AND RESEARCHES OF JAMES SMITHSON. 137 



" More than commonly incurious must he be, who would not find delight 

 in stemming the stream of ages, returning to times long past, and behold- 

 ing the then existing state of things and of men. 



" In the arts of an ancient people, much may be seen concerning them, 

 the progress they had made in knowledge of various kinds, their habits 

 and their ideas on various subjects. Products of skill may likewise occur, 

 either wholly unknown to us, or superior to those which now supply them." 



He received from Mr. Curtin, who traveled in Egypt, 

 with Belzoni, a small fragment of the tomb of King Psam- 

 mis. 



It was sculptured in basso relievo and painted, the colors 

 being white, red, black and blue. The white was found to 

 be carbonate of lime; the red, oxide of iron; the black, 

 pounded wood charcoal, the texture of the larger particles 

 being perfectly discernible with a lens, after dissolving out 

 the other coloring matters. The blue was a smalt of glass 

 powder, its tinging matter, however, was not cobalt, but 

 copper. Melted with borax and tin, the red oxide of copper 

 immediately appeared. 



23. In the 24th volume of the Annals, p. 50, is a paper 

 of ten pages, bearing date June 10, 1824, and containing 

 Some observations on Mr. Penn's theory concerning the formation 

 of the Kirkdale cave. 



The writer whose work Smithson criticises, had attempted 

 to account for the bones by referring them to the period of 

 " the Deluge" This opinion Mr. Smithson very successfully 

 combats. A confutation is, however, hardly needed by 

 geologists in our day. It is not therefore deemed necessary 

 to follow the writer through the steps of his reasoning. 



24. In the 25th volume of the Annals, is a letter from Dr. 

 Black, to Mr. Smithson, describing his delicate balance for 

 weighing minute quantities of metals, and other results of 

 analysis, consisting of a thin bit of fir, with a fine cambric 

 needle for an axis, and an upturned bit of brass for a sup- 

 port. To this apparatus Mr. Smithson suggested some im- 

 provement in the formation of the weights. 



There is much reason to suppose that the foregoing list of 

 twenty-four papers, does not embrace all the published 

 works of Mr. Smithson. The numerous lists of loci or 

 topics, evidently designed to form the heads of essays or 

 treatises, either found disconnected, or united with loose 

 notes, on each topic, or wrought out into formal essays, of 

 which several are found among his manuscripts, afford 

 ground for believing that he was a contributor to some of 

 the literary productions of the day; but as such pieces 

 generally appear anonymously, it is not easy to ascertain 



