Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/703

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICANISTS.
685

herds of these animals have been surrounded and entrapped together. In such a case, instead of uniting in one grand charge upon the barriers, they keep coldly aloof from each other.

The penalty of banishment occasionally inflicted upon an evil-doer by a community, whether of elephants, buffaloes, or rooks, involves in its very essence the idea of nationality. Where there is no patria, there can be no expatriation. Any group of beings must feel themselves a community before they could inflict exile upon an offending member.

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICANISTS.

THE International Congress of Americanists was formed at Nancy, in France, in 1875, for the historical, archaeological, ethnographical, and linguistic study of the two Americas. Its subsequent meetings have been held successively at Luxemburg, Copenhagen, Madrid, Turin, Brussels, and Berlin. The last, the eighth meeting, was held in Paris, beginning October 14th. M. de Quatrefages presided, and delivered the opening address, which was published in the Monthly for January. French Americanists were well represented among the participants by Lucien Adam, the Comte de Charency, Remi Simeon, Léon de Rosny, Alphonse Pinart, Desiré Charnay, and Dr. Jourdanet; German, by Schoene, Drs. Hellmann, Joest, Seler, Ehrenreich, Grempler, Herr Künne, and Virchow. M. Fabri, now occupying a cabinet position at home, was missed from the Spanish delegation. Members were present from Holland, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland; Dr. Brinton and Mr. H. A. M. Phillips from the United States; Don Ignacio Altamirano, an Aztec, and Dr. Penafid, from Mexico; Senor Manuel de Peralta, from Costa Rica; and others, not named in Das Ausland's account, from other South American states.

The first question discussed was the one, now of several years' standing, of the origin of the name of America. M. Paul Marcou and M. Lambert de Saint-Bris, it will be remembered, had advanced the hypothesis that, instead of being derived from Amerigo Vespucci, who was also called Alberigo, the name is of native origin, and came really from roots which were also represented in the Ameriqui Mountains of Venezuela, Lake Maracaybo, and the region of Amaracapan in Central America. As against this supposition, M. Jimenez showed that the name of the Ameriqui Mountains did not appear on the oldest maps. Other respondents showed that the name of Ameriqui was not known to the official authorities of Venezuela, and that it is written in a different shape (Amerisque) in documents of very modern date. Testi-