March 3, 1882.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



379 



its pages — the properties of matter, hydrostatics, pneu- 

 matics, acoustics, heat, light, magnetism, and electricity — 

 are thus rendered as clear as they can be -without actual 

 experiment. But no student of science can read these 

 pages without wisiiiug to make, or to witness, some, at 

 least, among the many experiments -which are here illus- 

 trated and described. The tenth edition is enlarged by 

 nearly 2.5 pages, and includes 24 additional illustrations. 

 A very valuable feature of the work is the great number 

 of numerical proVilenis and examples in Physics. The 

 student should not consider that he understands any sec- 

 tion until he is able readily to work out for himself the 

 problems illustrating that section. 



n 



\ WERE THE A2sCIENT EGYPTIANS 



^____\^ ACQUAINTED WITH THE 



MOVEMENT OF THE EARTH 1 



IN the Zeitschrift fur SgyptUche Sprache for 1864, the eminent 

 Egyptologist, M. Chabas, published an essay to prove the 

 Egyptians considered that the earth travelled in the heavens in a 

 similar way to the sun and stars. The texts which showed this 

 interesting fact arc contained in two duplicate papyri at Berlin, 

 numbered 2 and i of that collection, and as we believe no descrip- 

 tion of the narrative they contain lias appeared in England, and it 

 will assist students in arri\-ing at a doe appreciation of the scientific 

 knowledge of ancient Egypt on the subject, it will be worth while 

 to give a short account of its chief features, especially as we shall 

 see in the sequel another text has been deciphered which corrobo- 

 rates M. Chabas' translation.* 



The chief facts detailed in the Papyri are as follows : — The agent 

 of a high Eirypti.in functionary, of the name of Meruiteus, had 

 assaulted and robbed an agricultural labourer, who thereupon 

 appealed to him for redress. Meruiteus referred the matter to the 

 king ; his majesty, however, considering that he could best decide 

 the question for himself, ordered him to make a proper inquiry and 

 adjudicate on the spot. What the result -svas we do not know, be- 

 cause the Papyri are incomplete. The nccessai-y evidence seems 

 to have taken a long time to collect (perhaps Meruiteus pnirposely 

 postponed judgment), and during all this period the poor man was 

 kept apart from his family, notivithstanding his continual appeals 

 to the functionary to permit him to have access to his wife and 

 children. Xearly all the papyri are occupied with the pleadings of 

 the peasant and replies of Meruiteus. and they are often so lengthy, 

 and contain so many references to those high principles of justice 

 and hximanity, the maintenance of which were always the boast of 

 the good Egyptian, that it seems likely the mere legal account 

 of the case had been utilised by some scribe, who, by greatly 

 amplifying all the arguments, contrived to inculcate many 

 precepts of morality. It certainly seems very improbable that 

 such interminable speeches, couched in excellent language, and 

 touching upon subjects of great theological and scientific importance 

 could proceed from the lips of a simple peasant. As might be 

 expected, the suppliant endeavoiu-s by fulsome praises to soften the 

 heart of the man who was to pronounce on liis case, and among some 

 of his hyjierbolieal encomiums occur the words which are of so much 

 importanie to us ; — " The peasant came to supplicate the seventh 

 time, saying " — " Great governor, my lord, thou art the helm of the 

 (entire) earth, the earth navigates — according to thy will : Thou 

 art the second brother of Tlioth." 



In order to properly appreciate this sentence, it must be re- 

 membered that in the Nile valley, where the river formed the gi'eat 

 artery of communication, the idea of travelling or movement had 

 from the first been associated with navigation. Hence we tind that 

 as determinatives of verbs signifying a jeumey, the figure of a boat. 

 or two legs walking, are used indiscriminately. M. Chabas shows 

 conclusively that the hieroglyphs here translated to navigate are 

 precisely similar to those employed in speaking of the journey of 

 the sun d.aily through the sky. and, among many other texts cited, 

 quotes some referring to the motion of Mars and the apparent 

 movement of Orion. The Egyptians, it should be remembered, 

 ■ always alluded to the heavens as an -ocean (see also Genesis, i., 7), 

 and spoke, in their figni-ative way. of the stars as personages, who 

 sailed upon this celestial sea in sacred barks. 



• Maspcro says that, according to a Berlin papyms, the sun 

 liiteelf was considered to obey the law of universal motion, and to 

 rtravel in space like the wandering .stars. See " Hist. Ancienne." 



The title which the poetic countryman gives Meruiteus, of helm — 

 viz., guide of the earth — refers to the imaginary rudder which steers 

 the course of the barque of the earth in space. The words "' second 

 brother of Thotli,"(aro also noteworthy, ho being a form of the 

 deity, with two jiartly distinct phases. In one case he was the god 

 of letters, and the primordial intelligence and order which esta- 

 blished the harmony of the heavens, and made all the earth con- 

 tained, and he it was who caused light to shine in the primieval 

 gloom before the creation of the sun, and for ever guides the stars 

 in space as Meruiteus was said to steer the earth. In the other, 

 he was a lunar deity, and pre-eminently the brother of the earth 

 from an astronomical point of view. In concluding this account 

 of M. Chabas' paper, it may be mentioned that the Pharaoh to 

 whom Meruiteus referred is named Xebka-ra. This King is the 

 forty-fifth on the Sakkara tablet, replaced seventh in the third 

 dynasty by Maspero. He is, therefore, a monarch who flourished 

 before the erection of the Great Pyramids. From this and the 

 very ancient character of the writing of the papyri, it is evident 

 that the texts are of extreme antiquity. For how many centuries 

 previous to their being penned the Egyptians knew of the move- 

 ment of the eanh, cannot, of course, be decided. 



A Member of the Society of Biblical Aech.eology. 

 (To be continued.) 



MALARIAL ORGANISMS IN THE BLOOD. 



IX the blood of patients suffering from malarial poisoning M. A. 

 Laveran has found parasitic organisms, very definite in form 

 and most remarkable in character. Some were cylindrical, curved 

 bodies, pointed at the extremities, with a delicate outline and a 

 transparent body, colourless except for a blackish spot in the 

 middle, due to pigment gi-anules. On the concave side a fine line 

 could often be traced, which seemed to unite the extremities of the 

 crescent. These bodies presented no movement. Spherical 

 organisms were also seen, transparent, of about the diameter of 

 a red blood corpuscle, containing pigment grains, which, in a state 

 of rest, were often arranged in a definite circle, but sometimes pre- 

 sented rapid movements, and then lost their regular arrangement. 

 On the borders of the spherules very fine filaments could often be per- 

 ceived in rapid movement. These fUaments were in length three or 

 four times the diameter of a red corpuscle. Their number varied. 

 Sometimes three or four were seen round a spherule, to which they 

 communicated an oscillatoi-y movement, displacing the adjacent red 

 coi-puscles. The free extremities of the filaments were slightly 

 reflexed. When at rest, the filaments were invisible on account of 

 their tenuity and perfect transparence. These mobile filaments ap- 

 peared final'lv by becoming detached from the pigmented spherules, 

 continuing, however, to move freely amidst the corpuscles. There 

 were also bodies of spherical or irregular form, transparent or finely 

 oranular, about the hundredth of a micro-millimetre in diameter, 

 containing dark red, rounded pigment grains, either regularly ai-- 

 ranced at the periphery, or aggregated at some part of the spherule. 

 The bodies and granules were both motionless. These appear to be 

 the ultimate or " cadaveric ' stage of tho.'se last described. They 

 have no nuclei, and do not tint with carmine, a distinction from the 

 pigmented leucocytes with which they have hitherto been con- 

 founded. Lastly, spherical elements were met with similar to those 

 already described, but much smaller in size, and apparently repre- 

 sentino- a stage in their development. The animated nature of the 

 mobile pigmented spherule, furnished with filaments, appears indis- 

 putable. M. Laveran regards it as a form of animalcule, which 

 exists at first in an encysted state, and in the perfect condition 

 becomes free in the form of mobile filaments, a mode of develop- 

 ment not uncommon among the lower organisms. Besides these 

 organisms, the blood of patients suffering from malarial fever 

 contains (1) red corpuscles, which appeal- to be vacuolated at one or 

 two spots, and contain pigment granules ; (2) pigmented lenco- 

 cytes ; (3) free pigment granules, possibly proceeding from the 

 destruction of the parasitical organisms. 



These elements were first discovered by M. Laveran a year ago, 

 and since then he has examined the blood in 192 patients affected 

 with various symptoms of malarial poisoning, intermittent and con- 

 tinned fever, and palnstral cachexia, and found the organisms in 

 180. The disease had been contracted for the most part in 

 different regions of Algeria and Tunis. He convinced himself, by 

 numerous and repeated observations, that these organisms are not 

 to be found in the blood of persons suffering from diseases that are 

 not of malarial origin. In most of the cases of malaria in which 

 the examination yielded a negative result the patient had under- 

 gone a course of treatment with quinine, and te this fact the 

 absence of the organisms from the blood was probably due. The 

 addition of a minute quantity of a dilute solution of sulphate 



