120 



SCIEXCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 157 



The literature of archeology, it will be found, fur- 

 nishes strong support to this conclusion. For want 

 of space, only a single brief reference will be made 

 at this time. Dr. Joseph Jones, in describing a 

 mound opposite the city of Nashville, says, " This 

 stone grave, which was about two feet beneath the 

 surface, had been constructed with such care that 

 little or no earth had fallen in, and the skeleton 

 rested, as it were, in a perfect vault." According to 

 Professor Thomas, the fact that this grave was un- 

 filled with earth would indicate that the ' corpse ' 

 was a modern plant, placed there for purposes of 

 deception. 



Professor Thomas then cites, as a witness against 

 us, one of our own members, a Mr. A. S. Tiffany. It 

 is therefore proper to state that this venerable gentle- 

 man has a grievance against the academy. During 

 the preparations of its first volume of Proceedings, 

 Mr. Tiffany presented for publication a geological 

 paper containing a list of the fossils found in this 

 vicinity, which, after careful examination, was, for 

 good and sufficient reasons, declined. This so 

 offended him that he withdrew from active partici- 

 pation in its proceedings, and ever since has never 

 missed an opportunity to defame his old associates, 

 and denounce its management. It is only necessary 

 to add that he is not an archeologist, was not present 

 at the discovery of the tablet, never examined the 

 mound from which it was taken, and hence his 

 mere opinion can have no scientific value. 



Nevertheless, Professor Thomas makes this secret 

 letter of Mr. Tiffany's the corner-stone of his argu- 

 ment. As I have before me a copy of this letter, 

 received through the courtesy of Professor Thomas, 

 I speak advisedly when I state that the quotation 

 used by him is not correctly given. There are in 

 it no less than four alterations of the text. The 

 original indicates illiteracy, whereas the quotation as 

 given by Professor Thomas has all the polish of his 

 own excellent composition. Professor Thomas, more- 

 over, seeks to create the impression, that, inasmuch 

 as Mr. Tiffany was a prominent and active member 

 of our academy, therefore his opinions as stated in 

 this letter should be received as authority ; and yet, 

 strange to say, in the very last sentence of this same 

 letter, Mr. Tiffany announced his separation from the 

 academy, and his determination to have nothing 

 more to do with it. Nor is this all. In this identical 

 letter, Mr. Tiffany wrote as follows concerning the 

 shale tablets : " Those shale tablets, I have the utmost 

 confidence that they are genuine. I examined the 

 situation when they were first obtained." Mr. Tiffany 

 never examined the mound from which the limestone 

 tablet was taken, but still he is 'certain' it is a 

 fraud : this Professor Thomas quotes. Mr. Tiffany 

 did examine the mound from which the shale tablets 

 were taken, and pronounces them genuine : this 

 Professor Thomas omits. I am therefore compelled 

 to pronounce the use made of this letter by Professor 

 Thomas as unfair, and his quotations from it as 

 garbled. I would not willingly do him any injustice, 

 and hence now call upon him to publish this letter 

 verbatim et literatim. If he will have a facsimile of 

 it prepared by photograph or any other process, and 

 furnished to Science for publication, I am prepared 

 to say that such publication would not only destroy 

 its value as authority, but would subject Professor 

 Thomas himself to censure in resorting to such 

 sources for scientific material. To facilitate such 

 publication, I will add, that, if it involves expense 



not properly belonging to the bureau, I will engage to 

 deposit with the editor of Science the necessary 

 amount to meet it. I am of course unable to make 

 any such publication myself, inasmuch as the original 

 letter is in the possession of Professor Thomas, and 

 no copy can do it justice. 



Before closing this paper I desire to add a few ob- 

 servations concerning the shale tablets. In order to 

 secure a thorough investigation of their merits, they 

 were sent, soon after their discovery, to the Smith- 

 sonian institution, where they remained during a 

 session of the national academy, and were then in- 

 spected by its members. In a letter bearing date 

 April 11, 1877, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, secretary of 

 the Smithsonian institution, in acknowledging the 

 receipt of the tablets, said of them, " There seems 

 every indication of genuineness in the specimens, 

 and the discovery is certainly one of very high inter- 

 est ; " and after a more careful inspection of them, 

 and their exhibition to the members of the national 

 academy, the tablets were returned to Davenport ; 

 and in his letter bearing date May 31, 1877, Professor 

 Baird thus states his conclusions thereon : " Most of 

 the persons who examined them, among whom were 

 Professor Haldemann, Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, and 

 others, were of the opinion that they were unques- 

 tionably of great antiquity, the absolute period of 

 which could not, of course, be measured. The simi- 

 larity in the weathering of the inscriptions to that of 

 the rest of the tablets gave them this impression." 

 With this favorable indorsement of such men as Prof. 

 Spencer F. Baird, Professor Haldemann, and Lewis 

 H. Morgan, the Davenport academy felt secure in 

 the position it had assumed, and thereupon published 

 its discovery to the scientific world. 



In a recent correspondence with Professor Thomas, 

 I learned of his intention to write these papers against 

 the authenticity of the relics in question, and I then 

 submitted to him that it would be manifestly unfair 

 to do so without some previous investigation. I even 

 brought the matter before our academy, and had this 

 resolution adopted, and personally transmitted the 

 same to Professor Thomas at Washington : — 



"Whereas the correspondence of Prof. Cyrus 

 Thomas with President Charles E. Putnam has been 

 submitted to the academy, therefore be it resolved, 

 that the academy extends a cordial invitation to 

 Prof. Cyrus Thomas, previous to his proposed publi- 

 cation, to visit its museum, inspect the relics under 

 discussion in the correspondence, examine the mounds 

 where they were discovered, interview the finders, 

 and investigate all available evidence." 



This invitation certainly indicated confidence in 

 the genuineness of our relics, and our willingness to 

 have them subjected to the most searching scrutiny. 

 The invitation, however, was, on behalf of the 

 bureau, curtly declined, and on the part of Professor 

 Thomas indefinitely postponed. Apparently our 

 Washington friends are so anxious to condemn, they 

 are afraid to investigate. Charles E. Putnam, 



President Davenjwrt academy of sciences. 

 DaveDport, Io., Jan. 15. 



Topographical models or relief-maps. 



In Nos. 153 and 154 of Science, reference is made 

 to the use of exaggerated vertical scales in the con- 

 struction of relief-maps or topographical models ; 

 and, as you have been good enough to refer to a piece 

 of work in this line done by myself and wife, — but 

 which is as yet private property in my study, and not 



