FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



287 



man, living in the clear light of history, 

 whose acts were chronicled at the time by 

 respectable historians. Nevertheless, so 

 transcendent was his genius, so marvelous 

 were his deeds, that almost immediately 

 after his death probably, indeed, during 

 his life popular imagination lays hold of 

 him, adds adventures, miracles, words of 

 wisdom, wonders of all sorts, and so trans 

 forms him into a colossal mythical figure, 

 which looms through the mists of fable, as 

 fantastic as Jack the Giant Killer. The 

 diffusion of the Alexander stories is prob- 

 ably the widest ever attained by any heroic 



legend. " There are versions of them stretch- 

 ing through all the middle ages in time, and 

 reaching in space from the Malay Peninsula 

 to Ireland ; and, as every nation has desired 

 a popular or home edition, we can even yet 

 find either complete or partial texts in at 

 least wenty-three languages." Dr. Budge 

 describes the process of amplification of the 

 myth as starting with the distortion and en- 

 largement of the first tolerably accurate de- 

 scription, and going on till, " when the hero 

 has become a mere memory, his name will be 

 made in each country that adopts the story a 

 peg on which to hang legends and myths." 



MINOR PARAGRAPHS. 



A BOW and arrows taken from an Egyp- 

 tian tomb of the twenty-sixth dynasty and 

 exhibited to the London Anthropological In- 

 ptitute differ in a very marked manner from 

 the native Egyptian bows, and are believed 

 to be of Assyrian origin. The differences 

 are very evident when a comparison is made 

 with the typical Egyptian archer's equip- 

 ment which was found in the same tomb. 

 The bow is elaborately built up of several 

 materials, and is therefore to be classed with 

 the " composite bows," being allied to the 

 modern Asiatic bows comprised under this 

 term. The materials of which it is com- 

 posed are wood (two kinds), dense black 

 horn, sinews of animals, birch bark, and glue. 

 The birch bark, which completely enveloped 

 the bow in a continuous sheath, would of it- 

 self proclaim the implement to be a foreign 

 and northern introduction into Egypt, and 

 the whole character of the weapon bears out 

 this supposition. 



It is related in the Life of Brian Hough- 

 ton Hodgson, the first great collector of 

 Buddhist manuscripts, that while seeking for 

 books in Nepaul he was surprised at the wide 

 diffusion of literature among the masses. 

 He attributed it to the knowledge of prirt- 

 ing which the Tibetans had derived, prob- 

 ably, from China. " But the universal use 

 they make of it," he said, " is a merit of 

 their own. The poorest fellow who visits 

 this valley is seldom without his religious 

 tract, and from every part of his dress dan- 

 gle charms made up in slight cases, whose 

 interior exhibits the neatest workmanship." 

 The universal use of writing, as shown by 



the abundance of manuscripts, was hardly 

 less noticeable than the wide diffusion of 

 printed books. The writing of many of these 

 ancient manuscripts exhibits fine specimens 

 of very graceful penmanship ; and they owe 

 their preservation, the author of the memoir 

 says, to having been guarded in their wrap- 

 pings of silks as sacred heirlooms. 



The well-known germicidal qualities of 

 oxygen have led to its recent application in 

 the treatment of surgical wounds. Exam- 

 inations of the bacteriological conditions of 

 affected parts before and after treatment, 

 says Mr. George Stoker in a recent British 

 Medical Journal, show that oxygen has a se- 

 lective action in reference to microorgan- 

 isms. Whatever may be the connection be- 

 tween the organisms and the state of a 

 wound or sore, it seems to be established 

 that when in a wound treated by oxygen 

 healing is arrested or retarded, there is al- 

 ways a corresponding decrease of favorable 

 and increase of unfavorable micro organisms. 

 If the strength of the oxygen bath be in- 

 creased when this condition arises, the char- 

 acter of the micro-organisms from the wound 

 is entirely reversed. A long and varied ex- 

 perience of the oxygen treatment has led 

 Mr. Stoker to conclude that the method 

 heals in less time than any other form of 

 treatment, allays pain, stops foul discharges, 

 forms a healthy new skin, and is far more 

 economical than any other form of ti-eat- 

 ment, both as regards suffering and money. 



The scientific merits of archaeology were 

 well set forth in an address made by Mr. 

 W. M. Flinders Petrie at the recent annual 



