34 EEPORT OF TUB SECRETARY. 



and otbers of a later date, all of tbem characterized by groat beauty and 

 size. 



One of the most interesting additions to the department of ethnology 

 is the cast of the Tanis stone, on which is a trilingual inscription re- 

 cently obtained from some excavations made at Tanis, on the eastern or 

 Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and belonging to the museum of Egyp- 

 tian antiquities at Cairo. The original is a block six feet high, two and 

 a half feet broad, and a foot thick, with the top arched. One side is 

 occupied partly by hieroglyphic inscriptions, together with a Greek 

 translation of the same, while a portion of the left side is occupied with an 

 equivalent inscription in the Demotic character. This stone occupies a 

 position in Egyptology similar to that of the " Rosetta stone," except 

 that it is much more perfect, and will probably aid much in deciphering 

 the hieroglyphics. The cast was taken by the instrumentality of Dr. 

 Lansing for presentation to Monmouth College, Illinois, but at his re- 

 quest and that of Mr. S. H. Scudder, and by permission of the authori- 

 ties of that college, it was sent to the Institution to be copied. Unfor- 

 tunately, it was very much broken in the transit, and required patient 

 labor on the part of a skillful modeler to restore it to anything like its 

 original condition. When this is accomplished a mold and casts will 

 be taken, and the original sent to the college. In this connection we 

 may mention that the inscriptions on the stone have been carefully 

 studied by Dr. G. Seyffarth, an eminent Egyptologist, who visited 

 Washington for the i)urpose, and will present a paper on the subject to 

 the Institution, for publication. 



Correspondence. — As we feave said in previous reports, a very large 

 amount of labor is devoted to correspondence. Beside those relating 

 to the ordinary business of the establishment, hundreds of letters are 

 received during the year containing inquiries on various subjects on 

 which the writer desires information, and also many memoirs which are 

 presented for i)ublication. Among the former a large number are re- 

 ceived from the five hundred meteorological observers who furnish, vol- 

 untarily, records of the weather, and who require frequent explanation 

 of special phenomena. Among the papers submitted for publication 

 are a large number containing speculations in reference to science which 

 in many instances exhibit great industry and profound thought on the 

 part of their authors, but which, nevertheless, cannot be considered as 

 j)ositive additions to knowledge founded on original research, and which, 

 therefore, in accordance with the rules adopted by the Institution, can- 

 not be accepted for pul>lication. On account of the wide ditfusion of 

 elementary edu{;ation in the United States, and the general taste for read- 

 ing among all classes, there isnoother part of the world, perhaps, in which 

 there exists a greater ditt'usion of elementary scientific knowledge, and, 

 l)erhaps, more activity of mind directed in the line of scientilic thought. 

 Much, however, of this, from a want of proper training, and the means 

 of exi)eriment and observation to verify deductions from a priori con- 



