Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

a late meeting of this Society. M. Letronne's communication is in French, and extends to 150 pages; it will form an important feature in the publication of the Society's Transactions; and, in the mean time, we congratulate ourselves on being able to present our readers with this accurate and interesting epitome. M. Letronne preceded his historical and philological disquisitions on these inscriptions by a preliminary notice on the history, size, and probable destination or purport of the statue in question. The vocal statue of Memnon is one of two colossal figures in the plain of Thebes, and on that part of the ancient city which was on the left or western bank of the Nile. They are more than sixty feet in height, at nearly the same distance from each other. Although now unconnected with any of the various magnificent temples which still testify to the power and wealth of the ancient sovereigns of Upper Egypt, within the precincts of the capital of that country, they were formerly the principal ornaments of one of its temples or palaces, built, it is supposed, by Amenophis II. or III. and called, after him, Amenophium. This building was still in existence in the time of Pliny; and there is good reason to believe that one of the statues now remaining, probably that which bears the inscription, is that of the founder. The two statues were originally of a single block of breccia each the more southern one is still entire; the other, the inscribed one, bears evident marks of having been broken by violence from the waist-the upper part has totally disappeared, but it has been restored, at what period it is impossible to say by thirteen blocks of gneiss superimposed one upon the other, or laterally attached, so as to form five layers of stone. Strabo and Pausanias saw the colossus in its mutilated state, the upper part lying on the ground. These and other evidences prove that the restoration, whenever it took place, must have been later than the reign of Adrian. The fact, too, of the statue being in this condition during the reign of this emperor, is proved by several of the inscriptions hereinafter given, as it is alluded to by them; and many concur with the opinion of historians, that the sacrilegious act was one of those which marked the invasion of the Persians under Cambyses. The learned world was first and principally indebted for these inscriptions to the labours of our countryman Dr. Richard Pococke, whose travels in Egypt, and various other countries, were published in 1743, who not only copied fiftysix of the whole number of seventy-three, of which they consist, but has given them

within outlines of the two legs on which they are inscribed-a caution which M. Letronne has found to be of great advantage in enabling him to fix the date of some, to connect or disconnect others, and to account for the imperfect manner in which some words were originally inscribed. Worden, the Danish traveller, who was in Upper Egypt at the same time as Pococke was, has also given a few, but in a very imperfect state, and has been of little or no aid to M. Letronne. The learned men who accompanied the French expedition into Egypt in 1801 added scantily to the labours of their predecessors. Something farther has since been published by other English travellers. But the great harvest has been gained, and numberless errors corrected and lacunae supplied, by Mr. Salt, late his Majesty's consul-general in Egypt, and whose copies of these inscriptions have been presented to this Society. M. Letronne has found little or no assistance in the various memoirs which several of the philologists of the Continent have already written upon these inscriptions: amongst them he enumerates Leich, Bouchier, Hagenbuch, D'Orville, Jablonsky, and Jacobs, the last of whom has published four of them, in verse, in his last edition of the "Anthologia Græca." What Jablonsky has written on this subject is to be found in his "Syntagmata de Memnone." M. Letronne's memoir, now before the Society, is confined to a critical explanation and restoration of the inscriptions alone. This gentleman has already published his views on the history and peculiar phenomena of the statue, as a vocal monument, in a memoir ad hoc, in which his hypothesis on the subject is principally founded on the tenor of the inscriptions, where they bear upon it. For a more clear understanding of these ancient documents, M. Letronne has classed them first into two parts:-1. Those that have a date; 2. Those that have no date. Those with a date are arranged chronologically, without regard to the language in which they are inscribed. Those without a date are divided into two sections-the Greek and the Latin. Complete references are given in the memoir to the numbers in each preceding arrangement. The particular” inscriptions are also marked with the initials of those who have severally published them. M. Letronne, after his preliminary introduction, proceeded to an examination of each inscription.

Mysterious Sounds.-The wide-spread sail of a ship, rendered concave by a gentle breeze, is a good collector of sound. "It happened," says Dr. Arnott, "once on board a ship sailing along the coast of

[ocr errors]

Brazil, far out of sight of land, that the persons walking on deck, when passing a particular spot, always heard very distinctly the sound of bells, varying as in human rejoicings. All on board came to listen, and were convinced; but the phenomenon was most mysterious. Months afterwards, it was ascertained that, at the time of observation, the bells of the city of St. Salvador, on the Brazilian coast, had been ringing on the occasion of a festival; their sound, therefore, favoured by a gentle wind, had travelled perhaps one hundred miles by smooth water, and had been brought to a focus by the sail on the particular situation or deep where it was listened to. It appears from this, that a machine might be constructed, having the same relation to sound that a telescope has to sight."

Norway has not been materially elevated above the level of the Sea for the last eight hundred years.The history of the small island of Munkholm, on the coast of Norway, is interesting, as connected with a well-known speculation, namely, that which maintains that the land of Scandinavia is gradually rising above the level of the sea, through the agency of some subterranean power. M. Everest says, "The history of this small isle weighs strongly against the rise of Scandinavia, as a general proposition. Its area is not greater than that of a small village, and, by the official survey, its highest point is said to be twenty-three feet above the mean high-water-mark (that is, the mean between neap and spring tides). An extreme spring tide may rise three feet higher, thus leaving twenty feet for the highest point. But the Swedish rate of rise is stated at forty inches in a century. Now, A. D. 1028, or eight hundred years ago, a monastery was founded there by Canute the Great; and, in 995 (thirtythree years before that time), it was in use as a common place of execution, and the famous Hagen Hlade Jarl's head was nailed to a gibbet there. Take the first of these periods, 1028; then, 40x8=320 inches, or twenty-six feet eight inches; so that this rock must then have been below high-water-mark, according to this supposition. It is not likely that, in such a state, it would have been chosen as the site of a building."- Everest's Travels through Norway.

Fossil Insects in lower Oolite, at Solenhof. In the cabinet of the Royal Academy at Munich, there are many specimens of fossil insects, found in the oolite limestone of Solenholf. The following are mentioned by Wagner:-Thirty species, many undescribed, of the class Crustacea; several species of the genera Æschna, Agrion,

Myrmeleon; so that, at the time of the deposition of this limestone, there lived at least three genera of Hymenopterous insects. A fossil Sirix, in the collection, may be considered as the representative at that period of the order Neuroptera. Von Schlotheim mentions an impression in this limestone of an insect, which he conjectures to be nearly allied to the moth named Sphinx ligustri; and also a fossil beetle, allied to the genus Cerambyx. The spider class appears to have existed also at this time, as is shown by a fossil nearly allied to the Solpuga Fabr Galeodes of Olivier.

Unknown Sounds." In the autumn of 1828, when on a tour through Les Hautes Pyrenées," says a recent traveller, "I quitted Bagneses de Luchon at midnight, with an intention of reaching the heights of the Porte de Venasque, one of the wildest and most romantic boundaries between the French and Spanish frontier, from the summit of which the spectator looks at once upon the inaccessible ridges of the Maladetta, the most lofty point of the Pyrenean range. After winding our way through the deep woods and ravines, constantly ascending above the valley of Luchon, we gained the hospice about two in the morning, and, after remaining there a short time, proceeded with the first blush of dawn to encounter the very steep gorge terminating in the pass itself, a narrow vertical fissure through a massive wall of perpendicular rock. It is not my intention to detail the features of the magnificent scene which burst upon our view as we emerged from this splendid portal, and stood upon Spanish ground,-neither to describe the feelings of awe which riveted us to the spot, as we gazed, in speechless admiration, on the lone, desolate, and (if the term may be applied to a mountain) the ghastly form of the appropriatelynamed Maladetta. I allude to it solely for the purpose of observing, that we were most forcibly struck with a dull, low, moaning, Eolian sound, which alone broke upon the deathly silence, evidently proceeding from the body of this mighty mass, though we in vain attempted to connect it with any particular spot, or assign an adequate cause for these solema strains. The air was perfectly calm; the sky was cloudless; and the atmosphere clear to that extraordinary degree conceivable only by those who are familiar with the elevated regions of southern climates: so clear and pure indeed, that, at noon, a bright star which had attracted our notice throughout the grey of the morning, still remained visible in the zenith. By the naked eye, therefore, and still more with the assistance of a tele

scope, any waterfalls of sufficient magnitude would have been distinguishable on a front base, and exposed before us; but not a stream was to be detected, and the bed of what gave evident tokens of being occasionally a strong torrent, intersecting the valley at its foot, was then nearly dry. I will not presume to assert, that the sun's rays, though at that moment impinging in all their glory on every point and peak

of the snowy heights, had any share in vibrating these mountain chords, but on a subsequent visit, a few days afterwards, when I went alone to explore this wild scenery, and at the same hour stood on the same spot, I listened in vain for the moaning sounds: the air was equally calm, but the sun was hidden by clouds, and a cap of dense mist hung over the greater portion of the mountain."

FOREIGN VARIETIES.

M. Fourier. This learned and scientific individual, the perpetual secretary of the Academie des Sciences, a member of the French Academy, and formerly secretary of the Egyptian Institute, died at Paris, on the 16th ult. of an affection of the lungs. He was scarcely sixty years of age. M. Arago is elected, by a large majority, to the perpetual secretaryship of the Academy of Sciences, vacant by M. Fourier's decease.

Useful Arts.-The Society in Paris for the Encouragement of National Industry, lately distributed number of gold and silver medals for inventions and discoveries connected with manufactures and the useful arts. The funds of the Society are in a very flourishing state.

Indian corn. It is stated in a letter from Paris, that in consequence of the total failure of the crops of Cobbett's corn in the vicinity of the French capital last season, very few experiments of the kind will be tried this year. A farmer near Rouen is said to have lost fifteen thousand francs by his speculations in this way.

Muscular Motion.-A machine has been invented in France, the object of which is to give to the human body a muscular exercise, considered to be efficacious in nervous disorders.

Agriculture. A preparatory school of agriculture has been established at Paris. Among the proposed objects of instruction are, the French, English, and German languages, linear, topographical, and descriptive drawing, the elements of mathematics, general notions of natural philosophy, and mineral and vegetable chemistry, the principles of vegetable physiology, general notions of mechanics, hydrostatics, and hydrodynamics, rural architecture, the elements of manufacturing and commercial economy, &c.

Dr. Pariset.-A long letter has been received from Dr. Pariset, dated Abouzabil, in Egypt, February 25. It contains curious and afflicting details of the ravages of the plague in 1824, and of some recent It appears that, in 1824, in the

cases.

hamlet of Fishabauch, the number of the inhabitants of which was only three hundred, not fewer than one hundred and twenty-five were carried off in two nights, and that the mortality in many other places was equally extensive and rapid. Dr. Pariset confirms the statement of Paré, that the plague is sometimes propa gated by means of a particular kind of fly, which sucks the dead body, and afterwards biting living subjects, introduces the disease.

Hydrophobia. It is stated by Dr. Despiney, a French physician, that he has observed, in his investigations on dogs, cats, pigs, and man, that the pathological character of hydrophobia is the same; and that it consists in a lesion of the medulla oblongata, or commencement of the spinal marrow, and that the extent of this lesion varies in proportion to the duration of the symptoms, between the incipient blush of inflammation and the destruction of the medulla oblongata, or its reduction to a state in which it becomes as diffluent as cream.

"

A Report made by M. Moreau de Jonnés to the "Superior Council of Health at Paris, contains a number of facts with respect to the irruption and progress of pestilential disorders in the year 1829; from which we extract the following:

"The Plague.--Favoured by the occurrences of the war in the East, the plague appeared in 1829 at several parts of the shore of the Black Sea. In the month of July it visited Varna, the neighbourhood of Odessa, and some of the vessels of the Russian squadron. Towards the end of August it manifested itself at Sevastopol, the grand maritime arsenal of Russia in the Black Sea. Two cordons of troops formed round the town, prevented its spreading into the interior of the Crimea.

"The Cholera Morbus. - This terrible scourge, which for twelve years had afflicted all the countries in Asia, seems to have had its power limited in 1829. It was not so in the preceding year. In the month of April it appeared in Bengal, and

attacked with violence the garrisons and inhabitants of Calcutta, Cawnpore, and Chittagong. In the month of June it appeared in Bombay, at the other extremity of the Indian peninsula; and in October attacked Madras and its neighbourhood. It was introduced into Borneo, and infected the Dutch garrison of Pontiana. The greatest mortality, however, occurred in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. Whole villages were depopulated; and in the city several public functionaries, and many of the inhabitants of the first classes of society, perished after eight hours' illness; some after only two.

"The Yellow Fever.-In 1829, the yellow fever extended its ravages to a less number of places in America than usual. There was no appearance of it at Martinique, or Guadaloupe, throughout the year. The great Antilles were not so fortunate. The yellow fever existed at Port Royal in Jamaica in the month of April. In the first ten days of May, thirty sailors belonging to the crew of the Magnificent fell victims to it. In July it reigned on board the merchant vessels in the Road of Havannah; and the hospitals were filled with individuals who had been attacked by it. Nevertheless, the island of Portico Rico, which is separated from Cuba only by a narrow channel, remained entirely free from it. New Orleans imported it in the month of October from Havannah; and its ravages were so dreadful, that it destroyed almost all whom it attacked. For six weeks, from twenty-five to thirty persons died daily in the town; and in the country in proportion. This is attributed to the want of proper precaution; and the American journalists assert, that in consequence of similar negligence, the population of New Orleans has been thrice renewed in ten years!"

Bread.-Baron Ferrusac states, that there are in Paris 500,000 persons who subsist chiefly on bread, and that an increase in the price of this article, at the rate of one halfpenny per day, makes a difference in the year of 9,125,000 francs. Human Horns.-At a recent sitting of the Royal Academy of Medicine at Paris, a paper was read relative to two human horns, which were submitted to inspection. One of them, resembling, in every respect, a ram's horn, had grown from a man's thigh, immediately over the great trochanter. The second, which is exactly like the other, grew from the posterior part of the leg of the same individual. The horns were removed, in January last, by a surgeon; and the wounds, being cauterized, healed speedily. They gave no pain or uneasiness.

Public Education in France.

The

French minister of public instruction, has addressed a circular to the heads of the colleges and other public establishments for the education of youth, calling upon them to furnish an account of the system of instruction pursued, and of the food, clothing, and general care of the pupils. This is understood to be preparatory to a reform in all these institutions.

Cæsarian operation. This operation was performed a few days ago in Paris, with complete success, by M. Dubois. At the date of the last account, the mother and child were living, and likely to do well.

Bicephalous Girl.-At the sitting of the Paris Academy of Sciences on the 21st ult. M. Geoffroy Hilaire read a report on a bicephalous girl, which had been still-born at Aulay, near St. Girons. This child was very similar to Ritta Christina, who died lately in Paris. There were two separate hearts, having each a pericardium.

Lithotrity. During the last two months there were several successful operations for stone by the new method of crushing it in the bladder. The additional security against laceration, from any accidental rent in the instrument contrived by M. Costello, by means of several rounds of wire thread, to prevent the extension of the rent, has been introduced into the French hospitals, where it has given great satisfaction.-This operation was lately performed at the hospital of Hôtel Dieu, upon two persons, the one a child, aged five years, the other an old man. In the first it was tedious and painful, and the result was not decisive. On the old man, however, it was very different; the calculus was crushed without pain to the patient, and all the fragments came away, so that the cure was perfect.

African Expedition.-A letter from Paris states, that the Commander-in-chief at Algiers, M. de Bourmont, has, at his own expense, established a commission of three naturalists, who are to visit the interior and make researches. There is, besides, a commission of mineralogists, botanists, &c. paid by the Government; but they have not yet commenced proceedings.

Animalized Bread.-A new kind of bread, called pain animalisé, is now manufactured in Paris. It having been found that the gelatine of bones used for soups was exceedingly nutritious, it was imagined that if this gelatine could be introduced into bread from potatoe flour, which is very much less nutritious than wheaten flour, the former would be equally pleasant, and even more nutritive than wheaten bread. The experiment has been tried with great success; and beautiful loaves of bread,

made in this way, are now sold in Paris, at a much lower price than bread from wheat flour. The gelatine is so purified as to impart no unpleasant flavour; and the potatoe bread thus manufactured is as agreeable as it is wholesome. As a cheap, nutritious, and useful article of food for the poor, the potatoe bread thus made is unequalled. A large quantity of the his cuit sent out with the African expedition was prepared in this manner.

ITALY.

Latin Inscriptions.--Dr. Labus of Milan has just published a series of very curious observations on some Latin inscriptions recently discovered at Venice, or in its neighbourhood, and particularly on an antique altar, which was found last year in repairing the altar of the ancient chapel of the baptistery of the basilic of St. Mark. In raising upon that occasion the valuable table of oriental granite, which forms what in Italy is still called, after the usage of the primitive church, the Mensa, or sacred table, it was discovered that it rested on an antique altar, dedicated to the sun, as appears from the following inscription, engraved in very beautiful Roman charac

ters:

"SOLI

SACR

Q. BAIENVS PROCVLVS

PATER NOMIMVS."

Dr. Labus's explanations with respect to this monument and its inscription, have for their principal object to show the worship for which the altar had been used, and the title by virtue of which it was erected. He establishes, by a number of analogous ancient inscriptions of the same age, that the monument in question was consecrated to the worship of the Sun, revived in the East from that of the Persian god Mithra, and that it was one of the ministers of that worship, termed "pater nomimus," or, as Dr. Labus interprets it, "legitimate father, consecrated father," who erected this monument of one of the Oriental superstitions which longest and most obstinately disputed the ground with infant Christianity. Dr. Labus remarks, that the expression "nomimus," hitherto unknown to Latin lexicographers, is only the Greek vóuiuos latinised, according to a custom of which the inscriptions of the same age furnish numerous examples; and that this expression answers to those of "pater" and "sacratus," which appear by themselves in several Mithriac inscriptions. Dr. Labus might have added, that the title which seems to have been the most eminent in the Mithriac hierarchy, that of "pater sacrorum," which is to be

met with in several inscriptions of the second and third centuries, is probably the same which is expressed in this altar by the words "pater nomimus;" since the Latin qualification of "pater sacrorum" cannot be rendered into Greek in a more precise and exact manner than by Taτng vouluwv, words which re-appear, almost identically, under a Latin form, in the words "pater nomimus."-Revue Encyclopédique.

POLAND.

Copernicus. A statue of this great astronomer is about to be placed in the square which fronts the palace of the Imperial Society of the Friends of the Sciences at Warsaw.

SWEDEN.

Museum of Natural History.-The Swedish Academy of Sciences has just purchased one of the handsomest hotels in Stockholm, for the purpose of converting it into a museum of natural history.

RUSSIA.

Science. The Emperor of Russia has assigned 10,000 rubles per annum for the continuation of the researches necessary to ascertain the exact measure of the degree. M. Struve, the eminent astronomer of Dorpat, is charged with the direction of this labour, which will last for ten years. Two officers have been sent to Finland to make observations; and M. Struve is also to undertake a journey on this subject.

TURKEY.

Mosques of Constantinople.-M. Ribeaupierre, the Russian ambassador, has obtained from the Grand Signior a firman, authorising him to visit all the mosques of Constantinople, even that of St. Sophia. M. Ribeaupierre is the first European who has received this permission.

GERMANY.

Literary Piracy.-An ordinance of the Emperor of Austria has just prohibited, under severe penalties, the forgery of books. It is well known that Vienna has been from time immemorial the resort of the forgers of German works. In Paris, the editors of the "Revue Française," the " Revue de Paris," and the "Gazette Littéraire," have combined in a resolution to prosecute the publishers of sheets, who appropriate to themselves entire compositions extracted from interesting periodical works. This question of literary property is about to be submitted to the decision of the tribunals. A summons has already been issued to the conductor of the "Pirate."

Population of Vienna. According to official returns, it appears that, in 1829, Vienna contained 289,785 inhabitants; of whom 142,654 were men, and 147,131 women. The number of births in 1829

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »