The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1891-03-05
THE NAME AMERICA"


At the eighth International congress of Amer
icanists which held in Paris from October IA,
to october 20, 1890, only certain number of the
questions treated were of interest from geograph
ical point of view. Among these may be mentioned
the discussion on the origin of the name Amer
ica," which was opened by M. Jules Marcou, who
asserted. as learn from the proceedings of the
Royal Geographical Society,"" London that the
name America" derived from a range Of
mountains in Central America. which in the Ian
guage of the natives. is called "Amerique;" and
that Vespucci never bore the Christian name Of
"'Amerigo,' because this latter is not saints
name in the Italian calendar; and. further, that
he changed his name "Alberco" to .'Amerigo" for
the first time after the name by which the New
World is now commonly known. began to be used
in order to cause it to be believed that the con-
tinent named in his honor. But M. Cow
proved two years ago that the name "Alberico"
is in the Florentine language identical with Amer
igo;" and that Vespucci, before the year 1900
sometimes subscribed himself "Amerigo' appears
from a letter recently discovered among archives
of the Duke of GOnzaga at Mantua. This point
was corroborated by the Spanish Americanist. De
la Espada, from letters and pamphlets preserved
iu the Archiv de las Indias. at Seville, in which
Vespucci sometimes calls himself ''Alberico," and
sometimes "Amergo." En- PEASANT, the Spanish
savant. mentioned the interesting fact that the
first of the socalled "quatour navigations' was
not made by Vespucci at all. M. Hamy adduced
further interesting proof of the incorrectness of
M. MARQUIS contention in the shape of a map of
the world prepared in the year 1890 by the
tographer Vallescu, of Mallorca. on the base of
which is a note to the effect that the map was
bought in at an auction by the merchant Amerigo
Vespucci for 100 gold ducats. Further. the gen.
eral secretary of congress- NJ. Pector pointed out
that according to a communication received from
President Of Nicarauga. the range of mountains
in question is not called"Amerique' at all, but
"Amerisque." After this very thorough discus
sion of the question: it is hoped that the accusa-
ton against Vespucci and Hylacomylus may not
be heard of again. An important contribution to
the cartography of America was furnished by the
paper read by M. Marcel upon two globes dscov-
cred by him. VIII ich dates back probably from the
year 1913. America is very good and it might
be said that it is very appropriate name for
this country. No doubt it would have been more
honoring to Christopher Columbus should this
country have been named after him.-Sciencs.
HOW THE WORLD APPEARS TO THE LOWER
ANIMALS.
In addition to the organs of hearing touch and
smell Sir John Lubbock has found upon the an
tennae of insects certain organs that seem to be
connected with senses that we know nothing
about.
Experiments made upon certain fresh water
crustaceans show thst they are sensible to sounds
corresponding to more than 4O, 0CO vibrations per
second Sounds that we cannot hear, and to
ultraviolet rays that cannot perceive. Now
all the rays that perceive appear to US
with definite colors, and it should be the same
with these animals; so that it is probable that
they colors that unknown to us and that
are as different from those that we are familiar
with as red is different from yellow or green from
violet 1t W ,ud result from this that natural
light. which seems white to us, would appear
colored to them, and that the aspect of nature
would be entirel. different to them from what it
is to 1t is possible. therefore, that to certain
ANIMALS nature is full of sounds, colers, and sen.
Stations that we have no idea of.-Scientific Amer.
lean.