DISCOVERY 



these composite pencils is quite characteristic, for the 

 particles of clay, regularly distributed throughout 

 the mass, appear as fine silvery striations, somewhat 

 resembling mimite strings of pearls, running in fine 

 parallel lines from end to end of the stroke. 



In view of the fact that this process of making 

 composite pencils was invented in Paris, it is interest- 

 ing to note that a card written to Flaxman by the 

 French painter Epinat, between 1805 and 1814, 

 shows the distinctive silver striations of modem 

 pencil pigments. This is the first occurrence noted of 

 such markings in the MSS. Department of the British 

 Museum. 



Since the pigment after its application to paper 

 does not undergo any appreciable alteration, it is not 

 possible to form any estimate of the age of pencil 

 writing by methods similar to those applicable to ink 

 in writing. There is only one possibility upon which 

 such a judgment may sometimes be based. If at any 

 point two lines written with lead pencil intersect, it 

 is usually manifest which line is uppermost, for the 

 silver striations in that line will run without inter- 

 ruption from end to end, whereas those in the lower 

 line will be broken at the point of intersection (see 

 Fig. 4 above). Under these conditions it is possible 

 to state which of the two lines was made first. 



Apart from microscopical differences in the form 

 and appearance of the silver striations, writing in 

 different pencil pigments may sometimes be differen- 

 tiated bj' chemical tests. For example, the graphite 

 and clay used for the pigment frequently contain 

 very varying amounts of iron or of chlorides, and the 

 markings will then show reactions of different intensity 

 when tested with the respective reagents. Titanium 

 is also a common constituent of natural graphites, 

 but only in one instance, in a modern Conte pencil, 

 has the WTiter found a composite pigment to contain 

 sufficient titanium to give a distinct reaction in the 

 markings on paper. In that case, however, a colour 

 test alone was sufficient to distinguish the marks 

 made with that pencil from those made with any other 

 pencil examined. 



REFERENCES 

 Forensic Chemistry. By A. Lucas. (Arnold, i6s.) 

 Inks : their Composition and Manufacture. 2nd Edition. By 



C. Ainsworth Mitchell and T. C. Hepworth. (Griffin, 9s.) 

 Documents and their Scientific Examination. By C. Ainsworth 



Mitchell. (Griffin, los. (>d.) 



NEW DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT 



As we go to press the first news of what will, no doubt, prove 

 to be the most remarkable archaeological find of the century 

 has reached this country. The discovery was made by Lord 

 Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter, and has resulted from 

 their prolonged excavations in the Valley of the Kings near 

 Luxor, in Upper Egypt. The message to The Times says 



[Continued at foot of page 28. 



Belief in After Life 



Amongst the Greeks and 



Romans — I 



By W. R. Halliday, B.A., B.Litt. 



Prolessor 0/ Ancient History in the Universilji oj Liverpool 



Spiritualism has been defined as " the belief that it 

 is possible to communicate with spirits of the dead 

 so as to receive from them intelligent messages and 

 proofs of their identity and survival, and as the study 

 and practice of so doing." ^ Traces of spiritualistic 

 belief and practice as thus defined may be found in 

 the records of classical antiquity, and it is also true 

 that some of the instruments employed by some 

 spiritualists of to-day, e.g. crystal gazing, were known 

 to classical divination. But the ordinary procedure 

 of the modern seance dates, I believe, from the experi- 

 ments of the American sisters Fox in the middle of 

 the last century, and we shall naturally look in vain 

 for those spiritualistic theories which are adapted to, 

 or borrowed from, the current working hypotheses of 

 modern science and physics. Further, the present 

 vogue of spiritualism appears to have its origin in 

 one or more of three motives : (i) the hope of regaining 

 personal touch with loved ones who have " passed 

 over " ; (2) the desire to submit the hopes of personal 

 immortalitj' to a quasi-material test ; (3) the hope of 

 acquiring supernatural intelUgence as to the course 

 of events past or future with the object of turning 

 the knowledge so acquired to practiced account. Of 

 these the third is mainly the motive of classical com- 

 munication with the dead ; the first two were not, I 

 think, widely operative. 



In the Homeric poems, which are the earliest 

 literary account which we possess of a Greek society, 

 the belief in personal survival of a certain kind is indi- 

 cated. The spirit leaves the body with the breath ; 

 it retains human shape, but is incorporeal and resembles 

 a figure seen in a dream. There is no resurrection of 

 the flesh. When Odysseus met the spirit of his dead 

 mother, ' ' thrice I sprang towards her and was minded 

 to embrace her ; thrice she flitted from my hands as 

 a shadow, or even as a dream, and sharp grief arose 

 ever at my heart." In answer to his complaint, his 

 mother's spirit explains : " Even on this wise is it with 

 mortals when they die. For the sinews no more bind 

 together the flesh and the bones, but the great force 

 of burning tire abolishes these, so soon as the life hath 

 left the white bones and the spirit like a dream flies 

 forth and hovers near." Homeric society, of course, 

 practised cremation. 



' Schiller in Hastings' Encyclopcsdia of Religion and Ethics 

 s.v. " Spiritism." 



