May 19, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



269 



carry a line of goods known as ^ ' druggists' sundries " and 

 " patent medicines." These, and more especially the latter, he 

 would give up if he could, but the line of competition is so great 

 and the public still expect the pharmacist to carry any-and- 

 everything to suit their convenience, that it seems only practi- 

 cable to a very few to abandon these in their business. The pub- 

 lic also expect the pharmacist to know something of everything, 

 and whatever it be, whether ills or troubles or discomforts of any 

 kind, they run to him. I remember, when attending college, 

 one of the professors, who was a practising pharmacist for a 

 number of years in one of the best localities in a large city, tell- 

 ing us that one night he was hastily summoned by a neighbor to 

 his house, where, in the midst of a splendid reception, the gas 

 had suddenly gone out, and, not knowing what to do, they sent for 

 the pharmicist. He went, and being of a practical mind and 

 true to the instincts of his discomforted neighbor, he remedied 

 the trouble. This simply illustrates the very close relations of 

 the pharmacist to the public. 



Now, as soon as the public will expect the pharmacist to deal 

 in medicines only and all other articles related to the art of medi- 

 cine, then the pharmacist as a business man (which he must be) 

 will confine himself to the labors of his profession. And as soon 

 as he can confine himself solely to the art of pharmacy as taught 

 in our colleges, there will be no question of an extended curricu- 

 lum of studies, as complete as that of any institution of learning. 

 Then we shall have laboratories fully equipped in the particular 

 kind of analytical and chemical apparatus which he needs for the 

 assay of drugs and in their examination for purity. Likewise 

 will the course in microscopical work be so extended that the 

 pharmacist will make such analyses, for the busy physician, as 

 the examination of urinary sediments and other discharges, such 

 as sputum for tubercle-bacilli, etc. Indeed, it is in these two 

 fields that the advanced work in pharmacy is tending, and ac- 

 curate results will only be attained by thorough instruction in 

 chemical and microscopical manipulation. There must be such 

 a blending of chemical and botanical instruction that the phar- 

 macist, while not a specialist as a chemist or a botanist, yet 

 indeed is a specialist with regards to the practical application of 

 these sciences as an aid to the physician in his healing art and in 

 the preparation of pure medicines of definite and authorized 

 strength. This condition of specialization will come, for phar- 

 macists are marching onward in the line of progiess; and it is 

 only a question of a few years, when the host of young men, 

 graduating by the hundreds from our colleges of pharmacy, and 

 who are thirsting to apply their teachings and make their living , 

 in this practical application, will unite and raise the standard of 

 their business to the profession which it is theirs to make it, ■ 



THE TELL EL-AMARN^ TABLETS. 



BY THE KEV. THOMAS HARRISON, F.R G.S., MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY 

 OF BIBLICAL AROH.S;OLOGY, AND SENIOR LECTURER TO THE PAL- 

 ESTINE EXPLORATION FUND, STAPLEHURST, KENT, ENGLAND. 



The Tell el-A.marna tablets, after some years of patient study 

 on the part of experts, are now known to consist for the most 

 part of a jislitical coiTespondence of great interest and importance 

 between kings, governors, and oflScers. who formed their plans, 

 struggled with their difficulties, fought their battles, and made 

 their exit from the worry and work of life 3,370 years ago. These 

 letters are inscribed on brick tablets, and, as a rule, occupy both 

 sides of the tablet. With two exceptions, which are from Hittite 

 princes and in their language, the letters are written in an ancient 

 form of the cuneiform script. They were found in the year 1887 

 by an Egyptian peasant woman amid the ruins of the palace of 

 Amenophis IV., or Khu-en-Aten, at a place now known as Tell 

 el-Amarna, midway between Minieh and Assiout, on the eastern 

 bank of the Nile, about 180 miles by river south of Cairo. The 

 tablets number 330. The writers of the letters from Palestine 

 (178 in number) are Amorites, Phoenicians, Philistines, and others, 

 and they are addressed to the Pharaoh of Egypt and certain of his 

 officials. At the time of this correspondence (about 1480 B.C.) 

 the power of Egypt was waning and Egyptian garrisons were 



being withdrawn from Palestine in face of successful attacks by 

 the kings of Armenia, Nii, Shinar, with the Hittites of Merash 

 and Kadesh on the north, and of equally successful attacks by 

 the Abiri (Hebrews) on the south. The letters state that the 

 Abiri came from the desert and Mount Seir. Major Conder 

 affirms that "the date of the letters is exactly that which is to be 

 derived from the Bible (I. Kings vi., 1) for the Hebrew invasion, 

 according to the Hebrew and Vulgate text, and it agrees with 

 the fact that the Egyptian conquests made by the XVIII. dynasty 

 (1700 to 1600 B.C.) had been lost when the XIX. dynasty ac- 

 ceded." It is certainly very interesting to find in the letters the 

 names of Japhia (Josh, x., 3, one of the kings killed by Joshua) 

 and most probably that of Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem; while 

 the name of a king of Hazor is read as Jabin (Josh, xi., 1). It is 

 also pointed out that the name of the captain of Jabin's host is, 

 Egyptian, Sisera or Ses-Ra, meaning servant of Ra. 



In most of the letters from the kings of the cities of Phoenicia 

 and Northern and Southern Palestine the appeal is ever one for 

 Egyptian troops to enable them to hold their cities for the Pharaoh , 

 to whom they seem to have appealed in vain. The earlier letters 

 of brave Ribadda, the king of Gebal (now Jubeil, north of Bey- 

 rout), usually begin with the following salutation, which is given 

 as a specimen of such salutations at that time, " Ribadda of the 

 city of Gebal of his Lord, the King of many lands, the prosperous 

 king, Baalath of Gebal, she hath given power to the King my 

 Lord. At the feet of the King my Lord, my Sun seven times seven 

 times I bow." 



The salutation of the later letters becomes shorter and less cere- 

 monious, as Ribadda felt that he was being left to his fate. Here 

 is one of his appeals for help : " I have been hard pushed. Help 

 speedily O King my Lord. . . . Soldiers and chariots, and you 

 will strengthen the chief city of the King my Lord." 



And what can be more pathetic than this, coming from that 

 same brave heart, which has now for more than 3,300 years 

 ceased to trouble itself about chariots and men of war and Pha- 

 raohs who could not or would not come to his aid. 



"And will not my Lord hear the message of his servant? Men 

 of the city of Gebal, and my child, and a wife whom I loved, this 

 son of war, the son of Abdasherah has seized; and we have made 

 a gathering, we have searched ; and I cannot hear a word spoken 

 about them. I am doing my duty to the King my Lord, and once 

 more, despatch thou men of garrison, men of war, for thy ser- 

 vant, and will you not defend the city of the King my Lord?" 



On May 14, 1892, a cuneiform tablet was found by Mr. Bliss 

 while excavating at the old Amorite city of Lachish, in Judea, in 

 which the name Zimridi twice occurs. From the Tell el-Amarna 

 tablets we learn that Zimridi was governor of Lachish, and, more- 

 over, in a tablet from the king of Jerusalem to Amenophis IV. , 

 we are informed of the death of Zimridi at the hands of the ser- 

 vants of the Pharaoh just named. 



Many matters of great interest in connection with these tablets 

 can find no mention within the limits of this paper. It may be 

 added, however, that the topographical value of these letters is 

 very great ; and also that the evidence which they afford as to the 

 Hebrew conquest of Palestine under Joshua is in favor of the Bible 

 chronology (Acts xiii., 30 ; I. Kings vi., 1) and against that of Dr. 

 Brugsch and Bunsen. 



SOME CONFLICTING ESTIMATES OP DISTANCE. 



BY ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, PH.D., MONTCLAIR, N. J. 



According to all authorities with which I am familiar, a small, 

 regular pattern, if looked at squintingly, so that the horopter is 

 nearer the eye than the pattern, but at such a distance that adja- 

 cent corresponding parts of the latter overlap and coalesce, should 

 appear closer to the observer, and if looked at in like manner, 

 but so that the horopter is farther from the eye than the pat- 

 tern, it should appear farther away. This seems natural, for, 

 in each case, the image on the retina being unblurred, the point 

 to which the axes of the eyes converge should be taken as the 

 distance of the object. In this case, the angle actually subtended 

 by the pattern remaining the same, the mind should infer, in the 



