2IO Proceedings. 



Ordinary Meeting, April i8th, 1893. 



Professor Artpiur Schuster, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of 

 the books upon the table. 



It was moved by Mr. ALEXANDER HODGKINSON, M.B., 

 B.Sc, seconded by Mr. Alderman JOSEPH Thompson, and 

 resolved : — "That the Secretaries be requested to forward 

 to Mr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., an expression of the 

 respectful sympathy of the members with him in his recent 

 bereavement through the death of Mrs. Wilde." 



The following extract from a letter addressed to Dr. 

 Schunck by Mr. Flinders Petrie, with reference to some 

 statements contained in the paper by the former entitled 

 " Notes on some ancient dyes," was read to the meeting : — 

 " Some one has not given very precise information to you 

 about the Egyptian fabrics. The pieces which Mr. Darbi- 

 shire took from my collection for your purpose were all 

 from Illahun (which is a few miles from Gurob), in Middle 

 Egypt, some 40 miles south of Cairo. Their date is prob- 

 ably the seventh century A.D. They were all from open 

 graves of slight depth (one to three feet) and were the actual 

 clothes of the persons, worn by them during life, in which 

 they were buried, without any coffins or mummification. 

 The dryness of the air and soil has caused the bodies to 

 shrink to a leathery state, with little or no escape of fluids ; 

 hence the textiles show but little trace of their contact with 

 the body." 



Dr. Schunck stated at the same time that he had 

 received from Mr. Flinders Petrie a specimen of a bright 

 yellow fabric from the same locality as those previously 

 examined. The material he found to be woollen, but the 



