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NATURE 



[July 7, 1923 



The temple of the Moon-pod and his consort was a 

 foundation far older than the tcmenos wall. When 

 Ur-Engur repaired it, as he did, it had already been 

 twice rebuilt, and the original builder is lost to us in 

 the mists of antiquity. That the temple was in use by 

 2650 B.C. we know, for we found in it fragments of 

 decorative stone vases dedicated by kings of Agade at 

 that time— but probably it was venerable enough then 

 (F'ig. 3). Bur-Sin, the second in descent from Ur-Engur, 



three thousand years. Nebuchadrezzar was the first 

 to embark on a radical alteration. The original five- 

 roomed sanctuary had been private, the god's own 

 house, hidden away behind priests' chambers and 

 stores and approached only by a winding passage. 

 Nebuchadrezzar did away with all the service-rooms in 

 front of the door, substituting for them a wide-open 

 court with a smaller upper court whereon stood the 

 altar. The alteration clearly points to a change from a 



Fiii. 3. — I, Votive alabaster mace-head of Ur-Engur (2300'B.C.). 2, 3, Votive alabaster mace-head antl viusc of Kim-mush, King 01 Agndt.- 

 (2650 B.C.)- By courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum and the Board of the University Museum, Philadelphia. 



thoroughly rebuilt the place ; so did Kudur-Mabug 

 (about 2000 B.C.) and Kuri-Galzu (four hundred years 

 later) ; but then, and until another thousand years had 

 passed, the form of the temple remained the same : 

 like a human body regularly renewing its tissues, the 

 old building was still itself though its bricks changed. 

 So careful were the royal builders to keep to the old 

 times that, as a rule, each left one or two courses of his 

 predecessor's building in situ to serve as a guide to the 

 new bricklayers, and as a result the lower parts of the 

 walls which survive to-day sandwich into a few feet 

 successive periods of history covering two and perhaps 



secret ritual to public or congregational worship such as 

 that referred to in the Bible story of the Three Children, 

 The number of objects found in the course of the 

 excavations was very great, including jewellery of the 

 Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods, ivories and 

 bronzes, hundreds of inscribed tablets, mostly of the 

 time of the Third Dynasty (2300-2000 B.C.), terra- 

 cotta reliefs, carved and inscribed stone vases, pottery, 

 glass and stone beads, etc., etc. A special exhibition 

 of these will be arranged at the British Museum as 

 soon as possible, and illustrated lectures describing 

 the progress of the excavations will also be given. 



Current Topics and Events. 



The present outbreak of small-pox in Gloucester 

 is very different from the tragedy of 1895-96. The 

 number of cases in that frightful epidemic was 198 1 : 

 and the number of deaths was 434. On the present 

 occasion, the number of cases, up to now, has been 

 about one-tenth of that number. As in other places, 

 so in Gloucester, a very mild type of small-pox has 

 appeared : indeed, so mild that, to some people, the 

 very nature of small-pox seems to have changed. 

 Still, the possibility remains that the disease will, 

 some day or other, recover its old virulence. Besides, 

 it appears that some of the Gloucester cases have 

 been serious. Thus, at a meeting of the city council 

 on June 27, the Mayor spoke of " some of the fearful 



NO. 2801, VOL. I 12] 



sights " in the wards of the Isolation Hospital, and 

 said that he should never forget them : and the 

 chairman of the Health Committee spoke of " severe 

 and ghastly " cases in the same hospital. Unhappily, 

 so mild were the first cases that they were mistaken 

 for chicken-pox. The best authority on the rules 

 for avoiding this mistake between small-pox and 

 chicken-pox is Dr. Wanklyn : and his writings are 

 worth reading. The mildness of the epidemic, the 

 controversy over its nature, the frequent concealment 

 of cases, and the work of the anti-vaccinationists, 

 have brought about a most unfortunate state of 

 affairs in Gloucester. The fear is that Gloucester is 

 steadily exporting small-pox to neighbouring towns. 



