170 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 399 



timely preventive measures, the discovery of tubercle bacilli ren- 

 dered timely therapeutic measures, possible. Besides these, in- 

 deed, only Pasteur's inoculations against hydrophobia, anthrax, 

 symptomatic anthrax, and swine erysipelas, remained to be men- 

 tioned ; and the iirst of these probably did not belong to bacteri- 

 ology at all, though they had grown on its soil. "But," concluded 

 Professor Koch, "it will not always remain so. Therapeutics 

 proper will also derive beneSt from bacteriology; hardly, indeed, 

 for diseases of rapid course, in which prevention will remain the 

 main thing, but certainly for slow diseases, such as tuberculosis. 

 Others also, like Billroth, maintain this hope; but the mistake 

 has frequently been committed of beginning the experiment on 

 human subjects. I regard this as wrong, and look upon the 

 alleged successes of various remedies, from benzoate of soda to 

 hot air, as illusory. For years past I have been seeking means 

 for the therapeutic treatment of consumption, but I began with 

 the pure cultivation of the bacillus. I found a number of sub- 

 stances, — ethereal oils, tar-pigments, mercurial vapor, salts of gold 

 and silver, especially cyanide of gold, for instance, — some of 

 which, like the last, even when very strongly diluted, prevent the 

 growth of the bacillus, which, of course, suffices to bring the dis- 

 ease to a standstill. All these substances, however, have proved 

 ineffectual when used against the bacillus in the bodies of ani- 

 mals. I continued my search, however, and found what I sought. 

 Susceptible as the guinea-pig is to the tubercle bacillus, it proved 

 non-inoculable when treated with the sulistances in question, and 

 even when its disease was far advanced it could be brought to a 

 standstill by this means. This fact may give occasion to search 

 for similar effective remedies in other infectious diseases also, 

 and here lies the field for an international contest of the highest 

 and noblest kind."- 



EXCAVATIONS IN JUDAEA.' 



The traveller from Hebron to Gaza cannot fail to be struck with 

 the sudden contrast presented by the mountainous country that 

 he leaves behind him, and the long stretch of almost level plain 

 into which he descends. After passing Bet-Jibrln, in which some 

 scholars would see the sight of the ancient Gath, he has to wend 

 his way through narrow defiles and precipitous limestone crags 

 until he suddenly finds himself in the rich plain which forms the 

 Negeb, or district of '• southern " Judsea. On the first occasion on 

 which I travei-sed it. however, it was not the sharp contrast be- 

 tween mountain and plain that first attracted my attention: it was 

 rather the number of tefs, or artificial mounds, with which the 

 plain is covered. Each tel marks the site of an ancient city or 

 village; and no archaeologist could help refJecting, as he gazed upon 

 them, what a rich field must here await the future excavator. 

 Among them I noted two or three of remarkable height and size, 

 and longed for an opportunity of discovering the historical secrets 

 that lay hidden within them. It was more especially on a lofty 

 mound, which my dragoman told me was called Tel 'Ajlan, that 

 I cast covetous eyes. 



The curiosity which the site of the mound excited has now been 

 partially gratified. After ten years of patient importunity, the 

 Palestine Exploration Fund succeeded last spring in obtaining 

 permission from the Turkish Government to excavate in the south 

 of Palestine; and Mr. Flinders Petrie, the prince of living excavat- 

 ors, placed his services at the disposal of the fimd. In spite of 

 obstacles of every nature, presented by the climate, by Turkish 

 officialism, and by the character of the Bedouin inhabitants of the 

 country, his few weeks of work have produced truly marvellous 

 results. We now know something of the art and building of the 

 Israelites in the period of the Kings, and even of that older 

 Amorite population whom the Israelites conquered. It has be- 

 come possible to speak of Palestinian archteology , and to determine 

 the age of the pottery and hewn stones which are met with in 

 the country. Where all before was chaos, order at last has begun 

 to reign. 



The firman granted by the Porte allowed excavations to be con- 

 ducted over an area of 9A square kilometres in the neighborhood 

 of Khurbet 'Ajlan, but enjoined that all objects found, including 

 J Article by A. H. Sayce, in Tlie Contemporary Review for September. 



even duplicates, should be handed over to a Turkish commissioner 

 specially appointed to oversee the wor'n:. When, hovcever, Mr. 

 Petrie arrived in Jerusalem at the beginning of March, he 

 found, that, owing to a trifling error of description, the firman 

 was detained in Constantinople; and it did not reach Jerusalem, 

 where Mr. Petrie was awaiting it in the midst of violent storms 

 and penetrating cold, until the very end of the month. At last it 

 came, but, in spite of the courtesy and assistance of the enlight- 

 ened Pacha of Jerusalem, further delays were interposed by th? 

 Turkish commissioner; and it was not until April 14 that work 

 could be commenced, one week only before Ramadan. What 

 Ramadan means is known too well to those who have lived in the 

 Mohammedan East. An unbroken fast throughout the day, fol- 

 lowed by feasting at night, renders even the most industrious dis- 

 inclined for work. And Mr. Petrie had to deal with a population 

 naturally disposed to steal rather than to work, and who had 

 never tried their hands at excavating before. It was no wonder 

 that the excavator from time to time thought regretfully of the 

 industrious and intelligent fellahin he had left behind in Egypt, 

 and longed to see the "savages" who now squat on the fertile 

 plain of Judeea swept back into their ancestral desert homes. 



Mr. Petrie began with some preparatory digging ata place known 

 to the geographers as Umm el-Laqis, which has been supposed to 

 be the site of the once important fortress of Lachish. The first 

 time I visited the spot I was told that the real name of the hill- 

 slope was Umoi el Latis; and three years ago, when I visited it 

 for a second time, I satisfied myself that it represented nothing 

 more than the site of a village of the Roman age. Mr. Petrie's 

 excavations have abundantly confirmed my conclusion. The site, 

 he found, was covered with only six to eight feet of artificial 

 earth, which was filled with fragments of Roman pottery, and in 

 one place a worn coin of Maximian Hercules was disinterred two 

 feet above the virgin soil. Accordingly, be soon moved with his 

 workmen to the tel, which formed the most prominent object in 

 the district where he was permitted to dig. 



The tel is about six miles from the village of Burer, and near 

 the site of a Roman hamlet which goes by the name of Khurbet 

 'Ajlan, or "Ruin of Eglon." It proves not to be called Tel el- 

 'Ajlan, " the mound of the Eglonite," as my dragoman informed 

 me, but Tel el-Hesy, apparently from a spring of water which 

 flows past the eastern face of the mound. The spring is the only 

 source of fresh water that exists for many miles around, and falls 

 into a brackish brook which trickles from the neighboring Tel en- 

 Nejileh, the united stream being subsequently swallowed up in a 

 stony wadi a few hundred yards lower down. Mr. Petrie is 

 doubtless right in thinking that it was to this spring that the city 

 now represented by the Tel el-Hesy owed its importance. The 

 spring would have borne the same relation to the old town that 

 the spring of the Virgin bore, and still bears, to Jerusalem. When 

 swollen by rain, the stream is capable of doing a considerable 

 amount of mischief. It has washed away a large portion of the 

 eastern and south-eastern sides of the mound, thus laying bare'a 

 section of the tel from its top to the bottom. This has proved, 

 however, of invaluable service to the explorer, as the time at his 

 disposal would never have allowed him to uncover a tenth part of 

 the soil which has been removed by the water. Another season 

 of work would have been needed before the lowest part of the tel 

 could have been reached, and the history of the mound revealed, 

 together with that of the pottery which is embedded in it. The 

 kindly assistance of the water was the one piece of good fortune 

 that fell to Mr. Petrie's lot, and he knew how to make the most 

 of it. 



On the southern and western sides of the tel is an enclosure, 

 about thirty acres square, which is surrounded by a " clay ram- 

 part'" still seven feet high in certain parts, and in one place by a 

 brick wall. As there is but a slight deposit of earth within the 

 enclosure, while nothing was found in it, Mr. Petrie is doubtless 

 right in holding that it was intended to shelter cattle in case of an 

 invasion. It probably belongs to the later period of the city to 

 which it was attached. 



The city is represented by the tel or mound. This rises to a 

 height of no less than sixty feet, formed by the accumulated ruins 

 of successive towns, the lowest of which stood on a platform of 



