Mabch 9, 1883.] 



• KNOWLEDGE 



145 



from which we derive the new matter for living upon, and 

 digestion is one word for many processes whereV)y this 

 food is converted into a fluid capable of being kdded to 

 and poured into the blood. Digestion, then, is merely the 

 link which connects the food and the blood. Through 

 digestion we convert food or matter that is more or less 

 unlike ourselves into ourselvea 



The apparatus by which this action is efTectcd is called 

 the difjenlive system. Each collection of organs in a 

 li%'ing body (the organs being devoted to the performance 

 of a function) is called a "system." Heart and 

 blood-vessels form a " system " — that of the cimdation. 

 Lungs, skin, and kidneys — forming a kind of natural 

 trio — constitute the system of excretory organs, which 

 are devoted to getting rid of waste matters. And in 

 the digestive system, we find a whole scries of organs which 

 perform, each, an important part in the work of food- 

 elaboration. Thus, there are the mouth and tedh ; then 

 come the salivary glands of the mouth. The stomach and 

 intestine come next, the food passing through these parts. 

 The liver, " sweetbread " (or pancreas), gantric glands of 

 the stomach, and the glands of the intestine are all so 

 many organs which discharge duties connected with the 

 conversion of food into a fluid capable of being added to 

 the blood. 



But last of all, it is possible to form a generalised idea 

 of this complex system of digestive organs. We ought to 

 think of any digestive system as merely a longer or shorter 

 tube through which food passes, and in which food is sub- 

 jected to the action of fluids thrown in upon it by certain 

 glands (liver, sweetbread, itc). Such a simple idea — that 

 of a tube with " glands " attached to its sides — perfectly 

 describes the digestive system of any animal 



DISCOVERIES AT TEL-EL-MASKHUTA. 



By Amelia B. Edwards, 



Hun. Secretait/ Ey(^ptian Exploration Fund. 



"IT^HEN, in my concluding words on the subject of 

 y\ Pa-Rameses and Tel-el-Maskhuta,* I expressed a 

 hope that " pick and spade might ere long be called in to 

 settle this problem," 1 little thought that the means would 

 so soon be forthcoming, and the effort so promptly be made. 

 Five weeks ago, the Egypt Excavation Eund, having no 

 president and no money, existed only as a committee. 

 Now, thanks to Sir Erasmus Wilson, who has accepted 

 the vacant chair and fed the empty exchequer, our 

 society has been enabled to make its first start in life ; 

 and, as all know who read the daily papers, opera- 

 tions have already been begun upon Egyptian soil. 

 For the rapidity and success with which these opera- 

 tions have been conducted, the society is indebted to 

 M. Naville, one of the most eminent of living Egypto- 

 logists, who has accepted the direction of the excavations. 

 M. Naville, having left for Egypt upon a very brief notice, 

 arrived in Cairo on January 19, just in time to see Pro- 

 fessor Maspero, who was on the point of starting for 

 Upper Egypt, and who, in point of fact, left the port of 

 Boolak that same evening. The result of their conference 

 was that Professor Maspero recommended, and M. Naville 

 decided upon, the examination of Tel-el-Maskhuta. Whether 

 M. Naville was, or was not, influenced to this decision by 

 any kindly interest which he may have taken in my con- 

 tributions to Knowledge (though they could teach him 



• .Sou KXOWI.EDGE, No. G4, January 19th, 1883. 



nothing new), I do not pretend to say ; but, to the best of 

 my belief. Professor Maspero, who especially advocated the 

 choice of this site, has never s-een a line of those contribu- 

 tions, and was solely influenced by the desire to settle a 

 long-disputed question. For my own part, 1 can only say 

 that the decision took me by surprise, and that I had 

 supposed the work would Ik; begun elsewhere. 



Having secured the services of an experienced engineer 

 and a gang of eighty labourers, M. Naville attacked the 

 mound during the first week of the present month, and, on 

 the 12th inst. , wrote to my co-secretary, Mr. R. Stuart 

 Pooli', to announce the important discovery by which his 

 first week's work had been rewarded. This report came to 

 hand on the liOth inst., and its contents were communi- 

 cated to the leading papers by Mr. R. S. Poole, in the 

 following letter : — 



" M. Navillo writes from Tell-el-Masckuta to announce that the 

 excavations undertaken by him on tliat site for the Egypt Explora- 

 tion Fund have already yielded a result of the first historical and 

 geographical importance. This site (Tell-el-Mascknta), roughly 

 midway between Ismailia and Tell-el-Kebir, is proved by an inscrip- 

 tion dug up by M. Naville to be at once the Pithom and the Succoth 

 of the Bible. Pithom was the sacred naTiie descriptive of the Temple, 

 and Succoth (Tuku) the civil appellation. We read of Pithom as 

 one of the cities built by the Israelites during the oppression 

 (Ex. i., 2), and Succoth was the first station in the march of the 

 Exodus (Ex., xii., .37 ; xiii, 20). The discovery not only plates 

 Pithom-Succoth on the map, but in doing so gives us at last a fixed 

 point in the route of the Israelites out of Egypt. A full discussion 

 of the results of this discovery would bo premature, but it may be 

 remarked that it greatly modifies Dr. Brugsch's attempt to recon- 

 struct the primitive geography of the Delta, which, like a broken 

 geographies! puzzle, will now be put together. It must not, however, 

 be forgotten tliat with the help of his collection of literary docu- 

 ments tlip luliour is comparatively easy. It is to be hoped that the 

 work to which M. Navillo has devoted his great knowledge will not 

 langni.sh for want of funds. Hitherto it has been supported single- 

 handrd by .Sir Erasmus Wilson. — Your obedient servant, 

 " Hkui.vali) Stiabt Poole, 

 " Hon. Secretary Egj'pt Exploration Fund. 



" British Museum, Feh. 20." 



To this 1 will only add that, since " Pithom " is found, 

 I am well content to have been mistaken as regards the 

 site of "Raamses." My inquiry was but a search after 

 historical truth; and if that inquiry has, however remotely, 

 opened the way to the work which is now being done, I 

 hold myself not to have suffered defeat, but to have 

 achieved success. Far rather, indeed, would I be proved 

 wrong than right in this matter of " Pithom " versus 

 "Raamses"; for important as would have been the 

 identification of "Raamses," the identification of "Pithom- 

 Succoth " is from every point of view infinitely more 

 momentous. 



HvDROGEN is completely absorbed by palladium sponge 

 at 100°, and Mr. W. Ilempel has used this as a means 

 of separating hydrogen from a mixture of gases. In order 

 to test the applicability of this property to the esti- 

 mation of hydrogen evolved in sealed tubes, Herr 

 Tschirikow treated zinc with hydrochloric acid in 

 a sealed glass tube containing a palladium spiral 

 The proportions of acid and zinc were such as to produce 

 a pressure of twenty-five atmospheres if no hydrogen were 

 absorbed by the palladium. The absorption was found 

 to be complete. A small portion of the hydrogen had 

 united with the oxygen of tlie air remaining in the tube. 

 Nearly the calculated amount of hydrogen was obtained 

 from the palladium spiral by heating to 350°. The evolu- 

 tion of the gas was so regular that Tschirikow suggests 

 the heating of palladium-hydrogen as a means of obtain- 

 ing chemically pure hydrogen. — The Engineer. 



