Dec. 9, 1881.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



111 



Mr. Teasdali- o))lif;e(l na- «ith a number of the com- 

 „ i)ound vibration ami curve slides, done in testing his 

 apparatus, mure or less imperfect. These are highly 

 instructive. One especially, a spiml, with the initial part 

 roughly scratched, and the subsequent parts wholly clear 

 and fine, appears as a deep hollow under the microscope 

 with minocular \ision. A well known pliysiologist and 

 microscopist, to whom it was shown, saw this perspective 

 effect strongly when using one eye, but lost the illusion 

 the moment both eyes were employed with the prism. 

 This observer has both eyes better matched than usual, 

 and trials with various persons show that the illusion is 

 oidy partially dissii>ated when the binocular apparatus is 

 used by pei^ions v\hose eyes differ in focus, as is very 

 common. 



lAfbiclusi. 



HRITISU FliKN.S.* 



MANY lind the stiu'.y of ferns a diflk-ult task, on account of the 

 difficulty of lecognisinfc tlio distinguiahiugcliaracteristics of 

 each j^cnns or class. Tlic book before us is intended to remove 

 I his obstacle. At the beginning, a careful explanation is given of 

 rlie general divisions of Howerlcss plants; of the different parts of 

 ferns ; of terms apjilicable to the shapes, etc., of their fronds ; the 

 grouping of ferns ; and tlie genera of British ferns. Tables are 

 given of each species separately, and according to the following 

 plan, the technical terms used iu which will be found fully ex- 

 plained in Miss Ridley's work. 



1. First the scientific title is given, with the abridged or full 

 name of the botanist who first gave this name, and after that the 

 common name by which the fern is known. 



2. In each instance the special points of the 'genus are indicated 

 under the heading of generic characters. 



3. Under distinctive sjjccitic characters are noted the special 

 peculiarities and the points of difference by which the fern is 

 known from all others of the genus to which it belongs. 



•1-. Whether the fern has a rhizome orcaudex. 

 5. The characters of the stipes and rachis. 

 •>. Tlie scales of the stipes. 



7. The shape of the frond ; its average size, the length and width 

 being ascertained. 



8. The textm-c of tlic frond, some ferns being hard and leathery, 

 others very soft, thin, and transparent. 



9. Whether deciduous (that is, shedding its fronds in autumn) or 

 not. 



10. The arrangement of the veins in tlie fronds. 



11. Position of the receiitacle. 



12. Sori, shape of, and usual quantity. 



13. Whether the sori are dorsal or marginal. 



14. If there is an indusium or involucre, or neither; when present, 

 shape and character of such. 



15. Locality, or where found. 



16. Lastly come the general remarks to each species. 



At the end of the book is an index containing a list of technical 

 terms used in the book, Ijy which easy reference can be made to the 

 page on which the meaning has been given. With such a help as 

 this little pocket guide, many difiiculties will be removed, and the 

 Btndy of ferns will be made both easy and interesting. 



HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRJPTIONS OF THE 

 SAKARA PYRAMIDS. 



By a Me.«bee of the Society or Biblical Aech.eology. 



THE recent magnificent discovery of royal mummies, papyri, and 

 numerous other relics at Egyptian Thebes lias been so sur- 

 prising, as to throw unduly into the shade the almost equally 

 important results attending the opening of jnTamids at Sakara 

 earlier in the year; doubly interesting, because their chambers and 

 passages, contrary to those of pyramids previously explored, were 



'•"A Pocket Guide to British Ferns," by JIariax S. Kidley'. 

 (London ; D. Boguc.) 



found, except where mutilated, to be covered with hieroglyphics 

 The literature thus so marvellously preserved was soon seen to be 

 of a very similar chai-acter to the most archaic chapters of the 

 " liitual," or " Book of the Dead," and of great mythological and 

 theological value. They are, however, owing to their extreme anti- 

 quity, notwithstanding the distinctness ami delicacy of the carve<l 

 and painted pictorial hieroglyphics (which are equal to that of 

 almost any other epoch), very diilicult to translate, because many 

 signs and ideas are used, er cxjiressed differently from those of 

 more recent texts with which pcholars have hitherto chiefly been 

 acciuainted. Some of the inscriptions have now been published by 

 Lepsius, in his " Egyptian Roview," and a tentative translation of a 

 portion of them made by Bruscgh Bey. 



The most valuable fact brought to light by a careful study of this 

 decipherment of the texts is the decisive manner in which it 

 enforces an immediate reconsideration of wh.it were previously 

 considered as axioms in Egyptology-. Most, if not all, the myths 

 and legends supposed to have been engrafted into the Egj-ptian 

 religion at long subsequent dates are here found to be fully rife ; not 

 so much because some either appear in part or even amplified in 

 the texts themselves, especially the Myth of Nut, but on accovmt of 

 the numerous allusions to, and short quotations from, legends which, 

 to the initiated, at once called up, by a long train of associations, 

 the story thus frequently only indicated bj' a sort of double entendre. 

 The whole histoiy of Osiris, with his consequent belief in one 

 supreme ever-existent deity, and account of a future judgment, with 

 subsequent states of reward or punishment, is in full sway. It is 

 distinctly and emphatically asserted of one deceased King, Pepi, 

 that he is not really dead or annihilated, but that he has " received 

 his spirit," or become spiritualised in the abode of the blessed. The 

 legend of the struggle and triumph of Horus over Set, or of good 

 over evil, is seen fully developed, as are many others. Ra, Sele, 

 Harmachis, Turn, Tefunt, Harpocrates, Buto — in fact, nearly all the 

 pantheon, liitherto considered to be a gradual accumulation of 

 centuries after by many authorities — hero burst into view in full 

 splendour, and especially even Amen has his place. 



The dog-star Sirius is mentioned iu respect to its chronological 

 importance, proving a careful observance of the constellations for at 

 least two periods of fourteen and a lialf centuries previous to the 

 writing of the inscriptions, or perhaps still older copies from which 

 they were taken, and the objects depicted in the hieroglyphs 

 indicate fully as advanced a culture and higii civilisation as that of 

 any epoch prior to the shepherd kings. The Elysian fields of heaven, 

 besides many other places and events described in the ritual of the 

 dead, are prominent, showing that this Bible of Egyjit had long 

 before been compiled and reverenced. 



From this short n'sHm<< it will be gathered that these pre- 

 eminently ancient texts afford no ground for arguments based on a 

 theory of gradual development of Egyptian religion, from gross 

 fetichisni or anthropomorphic ideas ; on the contrary, the theology 

 exemplified is more spii'itual, and diverges less into pantheism and 

 animal worship by far than that of subsequent times. What are 

 now believed to be divine truths, whether evolved out of necessity 

 from man's spiritual nature, or imparted by primseval revelation, 

 are, in fact, less buried beneath a dt'briK of idolatry and ignorant 

 superstition, thau iu the era when Egyptian religion (because 

 misunderstood) became a jest to the writers of Greece and Rome. 



A fortunate result of these explorations is also to terminate for 

 ever the apparently endless controversy as to the original purport 

 of the pyramids. These newly-opened pyramids are certainly the 

 mausoleums of the monarchs whose names, creeds, and coffins they 

 contain, and there can be no doubt but that such was the Great 

 Pyramid which formed the basis for the wonderful conjectures of 

 Prof. Piazzi Smyth and his school.* 



These discoveries are almost certainly but the commencement of 

 others equally interesting, for there are in the Nile Valley quite a 

 mimber of pyramids yet unopened, aiul it is M. Maspero's an- 

 nounced intention to inaugurate his accession to the post of 

 Jfariietto Pasha by completely exploring every one that is known. 



[* I do not accept the wonderful conjectm-es of the Astronomer- 

 Royal for Scotland ; but no astronomer can doubt the astronomical 

 significance of the structural details of the Great Pyramid. Whether 

 intended as a tomb or not, it was certainly erected by men exceed- 

 ingly well skilled in astronomy and mathematics, and as certainly 

 astronomical observations, of considerable difficulty and requiring 

 great exactitude, were carried on during its erection. Whether the 

 Great Pyramid was erected with so much precision in order that 

 astronomical observations might be made from it with great ex- 

 actitude, or whether astronomical observations were made from it 

 with great exactitude in order that it might be erected with great 

 precision, may be a moot point. I have scarcely any doubt myself 

 that both purposes were in view, the former as the primary one. 

 —Ed.] 



