214 . Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



21. EUMENIAN MARBLES. 



A discovery of great historical importance has lately been made at 

 Autun, a city about 160 miles to the south-east of Paris. It was 

 well known that Eumenes had placed in the schools which bore his 

 name a marble tablet representing the itinerary of the Roman roads 

 leading from the territory of the ^Edui in Celtic Gaul, to Italy. 

 This marble, having been accidentally broken, was employed, in 

 common with a number of other ruins of ancient monuments, in 

 forming the foundation of the Abbey of St. Jean-le-Grand, founded 

 at Autun at the close of the sixth century by Brunehaut. This 

 precious marble was considered as irretrievably lost ; but M. Mar- 

 tigny, of Autun, has undertaken an excavation, by means of which he 

 has already recovered a fragment of the itinerary, a marble ewer, a 

 capital, &c. Should M. Martigny succeed in recovering the whole 

 of the marble, it will probably be of great use in correcting or 

 completing the Itinerary of Antoninus, the table of Peutinger, and 

 the Arundel marbles. The Academy of Sciences of Dijon has the 

 fragment which has been found, and is preparing to have it engraved 

 and published. 



22. ON THE ILLUMINATION OF THEATRES. (Additional Remarks, 

 by Mr. Ainger.) 



Since the paper printed at page 45 was written, I accidentally 

 learned that an essay on the same subject had been published by 

 M. Lavoisin, in the Memoirs of the French Academy for 1781. I 

 have examined the essay in question, and I find, as might have 

 been expected, that the objections to the existing mode of illumina- 

 tion had been fully felt and expressed half a century since. The 

 plan suggested by M. Lavoisin is, however, very different from that 

 which I have submitted. In the first place, M. Lavoisin retains 

 the foot-lights, in which are, I think, comprised nine-tenths of the 

 objections to the present system ; preserving these, it seems scarcely 

 worth while to incur any considerable expense to remove the other 

 comparatively trifling evils. M. Lavoisin, in addition to the foot- 

 lights, suggests the use of certain powerful lamps with reflectors 

 above the stage for the purpose of illuminating the centre scene when 

 it is so far back as to be ineffectually lighted by the foot-lamps. 

 He proposes to light the audience by nine burners, with ellipsoidal 

 reflectors, placed above the ceiling, which is to be perforated for the 

 purpose ; but as this would leave the ceiling itself quite dark, he 

 adds other lamps round the walls, with a view to remove that 

 defect. 



It is gratifying to find that the subject has been thought suf- 

 ficiently important to merit the attention of so distinguished a phi- 

 losopher as M. Lavoisin ; and on his authority I venture to hope 

 that it will be taken up by those who alone have the means of 

 making an effectual experiment. 



