14 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
who explored the Oriental seas ‘ to And an elixir that confers immor¬ 
tality to the soul.’ These trading and seafaring nations possessed of old 
the mariner’s compass. We are then, perhaps, warranted in conjectur¬ 
ing that some, at least, of their navigators found their way to the New 
Continent.” 
When we examine closely the physiognomy of the Asiatics of the far 
East, we are struck by the resemblance between these peoples and the 
ancient Mexicans, a resemblance that is really remarkable. And, as 
Humboldt has observed: “We cannot refuse to admit that the human 
species presents no races more allied than those of the Americans, the 
Mongol, the Mantchoo, and the Malay.” 
The number of analogies is great between the Mexicans and some of 
the peoples of the Old Continent; for instance, the Basques, descendants 
of the Vascons, a tribe of Iberians, who are believed to be the oldest in¬ 
habitants of Spain. It is affirmed by some writers that the Basque has no 
relation with the rest of the European languages; and yet, singularly 
enough, it is closely related with the American languages, especially with 
that of the Nahoas, or the Nahuatl. The Basque is said to be an incor- 
porative language. A striking similarity, even in the nasal pronun¬ 
ciation, between the Chinese and the Otoml, one of the most extensive 
languages of Old Mexico, has been established. Again, the arithmetical 
combination of the numbers 4 and 20 of the Nahoas is also met with 
in the arithmetic of the Basques. We are reminded, once more, of the 
same combination in the four twenties of the Irish and of the French, 
both of which peoples, undoubtedly, derived it from the Celts, and these 
from still more ancient races. But, be all this as it may, the relations 
between Western and Eastern civilizations are worthy of being studied 
further, not only historically, but scientifically also. 
It would hardly be necessary for me to remind this audience of the 
origin of the modern arithmetical system of numbers. Suffice it to say, 
that to attribute this system to the Arabs, as is sometimes done, is not 
correct. The Arabs learned the system from the Hindoos, and the Arabs 
themselves refer to the true origin of the notation. Of the ten numerals 
the cipher represents nothing per se; but when placed to the right of any 
one of the other numbers once it increases its value tenfold; when placed 
twice, a hundredfold; when placed thrice, a thousandfold, and so on. 
No doubt this system was based on the fingers, which give us its base, 
the number 10. The Romans, it will be remembered, employed seven 
characters to express certain numbers, that is I, one; V, five; X, ten; L, 
fifty; C, one hundred; D, five hundred; and M, one thousand. The 
Greek system used letters. The decimal system of notation used now by 
all civilized communities, was, undoubtedly, derived from the Hindoos. 
Still another system, the so-called duodecimal, must not be forgotten, 
