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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



perfecting of even a simple machine, or 

 how little the last man may need to add to 

 complete the invention. Facts and natural 

 laws, known for years as curiosities, are 

 taken up by some inventor, who fails in 

 the attempt to render them of practical 

 use ; then a second genius takes hold, and, 

 profiting by the mistakes of the first, pro- 

 duces, at great cost, a working machine. 

 Then comes the successful man, who works 

 out the final practical design, and, whether 

 making or losing a fortune, yet permanent- 

 ly benefits mankind. This course is exem- 

 plified in the address by the relation of the 

 growth of the steam-engine; and so with 

 other inventions : the steamboat was being 

 developed from 1760 to 1807 ; the locomo- 

 tive from 1802 to 1829; the telegraph, from 

 1729 to 1844; the sewing-machine, with its 

 two thousand patents, from 1790 to 1860; 

 and the reaping-machine for seventy-five 

 years — the last successful man adding gen- 

 erally but little to the work of his forerun- 

 ners. The rule has been that " the basis 

 of success lay in a thorough acquaintance 

 with what had been done before, and in set- 

 ting about improvement in a thoroughly sci- 

 entific way." 



Composite Photography of Handwrit- 

 ing. — Dr. Persifer Frazer has published a 

 paper on " Composite Photography applied 

 to Handwriting." The principle of the ap- 

 plication is the same as that proposed by 

 Mr. Galton for the production of composite 

 portraits, to be typical of a family, a race, 

 or a class of persons. With relation to the 

 practical value of the application contem- 

 plated in Mr. Frazer's paper, the author 

 pays that, in examining with care a compos- 

 ite signature, " it at once arrests the atten- 

 tion that the variations are not equally dis- 

 tributed over the entire body of the letter, 

 but that there are regions of each letter 

 where variations of a particular kind are 

 noticeable, and other regions where there 

 are few or none. The more the manuscripts 

 of an individual are compared the more for- 

 cibly does this fact appear, until finally one 

 is tempted to conclude that after a hand- 

 writing is once formed it can not naturally 

 exhibit deviations except within a defined 

 variation and in certain limited areas adja- 

 cent to the separate letters. It is thus as 



great an assistance to an observer to study 

 the variations as to study the ideal signa- 

 ture. Indeed, the variations are all-impor- 

 tant in the matter of identification, and if 

 there were no variations the method would 

 be inapplicable, because an exact copy might 

 be made by tracing." The principle was ap- 

 plied by Mr. Frazer in a recent case in a 

 Philadelphia court, and he thinks, from the 

 experience thus far gained, that "it will (at 

 least in many cases) more surely lead to the 

 truth than will the mere opinions of the 

 most skillful expert." 



Sesostris. — On the first day of June last, 

 M. Maspero, in the presence of the Khedive 

 and a number of Egyptian and European 

 notables, unwrapped the bandages of the 

 mummy of Rameses II — the Sesostris of the 

 Greeks, and the Pharaoh of Moses and the 

 Hebrew oppression — which was found about 

 two years ago at Dayr-el-Bahari, near 

 Thebes. The mummy was identified by the 

 inscriptions on the lid of the sarcophagus 

 and on the outer winding-sheet. The pro- 

 file of the goddess Nut, which was painted 

 on a linen sheet covering the front of the 

 mummy, was " unmistakably designed after 

 the pure and delicate profile of Seti I," the 

 father and predecessor of Rameses. In a 

 quarter of an hour after the unrolling was 

 begun, the face of the monarch was re- 

 vealed, as it had been laid away 3,300 

 years ago. " The head is long, and small 

 in proportion to the body. The top of the 

 skull is quite bare. On the temples there 

 are a few sparse hairs, but at the poll the 

 hair is quite thick, forming smooth, straight 

 locks about five centimetres in length. 

 White at the time of death, they have 

 been dyed a light yellow by the epices 

 used in embalmment. The forehead is low 

 and narrow; the brow -ridge prominent; 

 the eyebrows are thick and white ; the 

 eyes are small and close together ; the 

 nose is long, thin, hooked like the noses 

 of the Bourbons, and slightly crushed at 

 the tip by the pressure of the bandages. 

 The temples are sunken ; the cheek-bones 

 very prominent ; the ears round, standing 

 far out from the head, and pierced, like 

 those of a woman, for the wearing of ear- 

 rings. The jawbone is massive and strong ; 

 the chin very prominent ; the mouth small 



