594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The adjustment of recent orthodox thought to this view pre- 

 sents some curious features. As typical we may take the travels 

 of two German theologians between 1860 and 1870 John Kranzel, 

 pastor in Munich ; and Peter Schegg, lately professor in the uni- 

 versity of that city. 



The archdiocese of Munich-Freising is one of those in which 

 the attempt to oppress modern scientific thought has been most 

 steadily carried on. Its archbishops have constantly shown them- 

 selves assiduous in securing cardinals' hats by thwarting science 

 and by stupefying education. The twin towers of the old cathe- 

 dral of Munich have seemed to throw a killing shadow over intel- 

 lectual development in that region. Naturally, then, these two 

 clerical travelers from that diocese did not commit themselves to 

 clearing away any of the Dead Sea myths ; but it is significant 

 that neither of them follows the example of so many of their 

 clerical predecessors in defending the salt-pillar legend; they 

 steadily avoid it altogether. 



The more recent history of the salt pillar, since Lynch, de- 

 serves mention. It appears that the travelers immediately after 

 him found it shaped by the storms into a spire ; that a year or two 

 later it had utterly disappeared ; and about the year 1870 Prof. 

 Palmer on visiting the place found at some distance from the 

 main salt bed, as he says, " a tall, isolated needle of salt or salt 

 rock, which does really bear a curious resemblance to an Arab 

 woman with a child on her shoulders." 



Three years later Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible " makes its 

 concession to the old belief regarding Sodom and Gomorrah as 

 slight as possible, and the myth of Lot's wife entirely disappears. 



The theological effort to compromise with science now came in 

 more strongly than ever. This effort had been made long before : 

 as we have seen, it had begun to show itself decidedly as soon as 

 the influence of the Baconian philosophy was felt. Clerc thought 

 that the shock caused by the sight of fire from heaven killed 

 Lot's wife instantly and made her body rigid as a statue. Eich- 

 horn suggested that she fell into a stream of melted bitumen. 

 Michaelis suggested that her relatives raised a monument of salt 

 rock to her memory. Friedrichs suggested that she fell into the 

 sea, and that the salt stiffened around her clothing, thus making a 

 statue of her. Some claimed that a shower of sulphur came down 

 upon her, and that the word which has been translated " salt " 

 could possibly be translated '" sulphur." Others hinted that the 

 salt by its antiseptic qualities preserved her body as a mummy. 

 De Saulcy, as we have seen, thought that a piece of salt rock 

 fell upon her ; and very recently Principal Dawson ventures the 

 explanation that a flood of salt mud coming from a volcano 

 incrusted her. 



