Oct. 19, 1871 | 
NATURE 
495 

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE FROM 
AMERICA * 
SOME of our readers are probably aware of the important 
archzeological discoveries made a few years ago in the island 
of Cyprus by Mr. L. Di Cesnola, United States consul at that 
island, and of the interest which they excited throughout the 
civilised world. This consisted in the finding of a buried city, 
and of numerous graves of the ancient Phoenicians and other 
early races of the island of Cyprus, previously entirely unknown. 
Excavations were prosecuted by him at great expense, and re- 
sulted in the accumulation of an enormous mass of treasures of 
art of gold, silver, bronze, pottery, &c. Various government 
authorities and public museums of Europe have, it is understood, 
opened negotiations for the acquisition of the entire collection, 
and it was stated that an offer had been made from Boston for 
their purchase ; but nothing definite appears to have been accom- 
plished. It is said that of the various offers, one on the part of 
the French Government was most satisfactory, but that the con- 
summation of the purchase was prevented by the late war. 
The value of these treasures will be shown by the following 
enumeration of the specimens of the collection, especially 
when we bear in mind that many of them are most exquisite 
specimens of art, and all are of undoubted authenticity and great 
antiquity :— 
Antique Greek, Phoenician, and Roman glass-ware un- 

guentaries, bottles, bracelets, tear-bottles . 0 - 1200 
Pheenician, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek vases from 
three feet in height to two inches : 0 c - 4000 
Greek and Roman and Byzantine lamps, with and without 
bas-reliefs and inscriptions . : 6 B . . 1400 
Bronzes of every kind, strigiles, pateras, fibulas, speculas, 
» spear-heads, &c. 2 . 6 é . AZO 
Pheenician, Greek, and Cypriote (?) inscriptions . f 96 
Stone statues of every size (Temple of Venus) . - 204 
Stone heads of every size (Temple of Venus) . c OO) 
Terra-cotta statuettes, votive offerings, &c., . ' ZO 
Gold objects, cylinders, scarabees, &c., . 0 o  Lisio} 
8560 
These were obtained by excavating at least 8,000 graves, and 
from the Temple of Venus at Golgos, the discovery of which by 
Mr. Cesnola was scarcely inferior in archeological importance 
to that of ancient Nineveh by Mr. Layard. In this were found 
numerous inscriptions inan unknown Semitic language (Cypriote?). 
—In previous numbers we have given an account of certain 
deep-water explorations in the great lakes, which resulted 
in the detection of species of crustaceans and of fishes new to 
science, and belonging to marine rather than to fresh-water types. 
This, of course, does not prove the occurrence of other marine 
conditions at the bottom of the lakes, such as salinity of the 
water, &c., although it may perhaps excite a suspicion to that 
effect. Additional researches have been prosecuted during the 
present season in this direction, two parties being engaged in 
them—namely, Mr. James W. Milner, of Waukegan, and Mr, 
Sidney J. Smith, of Yale College, the former working princi- 
py in Lake Michigan, and the latter under the auspices of the 
Engineer Department, in Lake Superior, Both these gentlemen 
have carried on their labours at depths exceeding 100 fathoms, 
and have determined the existence of various novel forms of 
animal life, of which due mention will be made hereafter.—Pro- 
fessor J. D. Whitney, in a recent communication to the Academy 
of Sciences of San Francisco upon the use of the barometer in 
determining altitudes, remarked upon the effect which tempera- 
ture exerts upon the instrument, and stated that the difference 
between the cold of winter and the heat of summer would some- 
times, in the same instrument, involve a difference in the estimate 
of a given height of as much as seventeen feet. He hoped in 
time to have tables prepared which should give the allowances 
that must be made for each day of the year, and for different 
times in the day, an observation at 9 A.M. sometimes giving a 
different result from one taken at 2 P.M. at the same altitude on 
the same day. He also expressed his dissatisfaction with the 
aneroid barometer as a means of measuring altitudes, although 
he had experimented with the best that were offered in the market. 
He found them reliable for a certain time only, and they appeared 
to have spells of irregularity from which they recoveredg very 
* Communicated by the Scientific Editor of Harper's Weekly. 



slowly. He did not find any upon which he could rely for heights 
above 1,000 feet.—From the Alaska Herald we learn that M, 
Alphonse Pinart had reached Nushigak on the 31st of May, 
where he was received very cordially by the authorities. While 
there he made numerous photographic pictures of the scenery, 
and gathered collections in ethnology and palmontology. He left 
Nushigak on the 16th of June, on board the steamer Yohn Bright, 
for the Yukon River, and expected to reach the interior in time 
to attend the great July fair held by the Yukon Indians. 

PROF, HUXLEY ON THE DUTIES OF THE 
STATE 
WE are able to give the following extracts from Prof. Huxley's 
address at Birmingham, to which we alluded last week :— 
The higher the state of civilisation the more completely did 
and must the action of one member of the social body influence 
all the rest, and the less possible was it for any one man to doa 
wrong thing without interfering more or less with the freedom of 
all his fellow-citizens. So that, even in its narrowest views, the 
functions of the State, it must be admitted, should have a wider 
power than even those who, without this doctrine of adminis- 
tration, were willing to admit. It was urged, he was aware, 
that if the right of the State was conceded to assign limits at all, 
there would be no stopping it, and that the principles which justi- 
fied the State in enforcing vaccination and education also justify 
it in prescribing his religious belief, and mode of carrying on his 
trade or profession, or in determining the number of courses he 
should have for his dinner, or the pattern of his waistcoat. But 
surely the answer was obvious, that on similar grounds the right 
of a man to eat when hungry might be disputed, because if he 
were allowed to eat at all he must be allowed to use that faculty 
which told him he must not surfeit himself. But in practice 
every one knew that a man left off when reason told him that he 
had had enough. And so, properly argued, the State, or govern- 
ing body, would find out when reason was carried far enough. 
But so far as his acquaintance with those who carried on the 
business of Government went, it was that they were far less 
eager to interfere with the people while the people were keenly 
sensitive. He could not discover that Locke affected to put the 
doctrine of modern liberation—that the toleration of error was a 
good thing in itself, to be reckoned amongst the cardinal virtues ; 
on the contrary, he was strongly opposed to this, and he laid it 
down that whenever it was necessary for the preservation of civil 
society that toleration should be withdrawn it ought to be with- 
drawn, . . . There must be strong and cogent reasons for 
legislation on abstract matters, before the governing body entered 
upon such a course of legislative action as that of which he had 
spoken, and which might tend towards that state contemplated 
by the champions of Nihilism. He then quoted the doctrine 
laid down by Mr. Herbert Spencer, to the effect that the rela- 
tions of political bodies bore a strong resemblance to vertebrate 
animals in their organisation, and that as the brain was 
the guiding power of the animal, so in communities the 
Government answered the same purpose. . ... . In 
fact, much of our social relations were based upon this simple 
law—that one man established his right to the one thing, and in 
another direction to abstain from doing another thing. In many 
cases government degenerated, and became a recognised system 
for effecting fraud and plunder ; but wherever sound. social re- 
lationships existed between different members composing the 
social life of a country, this was impossible. But to reach this 
every man, and the aggregation of men in communities, limited 
their independence. He next spoke on individual responsibility, 
and said that it was the duty of the individual to protect society ; 
if the individual breaks all bonds, then society perishes. The 
welfare of the social organisation depended not only on the 
brain, or the government, but on the members ; but unquestion- 
ably a good deal depended on what the functions of the Govern- 
ment were. This touched at the root of social organism, and 
the problem which had presented itself to many minds was one 
not easy to solve. John Locke had furnished them with an 
answer which for a time sets the matter at rest. The end of a 
Government is the good of mankind. The good of mankind 
was not something which was an absolute fixed thing for all men, 
whatever their capacities. It was possible to maintain the indi- 
vidual freedom, and promote the higher functions that the govern- 
ment has translated into another sphere ; but what ought we 
men in our corporate capacity to do in the way of restraining 
the free jindividual in that which was contrary to the existence 
