At{^. 26, 1 8 75 J 



NATURE 



339 



for navigation. Such was the canal which effected a junction 

 between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, which was a re- 

 markable work, hiving regard to the requiremenfs of the age in 

 which it was made. Its length was about eighty miles ; its 

 width admitted of two triremes passing one another.' At least 

 one of the navigable canals of Babylonia, attributed to Nebuchad- 

 nezzar, can compare in ex'ent with any work of later times. I 

 believe Sir H. Rawlinson has traced the canal to which I allude 

 throughout the greater part of its course, fro-n Hit on the 

 Euphrates to the Persian Gulf, a distance of between four and 

 five hundred miles. ^ It is a proof of the estimation in which 

 such works were held in Babylonia and Assyria, that, among 

 the titles of the god Vul were those of " Lord of Canals," and 

 "The Establisher of Irrigation W.irks."^ 



The springs of knowledge which had flowed so long in Baby- 

 lonia and Assyria were dried up at an early period. With the 

 fall of Babylon and destruction of Nineveh the settle \ popula- 

 tion of the fertile plains around them disappeared, and that 

 which was desert before man led the waters over it becams 

 desert again, affording a wide field for, and on? well worthy of, 

 the labours of engineers to come. 



Such was not the case with Egypt. Long after the period of its 

 greatest prosperity was reached, it remained the fou-itain head 

 from whence knowledge flowed to Greece and Rome. The 

 philosophers of Greece and those who, like Archimedes, wre 

 possessed of the best mechanical knowledge of the time, re- 

 paired to Egypt to study and obtain the foundation of their 

 knowledge from thence. 



Much as Greece and Rome were indebted to Egypt, it will 

 probably be found, as the inscribed tablets met with in the 

 mounds of Assyria and Chaldoea are deciphered, that the later 

 civilisations owe, if not more, at least as much, to those countries 

 as to Egypt. This is the opinion of Mr. Smith, wh<i, in his work 

 describing his recent interesting discoveries in the East, says that 

 the classical nations " bor -owed f r more from the valley of the 

 Euphrates than that of the Nile." ^ 



In the science of astronomy, which in these days is making 

 such marvellous discoveries, Chaldrea was undoubtedly pre- 

 eminent. Among the miny relics of these ancient peoples 

 which Mr. Smith has recently brought to this country is a 

 portion of a metal astrolabe from the palace of Sennacherib, and 

 a tablet on which is recorded the division of the heavens accord- 

 ing to the four seasons, and the rule for regulating the inter- 

 calary month of the year. Not only did the Chaldieans map 

 out the heavens and arrange the sta^s, but they traced the m itism 

 of the planets, and observed the appearance of comets ; they 

 fixed the signs of the zodiac, and they studied the sun and moon 

 and the periods of eclipse=.' 



But to return to that branch of knowledge to which I wish 

 more particularly to draw your attention, as it grew and spread 

 fiom ea't to west, from Asia over Europe. Of all nations of 

 Europe the Greeks were most intimately connected with the 

 civilisation of the East. A maritime people by the nature of the 

 land they lived in, colonisation followed as a matter of course on 

 the tracks of their trading vessels ; and thus, more than any 

 other people, they helped to spread Eastern knowledge along 

 the shores of the Mediterranean, and throughout the sou;h of 

 Europe. 



The early constructive works of Greece, till about the seventh 

 century B.C., form a strong con'rast to those of its more pros- 

 perous days. Common'y called Pclasgian, they are mote remark- 

 able as engineering works than admirable as those which fol- 

 lowed them were for architectural beauty. Walls of huge 

 unshapely stones — admirably fitted tt)gether, however — tunnels, 

 and brid;^es, characterise this period. In Greece, during the 

 few and glorious centuries which followed, the one aim in all 

 construction was to please the eye, to gratify the sense of beauty ; 

 and in no a^e was tlia.t aim more tlioroughly and satisfactorily 

 attained. 



In these days, when sanitary questions attract each year more 

 attention, we may call to mind that twenty-three centuries ago 

 the c'ty of Agrigentum possessed a system of sewers, which, on 

 account of their large size, were thought worthy of mention by 

 Diodorus,*" Tiiis is not, however, the first record of towns 

 being drained ; the well-known Cloaca Maxima, which farmed 

 part of the drainage syst' m ot Rome, was built some two centu- 



» Herodotus, bk ii. c. clviii. 



'^ Rawlinson's " Herodotus," vol. i. p. 420, and edit. 

 3 Ibid. p. 498. 



*• SmUh's (G ) "Assyrian Discoveries," p. 451, and edit. 5 Ibid. 



6 Agrigentum was a celebrated Greek city, founded B.C. 582, population 

 200,000 (DioJorus, 406 B.C.), drained by Phoeax, who lived B.C. 480. 



ries earlier, and great, vaulted drains passed beneath the palace 

 mounds of unburnt brick at Nimroud and Babylon ; and pos- 

 sibly we owe the preservation of many of the interesting remains 

 f )und in the brick mounds of Chaldoea to the very elaborate 

 system of pipe drainage discovered in them, and described by 

 Loftus,' 



Whilst Telasgian art was being superseded in Greece, the city 

 of Rome was f junded in the eighth century before our era ; and 

 Etruscan art in I'aly, Ike the Pelasgian art in Greece, was 

 slowly merged in that of an Ary-in race. The Etniscans, like 

 the Pelas'^ians and the old E yptians, wer» Turanians, and 

 remarkable for their purely constructive or engineering works. 

 Their c'ty walls far surpass those of any other anci'^nt race, and 

 their drainage works and tunnels are most remirkabL". 



The only age which can compnr-^ with the present one in the 

 rapid extension of utilitarian works over the face of the civilised 

 world, is that during which the Romans, an Arym race, as we 

 are, were in power. As Fergusson has said, the missi'm of the 

 Aryan races appears to be to pervade the world with useful and 

 industrial arts. That thv Romans adorned their bridge", their 

 aqueducts, and their roads ; thnt with a sound knowledge of 

 construction they frequently made if subs'>rvi.':nt to decoration, 

 was partly owing to the mixture of E:ras'^^n or Tura^i'an blood 

 in their veins, and partly to their great wealth, which made them 

 disregard cost in their construction, and to their love of display. 

 It would be impossible for me to do ju tice to even a small 

 pa'-t of the engineering works which have survived fourteen 

 centuries of s'rife, and remain to this day as monunnents of the 

 skill, the energy, and ability of the great Roman people. For- 

 tunately, their works are mo-e accessible than those of which I 

 have spoken hitherto, and many of you are probably already 

 familiar with them. 



Conquerors of the greater part of the civili-ed world, the ad- 

 mirable organisation of the Romans enabled them to make good 

 use of the unbounded resources which were a* their disposal. Yet, 

 while the capital was enriched, the development of the resources 

 of the most; distant provinces of the empire was never neglected. 

 War, with all its attendant evils, has o*^ten indirectly benefited 

 mankind. In the long sieges which took place during the old 

 wars of Greece and Rome, the inventive power of man was 

 taxed to the utmost to provide machines for attack and defence. 

 The ablest mathematicians and philosophers were pressed into 

 the service, and helpei to turn the scale in favour of their em- 

 ployers. The world has to regret the loss of more than one, 

 who, hke Archimedes, fell slain by the soldiery while applying 

 the best scientific knowledge of the day to devising means of 

 defence during th^ s'e^e.^ In these day>, t lO, science owes 

 much to the labours of engineers an I able men, whose time is 

 spent in making an I impro/ing gun", the materials composing 

 them, and armour plates to resist them, or in studying the 

 motion of ships of war in a seaway. 



The necessuy for roads and bridges for military purposes has 

 led to their being made where the necessary stimulus from other 

 causes was wanting ; and so means o"" communication, and the 

 interchange of commodities, so essential to the prosperity of any 

 community, have thus been provided. Such was the case under 

 the R )man Empire. So, too, in later tines the ambition of 

 Napoleon covered France and the countries suliject to her with 

 an admirable syste.ri of military road:. At the same time, we 

 must do Napoleon the justice of saying that his genius and fore- 

 sight gave a great impetus to the construction of all work ; favour- 

 able to commercial pr igress. So, again, in this country it was 

 the rebellion of 1745, and the want felt of roads for military 

 purposes, which first led to the construe. ion of a system of roads 

 in it unequalled since the time of the Roman occupation. And 

 lastly, in India, in Germany, au 1 in Russia, more than one 

 example coul 1 be pointed out where industry will benefit by 

 railways which have originated in military precautions rather 

 than in commercial requirements. 



But to return to Rome. Roads followed the tracks of her 

 hgions into the most distant provinces of the empire. Three 

 hundred and seventy-two greai roads are enumerated, together 

 more than 48,000 miles ui lenglli, according to the uiuerary of 

 Antoninus. 



The wa'er supply of Rome during the first century of our era 

 would suffijc for a population of seve 1 millions, supplied at the 

 rate at which the present population of London is supplied. 

 This water was conveyed to Rome by nine aj^ueluctj; and in 



' Rawlinson's " Five Ancient Monarchies," vol. x. pp 89, 90, and edit. 

 ^ Archimed* , B c. 287-212 ; killed at tlic siege of Syracuse by the Roman 

 oldiers. § . - . 



