394 Scientific lutellig'ence. — ArU'. 



Paris, has delivered an opinion respecting the cause of embalm- 

 ing in Egypt, that the Egyptians were led to it from physical ne- 

 cessity. During four months of every year, the inundation of the 

 Nile covers almost entirely the wholeof the surfaceof Egypt which 

 is under cultivation. Under the reign of Sesostris, for an extent 

 of territory of about 2250 square leagues, there would be a popu- 

 lation of 6222 persons per square league, which w ould present 

 350,000 deaths per annum. These corpses must be gotten rid 

 of, either by burning or by interment ; if the latter, they must 

 be burned around the inhabited vspots, or in those which were 

 inundated by the Nile, and then the decomposition of these 

 bodies would have been a source of infection ; and for burning 

 bodies there was a want of a sufficiency of wood. But the soil of 

 Egypt abounds in springs of natron, and sub-carbonate of soda ; 

 and as this substance is antiseptic, the inhabitants were natu- 

 rally led to preserve witli it the corpses of the dead. In sup- 

 port of this opinion, that sanitary views alone were the cause of 

 embalment, down to the third century, before the christian 

 era, when the practice was discontinued, M. Fontenelle observed, 

 that, during the whole of that period, the plague was unknown 

 in Egypt, where it is now endemic. 



42. Lithographic Drawings of the celebrated Masters of 

 different Schools, — Lithographic impressions of select draw- 

 ings, by celebrated masters of all the schools, from the col- 

 lection of the Archduke Charles, will speedily appear. This 

 collection contains 14,000 original designs. The work will 

 be published in livraisons, the number of which is not yet fixed. 

 The early numbers will contain the Schools of Italy and Ger- 

 many, and the latter the Schools of France and the Netherlands. 

 A part will be published monthly. Each plate will be 26 

 inches long, by 18 broad. — Foreign Quarterly Review^ No. I. 



43. On Mosaic Printing. — Senefelder, the inventor of Li- 

 thography, has discovered a new mode of printing from paint- 

 ings, which has all the quahties of those executed in oil. He 

 has termed it Mosaic Printings and it is remakable for its beau- 

 ty, lightness, and durability. 



44. Fluid Telescopes, — Our readers will be pleased to Jearn 

 that the construction of fluid telescopes, first projected by Dr 

 Blair, forms at present a subject of considerable interest in Lon- 

 don, Messrs W. and T. Gilbert, of Leadenhall Street, having 



