G. GENERAL NATURAL" HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 231 



president of the college, this cast of the stone, forming three 

 large slabs, on reaching New York was forwarded to the 

 Smithsonian Institution, in order that a mould might be taken 

 from which to supply copies for the museum of the Institu- 

 tion. 



According to Dr. Seyffarth, of Dansville, New York, who 

 has paid particular attention to the Tanis stone, one of the 

 most important results of his critical study is that the idea 

 of Champollion, that every hieroglyphic text consists half of 

 symbolic figures and half of pure letters, like the Hebrew, 

 without any signs for syllables, is erroneous, and that, on the 

 contrary, the hieroglyphic writing is syllabic, each figure ex- 

 pressing the two or three consonants which the name of the 

 figure contains. Thus the owl, which in Coptic is called 

 mulak, expresses the word melek king, both words contain- 

 ing the same consonants. This idea, suggested by Dr. Seyf- 

 farth in 1826 from the study of the Rosetta stone, is, in his 

 opinion, entirely confirmed by the critical study of the Tanis 

 stone. 5 D, Oct., 1871, 664. ' 



WAY COLLECTION OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



The announcement, a year or two ago, of the purchase by 

 an American of the celebrated Hay Collection of Egyptian 

 Antiquities, at the time on exhibition at the Crystal Palace 

 in London, created quite a sensation in England, in view of 

 its intrinsic value, and the desire which had been manifested 

 to procure it for the British Museum. 



In the increasing rarity of objects of this kind, resulting 

 from the great demand on the part of national museums 

 throughout the world, it is believed quite unlikely that such 

 a collection will again be brought together. Its richness in 

 mummies, objects in bronze, marble, alabaster, etc., together 

 with those of smaller size usually found in Egyptian tombs 

 and elsewhere, is very great. While this collection does not 

 embrace many statues or immense sarcophagi, it is believed 

 to be equal to any in the completeness of its series of the 

 smaller objects of religious and domestic Egyptian antiquity, 

 and not inferior to the best collections of Paris, London, Ber- 

 lin, or Leyden. 



It was purchased by Mr. Samuel A. Way, of Boston, re- 

 moved to that city, and oftered to the Museum of Fine Arts, 



