north and centre of France the names of places have generally a Celtic base, first Romanised, and then corrupted and contracted into modern French; as Lutetia Parisiorum (now Paris), Ambiani (now Amiens), Rotomagus (now Rouen). In the southwest of France, this Celtic element almost entirely disappears. The base of the names can only be explained from the Euskarian or Iberian speech. A large number end in ec or ac, as Quissac, Levizac, Gignac, Cahuzac, &c., the ac being a Euskarian termination. There is even reason to believe that the term Britain, which has been such a puzzle to etymologists, was originally conferred on our island by Iberian mariners.

The Spanish peninsula probably presents the greatest mixture and confusion of successive races of any country in Europe. Originally peopled by the Iberian or Euskarian race, colonised by the Phoenicians, Tyrians, and Carthaginians, afterwards peopled by the Celts, who drove out or amalgamated with the previous inhabitants; then conquered and colonised by the Romans, invaded and subjugated by the Goths, who were in turn driven northward by the Moors, but afterwards succeeded in expelling their conquerors; we find the local names throw a flood of light on the history and mutations of the people. We have glanced at the Iberian and Celtic elements; the Phoenician nomenclature is equally suggestive. The name Spain or Sapan was first applied by the Phoenician mariners, and means the country of rabbits. Escalona is a modification of Ascalon; and Magueda, reproduces the Philistine Megiddo. Malaga is the Phoenician Malaca (salt). Carthagena is derived from Carthago-Nova. Osilippo, now Lisbon, contains the term hippo, the city or walled town, which is found in several other names of places on the Spanish coast.

Romanised names of course abound in the Peninsula, some pure and simple, as Ciudad Real (the royal city,)

Valverde (the green valley), Villa-franca (free town), others merely Latinising a Celtic or Iberian word. The Moors, who held the country for nearly six hundred years, have left indelible marks of their dominion and supremacy in the nomenclature. Gibraltar (Gibel-al-Tarik, the mountain of Tarik), perpetuates the memory of a Moorish warrior, in the same manner that Orme's Head, in the principality of Wales, commemorates a Viking of Norway. The Arabic Wadi or Guadi (a ravine or river), gives name to the Guadalquiver, Wadi-l-Kebir (the great river), the Guadalmez, Guadalcazar, Guadalaxara, Guadolupe, &c. Sometimes the Arabic prefix is united to an ancient Phoenician name, as in the Guadiana (Wadi-anas). Trafalgar, (Taraf-al-ghar), is the promontory of the cave.

Scattered over Spain, we find multitudes of Arabic names, generally distinguished by the prefixes Ben, Al, or Cala, as Beniajar, Alcala, Almaden, Calatrava, &c. Medina Sidonia is a curious compound of the Arabic medina or city, joined to the ancient city of the Sidonians.

In the above remarks, I have hitherto avoided every thing of a doubtful or mythological character: the inferences drawn from the facts have been plain and simple and easily understood. I will, in conclusion, refer to a class of ethnological inquiries of a more radical kind, but at the same time not quite so easy of demonstration in their conclusions. Researches into remote antiquity are very attractive, if we are careful not to be carried away by the ignis fatuus of theory and fancied analogies. I will only give one specimen of this class of inquiries.

I have already said that all proper names originally bore a meaning; but in names of high antiquity this is not always · apparent at first sight, and may have to be traced to its primary radical. The languages of modern Europe, with some of the Asiatic, are usually classed together as the

Aryan family. This appellation is taken from the name given to themselves by the two nations whose languages are the most ancient dialects of the family-the Sanskrit and Zend, or ancient Persian. The root Ar, or Ir, or Er is found in the appellations of many nations of this race. Arya-varta was the name of the country in India inhabited by the Aryas. The name of Persia, Ir-an, is attributed to the same source. In the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria, the Medes and Persians claim to be of the Aryan race; and Darius is called an Aryan of the Aryans. By the Greek authors it is applied under the forms ̓Αρία, ̓Αρίανα, ̓Αρίοι, &c. We find it in the Scythian Arimaspi, in the names Ariapithes, Ariantes, &c. In the old Teutonic names we find Ariovistus, Aribert, Ariaricus, &c. The ancient name of Ireland, Er-in, is very closely connected with the same root. Ireland is the land of the Irs, or Aryas.

We also find in most of these languages derivatives from the same root expressive of noble qualities and of skilled labour. The original word ar meant "to plough," and is preserved in nearly all the Aryan tongues with the same meaning:-Gr. άpów, Lat. ar-are, Gaelic ar, Goth. ar-jan, Ang.-Sax. erian. When the nomade tribes first began to cultivate the land, the labour of the husbandman became the distinctive mark of excellence, and the name of "cultivator" an honourable distinction. 'Api, in Greek, is the prefix to most words expressive of excellence. Ar-tifex, in Latin, is the workman of skill, in opposition to opifex, the common labourer. In Gaelic, air, aireach, signify noble, excellent, rich. Ari, arya, in Sanskrit; airy-a, in Zend, have the sense of respectable, venerable. Ar, in Ang.-Sax., means glory, honour, reverence.

Now it would be very easy to go further, and, taking a wide sweep of the Eastern world, draw into a net every word containing the syllable ar which we can find; e. g., Ararat,

Aram, Arabia, Ar of Moab, Araunah, Arba, Ariel, Arioch, &c., and thus, in imagination, "make the whole world kin;" but here sober judgment steps in, and reminds us of the principle with which we set out, that all proper names had originally a meaning, and therefore that radicals having the same sound but an entirely different signification in two languages, cannot be the same word. The Semitic ar, awaking or watching, cannot be the same root with the Aryan ar, ploughing or working. It is these considerations which must clip the wings of mythological fancy, and confine our researches within the limits of reasonable inference and logical analysis.

I must now bring these remarks to a conclusion. The science of language in its various aspects is a study well worthy of pursuit for its own sake, but much more for the light it is calculated to throw on the early history and progress of the human race. It is, therefore, of great importance that certain leading principles should ever be kept in view; that every step in our progress should be well defined and securely based. In this way only can we arrive at truth, which must always be the ultimate object of our inquiries.

A discussion followed the reading of the Paper, in which Dr. Inman, Rev. J. Robberds, Rev. J. Edwin Odgers, Dr. Ginsburg, and Mr. Unwin took part; and the thanks of the Society were voted to the Author.

THIRTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING,

ROYAL INSTITUTION, April 16th, 1866.

J. A. PICTON, Esq., F.S.A., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and signed. Mr. J. C. Redish was duly elected Honorary Secretary, in the place of Dr. Collingwood, resigned.

Mr. Charles S. Samuel was duly elected an ordinary member of the Society.

Notice was drawn by the Rev. W. Banister to the recent demise of Mr. Charles Wye Williams, one of the members of the Society, whose attention had been early devoted to the uses of steam, and who had been one of the first to take an active part in applying it to marine purposes.

MR. T. J. MOORE exhibited the following recent acquisitions to the Derby Museum, viz., a fine adult stuffed specimen of the white-collared Mangaby monkey (Cercocebus Collaris), from West Africa; a mass of spawn of a squid, from Dundrum Bay, showing distinctly the young in enormous numbers, each invested in its own yolk-sac, and having the form very fully developed, the eyes distinctly visible to the naked eye, and the body and arms covered with pinkish spots; also a specimen of the red band fish (Cepola Rubescens), from Dundrum Bay; a three-spotted wrasse (Labrus Trimaculatus), from the coast of the Isle of Man; and a bergylt or Norway haddock (Scorpœna Norvegica), from the Liverpool fishmarket; also drawings of three cetaceans, from the Atlantic, lately presented to the Museum, with the entire skeletons of the animals, by Captain Walker, of the ship "Trenton," Associate of the Society, and which Dr. J. E. Gray has lately