5^4 



NA TURE 



[April ii, 1901 



chief classes of literature preserved in it must be added 

 here. 



Of almost the first importance for us are the large official 

 authentic annals which were drawn up under the personal 

 supervision of the high officials of the king, from which 

 we gain very full accounts of the military expeditions 

 undertaken by Sargon II., Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and 

 Ashurbanipal, and of their building operations. In- 

 timately connected with these were the letters, despatches 

 and reports written chiefly by the king's officials in various 

 parts of the country, who by this means kept him in- 

 formed of the progress of events in the countries under 

 their jurisdiction. This class of document is of peculiar 

 interest, and being in many cases dated they often afford 

 precise information about important matters. 



Next in importance come the tablets which deal with 

 chronography and chronology, and by means of the so- 

 called '' Eponym Canon" it is possible to fix with exact- 

 ness the dates of events which took place from about 

 B.C. 900 to B.C. 640. 



The business side of Assyrian life is represented by 

 a considerable number of " contracts," which relate to 

 all the principal matters concerning the transfer for pay- 

 ment of human beings, and of property of all kinds. 



A very large class of tablets deals with astrology, and 

 provides innumerable examples of omens of all kinds ; 

 these prove that the warlike Assyrian must have lived in 

 a state of almost abject fear of the various spirits and 

 demons with whom he peopled heaven and earth. Every 

 event which happened was construed as a portent, and 

 the Assyrian astrologer must have spent most of his time 

 in tabulating forecasts. Diseases were cured by means 

 of incantations and magical formulas, for ail diseases, 

 both of mind and body, were believed to arise through 

 the evil influences of the stars ; such influences could be 

 diverted, however, by the use of certain herbs, plants, 

 stones, and portions of the bodies of animals. The ghost, 

 the " evil foot " at the door, the evil dream, the bite of a 

 snake, the sting of a scorpion, were all treated in much 

 the same way, i.e. by magical < means. Two great series 

 of incantations have been identified, and the rubrics of 

 some of the texts reveal a depth of superstition in the 

 mind of the Assyrian which seems almost incredible. 

 The burning of magical figures made of clay, bitumen, 

 honey, flour, bronze, or wood during the recital of magical 

 formulae was, of course, common, and it is quite clear, 

 from the documents of this class, that the Assyrians 

 thoroughly earned their name of "magicians and sor- 

 cerers." Curiously enough, the Library included large 

 numbers of prayers, many of which contain expressions 

 of lofty spiritual ideas, but these show at the same time 

 that the Assyrian religion never freed itself from the 

 shackles of the basest superstition. Many religious texts 

 describe and contain instructions for the performance of 

 important rites and ceremonies, and most minute instruc- 

 tions concerning the offering up of sacrifices, the festivals 

 of the gods, the dress of the priests, &c. 



The legendary lore of the Assyrians is of peculiar in- 

 terest, for it has preserved the history of the Creation 

 and the account of the Deluge, which were incorporated 

 by the Jewish compilers of the Hebrew Bible in Babylon. 



We have already spoken at some length of the syl- 

 labaries, sign-lists and vocabularies which Ashurbanipal 

 had drawn up, with Sumerian renderings arranged inter- 

 linearly, and from a modern point of view these will 

 probably be regarded as the most valuable section of his 

 Library. Dr. Bezold's Catalogue represents a vast deal 

 of time and patience and hard work, and he is to be 

 congratulated on the completion of a long and laborious 

 task. There is no doubt that it will stimulate many in 

 the prosecution of their Assyrian studies, and that it will 

 greatly facilitate the rejoining of fragments of tablets ; 

 it will also help an investigator of any given class of 

 tablets to produce an edition of its texts, which may be 



NO. 1 64 1, VOL. 63] 



regarded as final until the tablets which still lie buried 

 under the palace ruins at Nineveh are brought home to 

 Bloomsbury. The thanks of every student of Assyrian 

 are due to the Trustees of the British Museum for the 

 production of such a costly but useful Catalogue. 



NAVAL BOILERS. 



THE interim report of the Admiralty Committee upon 

 " Modern Types of Boilers for Naval Purposes," 

 recently pubfished, has caused much discussion ; but, up to 

 the present, it appears to have satisfied nobody and not to 

 help the .'\dmiralty much to settle the grave question of 

 the best boilers for the future in the Navy. It gives the 

 views, which are not so mature as could be desired, of 

 the mercantile marine engineers of which the committee 

 was chiefly composed, the experience of whom, up to the 

 date of the appointment of the committee, had evidently 

 been limited to the discarded cylindrical boiler. 



The committee were asked (i) whether they consider 

 water-tube boilers more suitable than cylindrical boilers 

 for naval purposes ; (2) if so, whether the Belleville is 

 the best type of water-tube boiler for H.M. Navy ; and 

 (3) for suggestions on the extent to which any particular 

 type or types of boilers should be fitted in new vessels. 

 The replies given in the report are that "a satisfactory 

 type of water-tube boiler "would be more suitable than 

 the cylindrical boiler ; that the Belleville boiler is not 

 the type of water-tube boiler best adapted to the require- 

 ments of H.M. Navy ; that Belleville boilers be not 

 fitted in any ships not yet ordered, nor in any ships re- 

 cently ordered for which the work upon the boilers is 

 not too far advanced ; but that they be retained in all 

 completed ships and in all ships under construction for 

 which the work is so far advanced as to involve delay in 

 completion if the boilers were to be altered. The com- 

 mittee state that they have had under consideration four 

 types of large straight tube boilers which have been tried 

 in war vessels, viz., the Babcock and Wilcox, the 

 Niclausse, the Diirr, and the Yarrow large tube boiler ; 

 and they suggest that " if a type of water-tube boiler 

 has to be decided on at once for use in the Navy," some 

 or all of these be taken. They recommend that boilers 

 of these types be made and experimented with at the 

 earliest possible date ; and they call attention to the 

 practical objections that have been found to the con- 

 struction and working of the Belleville boiler. 



The committee make the important admission that 

 when the Belleville boiler was introduced into the Navy 

 they consider "there was justification for then regarding 

 it as the most suitable type of water-tube boiler for the 

 Navy." 



The only naval engineer upon the committee concurred 

 with the report except that he considered, although the 

 Belleville boiler has certain undesirable features, " it is a 

 good steam generator, which will give satisfactory results 

 when it is kept in good order and worked with the re- 

 quired care and skill " ; and he sees " no necessity for 

 delaying the progress of ships which have been designed 

 for Belleville boilers in order to substitute another type 

 of boiler." 



This report does not satisfy the parliamentary op- 

 ponents of the Belleville boiler, who appear to object 

 to water-tube boilers of all kinds, and to advocate 

 a return to the cylindrical boiler. In spite of the 

 great advance recently made in the designs of boilers 

 of water-tube type, they argue that because early 

 attempts to use water-tube boilers at sea were unsuc- 

 cessful, it is hopeless to expect any good results 

 from those now available. These opinions are not 

 endorsed by engineers of wider experience, especially 

 by the designers of machinery for warships, who under- 

 stand better the relative advantages and disadvantages 



