Miscellaneous. 141 
On the Organic Bodies contained in Ancient Egyptian Bricks. 
By Professor UNGER. 
The author lately obtained some tiles from the well-known brick 
pyramid of Dashur, the building of which dates between 3300 and 
3400 years B.c. These, like all the Egyptian bricks, have been 
made with an addition of desert sand and chopped straw, in order to 
give them greater cohesion and durability. Both with the principal 
mass, the Nile-mud, and the chopped straw, seeds of various plants, 
animal remains, and artificial products were accidentally introduced 
into the manufacture; so that, the consistency of the enclosing 
substance having remained unaltered, these bodies have also been 
preserved unchanged to the present time, and are therefore to be 
recognized quite distinctly. 
The investigation of these bodies, which are generally small, 
showed the presence, at the remote period of the building of the 
pyramid, of five different cultivated plants, seven field-weeds, and 
some local plants, together with several freshwater Mollusca and 
remains of fishes and insects, &c., but all organisms which still for 
the most part occur in Egypt, and have hitherto remained un- 
altered. 
Besides two cereals (wheat and barley), there were found the teff 
(Eragrostis habyssinica), the field-pea (Pisum arvense), and the 
flax (Linum usitatissimum) ; the last was, in all probability, employed 
both as a food-plant and for textile purposes. 
Greater interest attaches to the weeds, which belong to the com- 
monest kinds, and have necessarily migrated with the cultivated 
plants, not only over all Europe, but over the greater part of the 
earth. Among them may be named Rhaphanus Rhaphanistrum, 
Chrysanthemum segetum, Euphorbia helioscopia, Chenopodium mu- 
rale, Bupleurum aristatum, and Vicia sativa. 
Of artificial products, there were found fragments of burnt bricks 
and earthen vessels, a small piece of linen thread and one of woollen 
thread—all of which indicate a tolerably advanced civilization at the 
time of the building of this pyramid. Moreover the condition in 
which all these enclosed objects, especially the chopped straw, oc- 
curred, proves that brick-making was really carried on in the manner 
stated by Herodotus and described in Exodus v. 11. 
The author expresses a hope that a continued investigation of this 
material will furnish much important information as to the com- 
mencement of civilization in Egypt, and that the damb and sealed- 
up bricks of Nile-mud will tell us many things that we seek in vain 
in the old buildings and sarcophagi, to say nothing of written records. 
—Anzeigen der Akad. der Wiss. in Wien, math-naturw. Classe, 
June 14, 1866, pp. 141, 142. 
Interchange of Birds between America and Europe. 
In a memoir presented by Mr. Spencer F. Baird to the National 
Academy of Sciences, “ On the Distribution and Migrations of North 
American Birds,” an abstract of which is published in Silliman’s 
Journal for January, March, and May of this year, the author de- 
