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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a gunshot would produce. The numerous 

 articles of earthenware presented a great 

 variety of forms, and were both plain and 

 decorated. The iron articles were all very 

 much oxidized, so that traces could hardly 

 be detected of the silver with which some 

 of them had been damascened. Lances 

 were put at the head of the dead and arrows 

 and battle-axes along by the legs. The 

 bronzes were made of different alloys of 

 copper and tin and other metals, and in- 

 cluded fibules in the shape of a bird (single- 

 and double-headed paroquet), round belt- 

 plates, and handsome little shoe-ornaments. 



Egyptological Discovery. Great prog- 

 ress has been made within twelve months 

 in Egyptological discovery. M. Marriette, the 

 official curator of the antiquities of the coun- 

 try, who died in January, 1881, had, just be- 

 fore his death, opened three pyramids, two of 

 them those of monarchs of the sixth dynas- 

 ty who were among the most distinguished 

 kings of the old empire Pepi Rameri, who, 

 according to Manetho, reigned a hundred 

 years, and his son and successor Rameri. 

 The pyramids were richly adorned with 

 inscriptions, and the discovery pleasantly 

 supplements the valuable biography we al- 

 ready had of a chief officer of that period, 

 relating the wars with the negroes and other 

 events, which form one of the most satisfac- 

 tory historical documents which the ancient 

 empire has yet furnished us. Professor 

 Maspero, who was appointed to succeed M. 

 Marriette, shortly after he took his office ex- 

 plored the pyramids of a still earlier monarch, 

 Unas, the last king of the fifth dynasty, which 

 was also richly decorated and contained in- 

 scriptions, mostly parts of the ritual, a sar- 

 cophagus of black basalt, and remains of 

 the mummy, bearing marks of the work of 

 the ancient tomb-breakers. The excava- 

 tions of the pyramids are to be continued in 

 the expectation of finding them to confirm 

 M. Maspero's theory that the pyramids from 

 Gizeh to the Fayoom are a series containing 

 in succession the bodies of the kings from 

 the fourth to the thirteenth dynasty. A 

 second great discovery of no less impor- 

 tance was made in July at the caverns be- 

 hind the Deir-el-Bahari, or temple of Ha- 

 tasu, near Thebes. Attention had long 

 been drawn to the antiquities which had 



been offered to travelers for many years 

 past, and which it was believed must come 

 from some hiding-place known only to the 

 Arabs. M. Emil Burgsch secured the ar- 

 rest of the Arab who seemed most concerned 

 in these dealings, and succeeded in tracing 

 the articles to their source, the cave among 

 the hills where the royal mummies had been 

 carried and deposited for security against 

 invasion during the twenty -first dynasty. 

 The mummies are twenty-seven in number, 

 several of them being of kings, queens, and 

 princesses, and persons of distinction of 

 the eighteenth and intervening dynasties 

 to the twenty -first, and with them were 

 thousands of objects amulets, statuettes, 

 papyruses which are expected when read 

 to prove of great value, and a leather tent 

 of a king of the twenty-first dynasty. Among 

 the mummies are those of Raskenen, a king 

 preceding the eighteenth dynasty ; of Queen 

 Ansera, Amenophis I, and his wife Ahmes 

 Nof ertari, Thothmes II, and Thothmes III, of 

 the eighteenth dynasty; Rameses II, the 

 supposed Pharaoh of Moses, of the twen- 

 tieth dynasty ; Queen Notemit (to whom the 

 " Prince of Wales's papyrus " in the Brit- 

 ish Museum was originally attached) ; and 

 King Pinotem II, of the twenty-first dynasty. 

 Cases and other articles were also found be- 

 longing to other distinguished monarchs of 

 the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, 

 The cave in which the remains were found 

 is supposed to have been originally the 

 tomb of Queen Ansera. 



The Manageable Zone of Anaesthetics. 



M. Paul Bert has announced some dis- 

 coveries of great value respecting the mode 

 of action of mixtures of anaesthetic vapors 

 and atmospheric air upon the animal or- 

 ganism. He applies the term manageable 

 zone to the different degrees of admixture, 

 rising from the proportion of anaesthetic 

 which is insufficient to put to sleep, to 

 the proportion which will cause immediate 

 death. In the case of chloroform and ether 

 the mortal dose appears to be exactly 

 double the minimum anaesthetic dose. An- 

 aesthesia takes place in the middle of the 

 manageable zone very rapidly and without 

 danger, so that the animal may be left for 

 two hours in the anaesthetic atmosphere 

 without any one being concerned about him. 



