5 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But to the honor of scientific men and scientific truth it should 

 he said that even under Napoleon and the Bourbons there were 

 men who continued to explore, observe, and describe with the 

 simple love of truth as truth, and in spite of the probability that 

 their researches would be received during their lifetime with con- 

 tempt and even hostility both in church and state. 



The pioneer in this work of the nineteenth century was the 

 German naturalist Ulrich Seetzen. He began his main investi- 

 gation in 1806, and soon his learning, courage, and honesty threw 

 a flood of new light into the Dead Sea questions. 



In this light, myth and legend faded more rapidly than ever. 

 Typical of his method is his examination of the Dead Sea fruit. 

 He found, on reaching Palestine, that Josephus's story regarding 

 it, which had been accepted for nearly two thousand years, was 

 believed on all sides ; more than this, he found that the original 

 myth had so grown that a multitude of respectable people at 

 Bethlehem and elsewhere assured him that not only apples, but 

 pears, pomegranates, figs, lemons, and many other fruits which 

 grow upon the shores of the Dead Sea, though beautiful to look 

 upon, were filled with ashes. These good people declared to 

 Seetzen that they had seen these fruits, and that, not long before, 

 a basketful of them which had been sent to a merchant of Jaffa 

 had turned to ashes. 



Seetzen was evidently perplexed by this mass of testimony, 

 and naturally anxious to examine these fruits. On arriving at 

 the sea he began to look for them, and the guide soon showed 

 him the " apples." These he found to be simply an asclepia, 

 which had been described by Linnaeus, and which is found in the 

 East Indies, Arabia, Egypt, Jamaica, and elsewhere ; the " ashes " 

 were simply seeds. He looked next for the other fruits, and the 

 guide soon found for him the " lemons " ; these he discovered to 

 be a species of solarium found in other parts of Palestine and 

 elsewhere, and the seeds in these were the famous " cinders." 

 He looked next for the pears, figs, and other accursed fruits ; but, 

 instead of finding them filled with ashes and cinders, he found 

 them like the same fruits in other lands, and he tells us that he 

 ate the figs with much pleasure. 



So perished a myth which had been kept alive two thousand 

 years, partly by modes of thought natural to theologians, partly 

 by the self-interest of guides, and partly by the love of marvel- 

 mongering among travelers. 



Egypte," Paris, 180*7, i, 308 et seq.; also, for a statement of contributions of the eighteenth 

 century to geology, Lartet in De Luynes's " Mer Morte," vol. iii, p. 12. For Cornelius 

 Bruyn, see French edition of his works, 1714, in which his name is given as "Le Brun," 

 especially for representations of fossils, pp. 309 and 375. For Chateaubriand, see his 

 " Voyage," etc., vol. ii, part iii. For De Geramb, see his " Voyage," ii, 45-47. 



