A few words as to the characteristics of the face. 

 It is not so much the common notion of the length 

 of nose, as the flexibility of the nostrils that is 

 Jewish ; the mouth is large ' with ends well marked 

 and pouting underlip, heavy chm and broad fore- 

 head ; ' ' large brilliant eyes set closely together, 

 with heavy upper and protuberant lower lid, having 

 athoughtful expression in youth, transformed into 

 a keen and penetrating gaze by manhood.' 



Considering the question historically, Mr. Jacobs 

 in opposition to Dr. Neubauer whose paper was 

 read just before his own, as also to Renan, holds 

 that the evidence shows in favor of the purity of 

 the race. The main points are these : The foreign 

 element due to proselytism has been exaggerated 

 through neglect of the consideration that only one 

 small class of these — the Proselytes of righteous- 

 ness had the full jus connuhii. The strong pen- 

 alty attached to such marriages in early days, the 

 seclusion in ghettos, the natural aversion on both 

 sides, the existence of the Cobanim (about 5^ of 

 aU the Jews) who could not marry outside the race 

 at all, all tend to reduce the foreign element con- 

 siderably. Again, in aU species the male varies 

 more than the female ; when this occurs we prob- 

 ably have a species. Jewesses do vary very slightly 

 as compared with Jews. (Mr. Jacobs suggests a 

 comiDosite of Jewesses). Finally, granted that a 

 certain foreign element is mingled with the race, 

 even as much as 1-10 of the whole number ; then 

 owing to the difference in fertility of mixed and 

 purely Jewish marriages, at the end of 200 years 

 the 1-10 would have diminished to 1-50 ; where the 

 tendency of reversion to the Jewish type has yet 

 to be taken into account. For all these reasons the 

 long-standmg belief in the substantial purity of the 

 Jewish race may hold its ground. J. J. 



REFORM IN OUR CALENDAR. 



In VAstronomie for August, M. Jules Bonjean 

 discusses proposed changes in our method of reck- 

 oning time which would be advantageous. He 

 would leave the seven-day week and the 365 or 

 366-day year of the Gregorian calendar as they are 

 now ; but he takes strong ground — and in this all 

 can sympathize with him — against the present 

 arbitrary and inconvenient grouping of days into 

 months. He would reform it by making January 

 have 30 days, February 31, March 30, and so alter- 

 nating through the year till December, tliis month 

 having 30 days in the ordinary year of 365, and 31 

 in leap year. No one can disjDute the much greater 

 simplicity and convenience of this. Then he would 



always have the year begin on Sunday, and in 

 consequence have an extra Sunday, or a holiday, 

 for the 365th day, and in leap year two of them. 

 He argues in favor of thus having the same day of 

 any particular month always come on the same 

 day of the week, and also liaviug an extra day — 

 and, once in four years, two — come during the 

 world-wide period of festivities attending the 

 Christmas and New-year holidays. There can be 

 no question that some such plan Avould possess 

 many advantages over the present arrangement- 

 Of course it does away with the week as a con. 

 tinuously periodic measure of time, but practically 

 it is never used for that either in civil or astro- 

 nomical reckoning, but simply for the temporarily 

 recurring period of rest or religious observances, and 

 for this a break once per year is of no importance. 

 There is one point, however, in which it seems, 

 to the writer, that M. Bonj can's plan might be 

 slightly improved. Respect for religious obser- 

 vances would, no doubt, demand, throughout the 

 greater part of the civilized world, that there 

 should be 52 Sabbaths in the year ; and such 

 observance of Sunday as the first day of the year 

 might clash with the peculiar social or civil cere- 

 monies which either already, or in future might, 

 very appropriately belong to the opening day of 

 the new year. It would seem more appropriate 

 to have New-year's day a world-wide holiday, to 

 be celebrated by each nation as suited it the best, 

 and then let Sunday, the New-year Sabbath, faU 

 on January 2. The relative merits of the two 

 plans are best seen below, where the 12 or 13 days 

 at the end of the old and at the beginning of the 

 new years are arranged with the two plans side by 

 side, the two middle columns of dates referring to 

 either one : 







o^, 



Day 







Bonjean's Plan. 



fe-^ 



of the 



2d Proposed Plan. 





fi| 



Month. 





Saturday 



357 Dec. 22 



Friday 





^ Sunday 

 Monday 



A5S 



" 23 



Saturday ) 





a 



a59 



" 24 



Sunday > Christmas. 



o 



ai 



Tuesday . 



86U 



" 25 



Monday ) 



cu 



Wednesday . 



m 



" 26 



Tuesday 



m 



y 



Thur. day . 



362 



" 27 



Wednesday 



I "^ 



Friday .... 



m-6 



" 28 



Thursday 



t^' 



'O 



Saturday , 



H64 



" 29 



Fr day 



:S 



o 



Annual holiday . 



HHS 



" 30 



Saturday 



o 



te 



Leap-year holiday . 



366 



*' 31 



Leap-year holiday 



K 



"^ Sunday and Ne w-yrday 



1 



Jan. 1 



New-year holiday -' 

 Sunday, New-year Sabbath 



Monday. 1st business day 



2 



" 2 



Tuesday 



8 



" 3 



Monday, 1st business day 



With such a change in the calendar we can have 

 a regular annual Christmas Saturday, Sunday, and 

 Monday. Saturday for shopping, Sunday for the 

 churches, and Monday for Christmas trees and 

 giving of presents. Our own national holidays of 

 February 22 and July 4 would fall, in M. Bonjean's 

 plan, on Tuesday and Thursday respectively, and 

 in the second plan upon Monday and Wednes- 

 day. H. M. Paul. 



