Sept. 8, 1882. 



KNOWLEDGE 



245 



death, it was continued, probably as far as the Red Sea, by 

 his son and successor, Rameses II. This valley anciently 

 formed part of the Land of Goshen. 



"According to De Rouge, Mariette, Lepsius, and the 

 majority of Egyptologists, it was under Rameses II. that 

 the Egyptians made the lives of the children of Israel 

 'bitter with hard bondage;' and in the opinion of the 

 same high authorities (an opinion based upon evidence 

 which I am at this present time examining in the columns 

 of a contemporary publication)* the mound of Maskhuta, 

 or Mahuta^the same ' remarkable mound of considerable 

 height and great size ' upon which your war correspondent 

 tells us in his despatch of the 24th inst that ' our feeble 

 battery was placed ' marks the site of the city of 

 ' Raamses,' for the buUding of which the Hebrews were 

 compelled to make bricks with stubble of their own 

 gathering. These bricks, moulded of sun-dried clay 

 mLxed with chopped straw, and stamped, some with the 

 cartouche of Rameses II., and some with the cartouche of 

 his successor Menephtah, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, 

 are to be found in any number in and about the mound. 



" Two neighbouring mounds are claimed as the site of 

 Pithom, the other ' treasure-city ' of the Bible : — 1. Tel- 

 el-Kebir, where there is a \ illage and station on the line, 

 and whence, according to Sir G. Wolseley's official telegram 

 in the Times of Saturday, August 26, the rebel army was 

 reinforced by railway on the 2Ith inst. ; 2. Tel-Abu-Sooley- 

 mein, a mound lying somewhat south of the mouth of the 

 valley, in the direction of Belbeis. 



Tel-el-Maskhuta is situate within a few hundred yards of 

 the station marked ' Rameses.' " 



SCIENCE IX ITS APPLICATION 

 DOMESTIC LIFE. 

 Br Percy Russell. 



TO 



THE adaptation of scientific discovery, in all its multi- 

 farious results, to the ordinary routine wants of 

 humanity, must surely rank among the greatest practical 

 triumphs of the age. It is not so very long since science — 

 and, indeed, most matters to which the phrase technical 

 could be rightly applied — were purely esoteric, and the 

 mass of mankind was expected rather to express admiration 

 for, than to participate in, the work of the foremost savants 

 of the day. It has been aptly observed of Plato, for 

 e.xample, that, like Acestes, in Virgil, he aimed at the 

 stars, but struck nothing ; while Bacon, the father of ex- 

 perimental and practical philosophy, fixed his eye on a 

 mark within the human range, and hit it in tlie centra 

 In a word, the former began and ended in mere meta- 

 physics ; but the latter, commencing in accurate observa- 

 tion, closed in a variety of arts, all of which have benefited 

 mankind materially. 



The second annual Exhibition of Domestic Labour- 

 saving Appliances and Articles designed for the promotion 

 of household thrift, opened at the Agricultural Hall, 

 London, on Aug. 24, is in many ways a practical and 

 highly suggestive commentary on the above view of the new 

 relations, comparatively speaking, of science and normal 

 contemporary life. Here we have palpably before us the 

 tangible results of much patient philosophical thought, of 

 profound chemical research, and especially of the higher 

 mathematics whose practical use is so little understood by 

 the majority. The season — and it had endured for cen- 

 turies — of exclusiveness in science has finally vanished, 

 and its greatest expositors now no longer deem it beneath 



their dignity to adapt the best results of even their pro- 

 foundest inquiries to the abridgment of human labour, the 

 prevention of disease, the multiplication of even mere 

 material comforts, and, indeed, to very much that, some 

 generations ago, was generally deemed beneath the dignity, 

 and even outside the proper province, of our principal philo- 

 sophers. One important outcome of this vast change has 

 been to give a breadth to scientific inquiry which was often 

 wanting before, and to infuse into it an accuracy which 

 was sometimes absent when speculation took a merely 

 metaphysical form. If, observes an able writer, a mathe- 

 matician made a blunder in defining the properties of eight 

 circles on a sphere, the world was none the worse, but if 

 he made a mistake in estimating the centrifugal force in 

 a wheel, he might indirectly wreck a factory. 



The Domestic Exhibition comprehends, indeed, a 

 variety of appliances and contrivances, many of which are 

 fouBded on the most exact scientific principles, related to 

 such homely, but, rightly viewed, all-important subjects as 

 lighting, warming, and ventilating buildings, the more 

 effective and wholesome preparation and cooking of food — 

 a thing of equal moment to the savant and the ignora- 

 mus — the labours of the laundry, sundry purely hygienic 

 matters, and, finally, to that admirable, healthy, and refining 

 recreative utility — if the phrase may be used — gardening. 



It will be readily perceived from this slight sketch that 

 the various exhibits cover a very wide range indeed, and 

 include much that is really of the highest importance to 

 the material well-being of our household life, both in its 

 outdoor and indoor aspects. In regard to the ventilation 

 of buildings — a matter of the most vital consequence — I 

 noticed an admirable self-acting air-pump ventilator, which 

 is automatic in its working, and can be applied with 

 equal facility to all kinds of buildings, great or small, and 

 is, moreover, capable of being harmoniously blended with 

 any style of architecture. This ventilator is constructed 

 on accurate scientific lines, and ought to be carefully 

 studied by all interested in the subject of ventilation. 

 We noticed, inter alia, a very effective gas-engine, which 

 has much to commend it where moderate motive-power is a 

 desideratum. The engine is simple, safe, and economic. 

 It occupies very little space, and may be placed in the 

 upper storey of an ordinary house. There is no danger 

 whatever of explosion, and as a substitute for manual 

 power it is undoubtedly of comprehensive utility. 



Another noteworthy labour-saver is that known as 

 Griscom's electromotor and automatic battery for sewing- 

 machines, ic. The force required is obtained from a box 

 of bichromate cells, and can, it is claimed, be regulated at 

 the will of the operator. 



There were also good examples of arrangements for 

 warming buildings of all sizes ; and, as might be expected, 

 some excellent things in the way of gas-cooking stoves. 

 The advantages of gas for cooking are certainly great, and 

 the adaptation of some of the stoves shown to the purposes 

 in view is in every way admirable. 



The sanitary importance of pure water is now popularly 

 appreciat<>d, and it is generally understood that very much 

 disease and premature death may be traced directly to the 

 use of impure water. The battle of the filt<'rs is, there- 

 fore, a subject in which we are all of us interested, and I 

 was certainly struck by a contrivance known as the 

 " Filtre Rapide," which bids fair to come out of the com- 

 petition a victorious champion. It is said to combine all 

 the advantages, and to be destitute of all the disadvan- 

 Uges, of the best filter extant, while it has some valuable 

 merits special to itself. These are great claims, but tlicy 

 appear justified by the facts. For one tiling, the water 

 during filtration is aerated thoroughly, wliile the filter can 



