Scientific Litelligence. — Zoology. 393 



process combines with the v/ater ; and, if the neutral fluid is 

 preserved in a well-closed glass-vessel, it may be kept for many 

 weeks, without exhibiting any precipitation of silica. But if it 

 is exposed to the air, or, better, if the solution is heated in an 

 open vessel, it is decomposed in proportion to the escape of the 

 carbonic acid, and the siliceous earth is deposited on the walls 

 of the vessel in a gelatinous state. This result shews, that the 

 great quantity of silica met with in many mineral springs, par- 

 ticularly hot sprmgs, is held in solution by carbonic acid. It is 

 true, that we cannot in this way explain how the siliceous earth 

 was first dissolved, — for the generally received opinion, that the 

 earth is simply washed out of the strata in the vicinity of the 

 springs, is, according to Karsten, untenable. 



ZOOLOGY. 



, 4. ^Tit-Lark caught at Sea. — I have, at this moment, be- 

 fore me (says Dr Traill of Liverpool) extracts from the journal 

 of my intelligent friend Captain Andrew Livingston, which, 

 among other things, notices, that a small bird alighted on the 

 brig Jane of this port, in Lat. 47° 4' South, Long. 43° 19' West, 

 on September 11. 1825. It was caught, and when examined 

 here, proved to be the common tit-lark (Alauda prateiisis.) 



5. Egyptian Antiquities in Liverpool Museum. — We have 

 in our Museum, many fine Egyptian antiquities ; among these 

 is a beautiful papyrus, found in the hand of a mummy. It is 

 upwards of 20 feet in lengthy the hieroglyphics beautifully exe- 

 cuted, and interspersed with numerous pictures. One of these is 

 a representation of the Egyptian Last Judgment, as described 

 by Diodorus Siculus; in which the spirit of the deceased is 

 ushered by a genius before the god Thoth, who sits with his 

 tablets writing down the result of a trial, then before him, in 

 which the deeds of the deceased are weighed in a balance, the 

 vibrations of which are intently watched by Cerberus. In an 

 upper compartment, the happy issue of the trial is announced 

 by the introduction of the human spirit, under the guidance of 

 the same genius, to Osiris. We have an unrolled head of a 

 mummy, a young female, with high thin nose, and long auburn 

 ringlets, confirming the opinion of Cuvier, Blumenbach, and 

 others, that the Egyptians (of the era, at least, of this mum- 



