NA TURE 



[November 30, 1905 



The Second Law of Thermodynamics. 



Is it not true that the Second Law of Thermodynamics 

 is contradicted by the known facts of diffusion/ When, 

 for instance, masses of hydrogen and nitrogen are separ- 

 ated b} a palladium partition, a difference of pressure is 

 set up, owing to the diffusion of some of the hydrogen 

 into the compartment which at first contained onh 

 nitrogen. In this condition the system is able to do work 

 at the expense of its own heat, or heat entering from with- 

 out. The palladium, in fact, takes the place of Clerk 

 Maxwell's Sorting Demon, though, in this ease, the process 

 cannot be made continuous. M. A. Browne. 



Christ's College, Cambridge, November 19. 



BRITISH EXCAVATIONS IN THE NEAR 

 EAST, 1904-5. 

 TOURING the past year British archaeologists have 

 *-J carried on the work of disinterring the remains 

 oi the ancient civilisations of Greece, Egypt, and 

 Mesopotamia with energy. The excavations of the 

 Trustees of the British Museum at Ephesus have re- 

 sulted in interesting discoveries. The work was in- 

 tended to supplement and complete that carried out 

 under the auspices of the Trustees from forty to thirty 

 years ago on the site of the Great Temple of Diana 

 of the Ephesians. That work, carried out by the 

 late Mr. J. T. Wood, resulted in the planning of the 

 temple and the removal to England of many valuable 

 antiquities now in the British Museum. The present 

 work was entrusted by the trustees to the dis- 

 tinguished archaeologist Mr. D. G. Hogarth. It has 

 resulted in the discovery, undreamt of by Wood, of 

 the remains of two earlier temples below that of the 

 Croesus temple, which he supposed to be the earliest, 

 and of a vast number of votive objects of the eighth 

 and seventh centuries B.C., among them many of gold 

 and silver, besides Egyptian blue composition scarabs 

 of the early twenty-sixth dynasty period. These were 

 found underneath the second or " prae-Croesus " 

 temple. By the laws of Turkey, the antiquities, 

 ('specially those of precious metal, must go to the 

 Museum of Constantinople, but duplicates will come 

 to the British Museum. Much new knowledge of the 

 third or Croesus temple, discovered by Wood, has also 

 been gained. The two earlier ones seem to have been 

 of interesting construction. Much heavy pumping 

 work had to be carried out in the temple area, which 

 had become filled with water. Mr. Hogarth is to be 

 congratulated on having brought this interesting 

 work to a successful conclusion. 



On the mainland of Greece, Lakonia has been 

 handed over by the Greek Government to the British 

 School of Athens for excavations. Several minor dis- 

 coveries of interest have been made, including that 

 of a fifth-century local heroon, or hero-shrine, with 

 its equipment of cultus-images, reliefs, figurines, and 

 votive cups, &c, near Monemvasia. The work was 

 carried out bv Mr. R. C. Bosanquet, the Director of 

 the School, and Mr. F. C. Hasluck. 



The Cretan work of the British School has now 

 been brought to a conclusion. The excavation of the 

 -.ill oi Palai'kastro, in the province of Sitia, has not 

 yet been completed, but is suspended, let us hope not 

 for long. Mr. R. McG. Dawkins was in charge, 

 and carried out his work most successfully under 

 adverse conditions, owing to the now unhappily re- 

 newed troubles in the island, due to the fixed deter- 

 mination (whether it be right or wrong) of the Cretan 

 people to effect their union with Greece. We can, 

 parenthetically, only pray that Candia may not be the 

 scene of riots, not for the sake of the Cretans, but 

 for that of the museum, which contains all the 

 trophies of the last few years' wonderful discoveries 



NO. 1883, VOL. 73] 



at Knossos and Phaistos, the destruction of which 

 would be an irreparable loss to the whole civilised 

 world. 



This by the way. Mr. Dawkins's work has re- 

 sulted in the discovery of the complete stratification 

 of the temple site back to the first post-Neolithic age, 

 and the discovery of fine pottery of the various stages 

 of the Minoan period. It is evident that the later 

 temple was built over the Minoan settlement, prob- 

 ably as the result of a survival of religious tradition 

 in connection with the site. The exploration of the 

 Minoan town has been regularly continued. In the 

 hills near by Mr. Dawkins also discovered a Neolithic 

 settlement with a very interesting deposit of twenty 

 stone axes, " more than half of them in brand-new 

 condition. This discovery gives us, for the first time 

 in the .Egean, a definite idea of a Neolithic home- 

 stead." 



The explorations of Messrs. Arthur Evans and 

 Mackenzie at Knossos have been continued with the 

 assistance of Mr. Doll as architect. By the kindness 

 of Dr. Evans we are enabled to give a short sketch 

 of the results of his work this season in advance. 

 The chief work has been the exploration of the 

 magazines on the paved way leading west from the 

 " Stepped Theatral Area " (see Nature, October 5). 

 More stores of tablets relating to the royal chariots 

 and armoury have been found, and a complete build- 

 ing excavated. On the hillside beyond the Candia 

 road, the building to which the way led from the 

 palace has been found and partly excavated. It 

 proved to be a late Minoan house, larger than any 

 other depetidance of the palace, and in it were found 

 the remains of a shrine containing fetish images in 

 the shape of natural stalagmite blocks of quasi-human 

 form, together with a painted clay goat and other 

 figures. Owing to heavy rainfall, the modern wooden 

 pillars of the quadruple staircase in the main palace 

 gave way, and Dr. Evans was obliged to rebuild the 

 whole. This he did in more solid form with stone 

 pillars of ancient shape and appearance. More 

 interesting discoveries were made during the course 

 of the work. We regret to. learn that owing to 

 absence of outside support for the Cretan Explor- 

 ation Fund the Knossian excavations may shortly 

 be brought to an end. It is evident that an ex- 

 cavator cannot go on bearing indefinitely the greater 

 part of the cost of his excavations himself, as Dr. 

 Evans has done. There is much more of the 

 greatest importance to science to be found at Knossos, 

 and we again appeal to those who are interested to 

 subscribe to the Cretan Exploration Fund. There 

 ought to be some money somewhere for the most 

 important archaeological exploration of the decade, 

 which, despite the claims of Egyptian excavations, Dr. 

 Evans's work must undoubtedly be admitted to be. 

 We hope and confidently expect that, after a pause 

 of a year or two devoted to the full publication of the 

 momentous results hitherto obtained, Dr. Evans will 

 be enabled to proceed afresh with the exploration of 

 Knossos. 



In Egypt the chief excavations of the year have 

 been those of the Egypt Exploration Fund. The 

 excavators employed by the fund were, as before, 

 Profs. Naville and Petrie, and Messrs. Hall, Currelly, 

 and Ayrton, Mr. Hall being lent, as last year, by the 

 British Museum. To Messrs. Naville, Hall, and 

 Ayrton was assigned the continuance of the excava- 

 tions at Der el-Bahari, with the assistance of Mr. 

 and Mrs. H. Garnett-Orme, who kindly gave their 

 services to the Fund for this work. Messrs. Petrie 

 and Currelly, with a party of helpers, among whom 

 may be mentioned Captain Weill, of the French 

 gfaiie, were commissioned to investigate and clear 



