HARDWl CKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSJF. 



67 



Theodoric ; albeit the date 526 a.d. is fatal, and the 

 coincidence certainly striking. It is a little singular 

 "that Professor Sayce, in translating the allegory of 

 .Bel and the Dragon, should not have recognised in it 

 a. base version of the Jewish lawgiving, the Assyrian 

 tables being of moral import and not of moral weight, 

 the shadow and fruit of that golden tree whose gay 

 Ausions of the earth's childhood are still the bane and 

 perdition of our modern culture. The meteorology 

 and geology patched together infallibly outlines in 

 barbarous hauruspid style the ruddy clouds, the 

 lightnings, the belching, the red lava, and the terrific 

 reflexion of the volcano. ' None among the gods 

 surpasses thy power ; as an adornment he has founded 

 the shrine of the Gods, which is become thy home, 

 O thou that avengest us. May thy destiny, O Lord, 

 go before the gods, and may they confirm the destruc- 

 tion and the creation of all that is said. Set thy 

 aiiouth, may it destroy the plan ; turn, speak to him, 

 4ind let him produce again his plan. Go, they said, 

 ;and cut off the life of Tiamet ; let the winds carry her 

 blood to secret places. They showed his path and 

 they bade him listen and take the road. He made 

 the club to swing, the bow and the quiver he hung at 

 Jiis side ; he set the lightning before him, with a 

 glance of swiftness he filled his body. She recites an 

 incantation, she casts a spell. Bel made an evil wind 

 to enter, so that she could not close her lips. The 

 violence of the winds tortured her stomach, and her 

 heart was prostrated and her mouth twisted. He 

 swung his club, he shattered her stomach, he cut out 

 her entrails ; he mastered her heart. The elevenfold 

 offspring are troubled through fear. And he took 

 from him the tables of destiny. He lit up the sky, 

 the sanctuary rejoiced. Bel measured the offspring 

 of the deep, he established the upper firmament as 

 his image.' In Syria during a famine when a change 

 •of dynasty was contemplated, a prophet, we are told, 

 resorted to a cave in Mount Horeb. A strong wind 

 lent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks 

 before Jehovah ; after the wind came an earthquake 

 and after the earthquake a fire ; when Moses ascended 

 Sinai at the delivery of the law, ' the smoke thereof 

 ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole 

 mountain quaked greatly.' It is the precedent to 

 cast dates from an Astronomical canon : that of the 

 Alexandrine astronomers gives the follor/ing dates for 

 the kings of Assyria, commencing at Cyrus, B.C. 53S, 

 555. 559. 561. 604, 625, 647, 667, 680, 688, 692, 

 ■693. 699, 722, 724, and 729 ; the one enclosed will 

 cast with but small deviation and error those of 

 Israel and Judah. If winds and earthquakes are 

 •regarded, then, as an expression of the Divine will, 

 .and these are found to be in turn caused by the sun ; 

 it is difficult to see how the sun and stars can be ex- 

 cluded, save there exist some incomprehensible dis- 

 tinction between judicial cosmology and judicial 

 astronomy. 



A. H. SWINTON. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



We would draw the special attention of our readers 

 to an article in the last number of the " Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History," by Professor Ruken- 

 thal, " On the Adaptation of Mammalia to Aquatic 

 Life." He believes the toothed whales and the whale- 

 bone whales have each had a separate origin and 

 development. 



The last number of the Fcnille des Jcunes Natura- 

 listes has a capital and comprehensive article by M. 

 Billet on " Notions Elementaires de Bacteriologie." 



We are pleased to announce that the valuable notes 

 and memoranda of the veteran Norfolk geologist, the 

 late Mr. John.Gunn, will shortly be published, under 

 the title of "Memorials of John Gunn." It cannot 

 fail to be a deeply interesting book. 



Part 10 of "The Canary Book," by R. L. 

 Wallace, and part 10 of " British Cage Birds," by the 

 same author, are to hand (London : L. Upcott Gill). 

 Both parts are well up to their high mark. 



We have received number 106 of Wesley's 

 " Natural History and Scientific Book Circular," 

 containing 48 pp., all of which are devoted to works 

 on Botany. 



A WORK of much labour as well as of love is the 

 Rev. E. N. Blomfield's .'brochure on " The Lepidop- 

 tera of Suffolk," published by W. Wesley & Son. 

 It runs to 60 pp., and is a model of careful exactness, 

 due to vast painstaking. 



At a meeting of the Institut de France (Academic 

 des Sciences), Paris, held on December 29th, Dr. A. 

 B. Griffiths, F.R.S.E., F.C.S. (an old contributor 

 to Science-Gossip), was awarded an _," honourable 

 mention" in connection with the Prix Montyon 

 which is given annually for researches in experimental 

 physiology and physiological chemistry. 



An interesting addition has just been made to our 

 British Pleistocene fauna by Doctor Leeson's dis- 

 covery of a portion of the skull of the Saiga antelope 

 {Saiga tartarka) in the Thames graves at Twicken- 

 ham. Its remains had previously been found in the 

 caverns of France and Belgium. 



A new fossil wading bird has been found in the 

 cretaceous rocks of Sweden, and named Scanioriiis 

 Liidgreni. 



The next International Congress of Geologists 

 will assemble at Washington, U.S.A., on the 26th 

 of August, after the meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, which will 

 be held the week before. It is expected that the 

 committee will be able to obtain from the ocean 

 steamship lines very favourable terms for foreign 



