Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/188

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��than ordinary intcresl. To one of tliese — his conclusion tlint CorLez, in hia espediLion to HondiiTiiB, visited Palcnque, and found it then inhabited — I call the special attention of the readers of Science.

This conclusion is based chiefly Upon his study of Coi'tez' route in his jourue.y south- ward. He identifies aa Palenqiie the town which Heirera names Titacat, and which, aecoixiing to Bernal Diaz, was the fii-st reached after the execution of Cuanhtemoctsin, 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 \b a very beautiful village; it ia called Teotic- cac, and has tine lemples. especlully two, In wbi(!h we are lodged, and from which we huve cusL out the idols, for tvhicli thej do ii'>t show much regret ; for I bad already epoken to Ihem of it, and hail shown them the error in which Ihey rested, and [list there was but one God, creator of flii things. . . . 1 learned of tbem that one of these two houses, or temples, which was the most Important, was sacred to a god- dess 111 whom they placed much confidenee and hope, and that they sacrificed to Ijer only yonng and beau- tiful maidens. IE they were not such, then she would be very angry with Ihem; and for this reason the; always took great care to seek tbem, that she might be sBlisGed; and they brought up from infancy thuse who were of good appearance to serve this purpuse."

Our author comments on this letter as fol- lows : -T-

"Tbis desL-rJptioii by Cortei applies perfectly to Palenque. Therv are, indeed, nt this place, besides numerous temples and buildings, two principal edi- fices. One cotitains the great ball of mural inscrip- tions; the other is the convent of the virgin priest- esaes, which has been wrongly taken until now for the palace of Ihe king."

Is this conclusion justifiable? It has gener- ally been admitted lliat the route followed must have brought the Spanish conqiteror 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 wotdd have approached within twentj'-five or thirty miles without visiting it, as it must have been, during occupancy, a place of considerable notoriety and impor-

Stephens was led by his examin.itions to believe the ruins of Yucatan were inhabited villages and cities down to a comparatively modern date, some of them being occupied until the conquest by the Spaniards. Char- ney's explorations led him to the same belief.

��" It is certain, that, at the lime of the cnnquest^.l the coast of Yucatan and Tabasco was covered with 1 (owns, pyramids, and moimraents, all of which wera.l inhabited. And it suck were the case with the coast, f what is the inference that mutt he drawn as " ""- iiiterior? ... If the pnlaces of Comalcalcu w tire and inhabited at Ihe time o( the conquest. i may feel bound to conclude those of Palantjue were in the same condition. . . . Altogetlier, it se«mf' to be snlEctently establhhed that tlicse monuments were Inhabited at the date ot the conquest, and that they are the prodactions of a comparatively modern

��And now Maler, who has gone carefully o the ground in jxTSon, and studied the couotr^ and the ruins for himself and in his own wttj;J comes to precisely the same cohclusioo. are therefore convinced that there is nothtni, in the age of the ruins to forbid the idea thai Cortez visited the place, and found it inhabited J

It is also worthy of notice that Chanic^ agrees with Maler in considering Palenque I ' holy place,' a ' religious centre,' and that tbt so-called 'palace' must have been ' the hotn' of priests, and not of kings.'

Our author's theory 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 occurreDoe_ of female figures, and the fact, aa shown i Stephens's plates, that the heads of moat c these are obliterated, which I have long su»< pected was due to the fanatical zeal of Cathoi lie priests, who visited the place at an carl]^ day. Cortez' visit will furnish a complete ex* plnnation of this fact, which docs not appear U have attracted the attention its importance de- mands. CviiL's TnoHAS.

��Masy of lb« older experiments upon the nntritii of animals included determinations of the aitrogMU of the fooi] and uf the visible (solid and llquldr excreta. Almost invariably the latter quantity notably less than the former, and as a consequeni it was commonly held that the difference was ex*' creted in gaseous form through the lungs. In pro^j cess of time, however, as the methods of experim<~* 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

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