596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



severe on poor Monsieur De Saulcy for thinking that Lot's wife 

 was killed by the falling of a piece of salt rock, and actually boasts 

 that it was he who caused De Saulcy, a member of the French In- 

 stitute, to suppress the obnoxious passage in a later edition. 



Nor did such rationalizing efforts fare much better among 

 Protestant theologians. In his excellent work on " The Land of 

 Israel/' Canon Tristram makes an energetic protest against scien- 

 tific explanations of biblical statements. 



Between 1870 and 1880 came two killing blows at the older 

 theories, and they were dealt by two American scholars of the 

 highest character. First of these may be mentioned Dr. Philip 

 Schaff, a professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at 

 New York; who published his travels in 1877. In a high degree 

 he united the scientific with the religious spirit, but the trait 

 which made him especially fit for dealing with this subject was 

 his straightforward German honesty. He tells the simple truth 

 regarding the pillar of salt, so far as its physical origin and 

 characteristics are concerned, and leaves his reader to draw the 

 natural inference as to its relation to the myth. With the fate of 

 Dr. Robertson Smith in Scotland and Dr. Woodrow in South 

 Carolina before him both recently driven from their professor- 

 ships for truth-telling Dr. Schaff deserves honor for telling as 

 much as he does. 



Similar in effect, and even more bold in statement, were the 

 " Travels " of the Rev. Henry Osborne, published in 1878. In a 

 truly scientific spirit he calls attention to the similarity between 

 the Dead Sea, with, the river Jordan, to sundry other lake and river 

 systems ; he points out the endless variations between writers 

 describing the salt formations at Usdum ; accounts rationally 

 for these variations, and quotes from Dr. Anderson's report, say- 

 ing, " From the soluble nature of the salt and the crumbling 

 looseness of the marl, it might be well imagined that, while some 

 of these needles are in process of formation, others are being 

 washed away." 



Thus came out, little by little, the truth regarding the Dead 

 Sea myths, and especially the salt pillar at Usdum ; but the final 

 truth remained to be told, and now one of the purest men and 

 truest divines of this century told it. Arthur Stanley, Dean of 

 Westminster, visiting the country and thoroughly exploring it, 

 allowed that the physical features of the Dead Sea and its shores 

 suggested the myths and legends, and he sums up the whole as 

 follows : " A great mass of legends and exaggerations, partly the 

 cause and partly the result of the old belief that the cities were 

 buried under the Dead Sea, has been gradually removed in recent 

 years." 



So, too, about the same time, Dr. Conrad Furrer, pastor of the 



