622 CLEOPATRA S NEEDLE. 



have been several times washed : First prepare a saturated soluticfn of chlo- 

 ride of copper ; dip the spotted piece in the solution, and allow it to remain 

 some minutes, or according to the chaiacter of the stains. Then rub the 

 stains with a crystal of hyposulphite of soda. When neutral chloride CQp- 

 per is used, the color of the stuff does not change. This process can be re- 

 peated. 



To Wash Eed Table Linen. — Use tepid water, with a little powdered 

 borax, which serves to set the color ; wash the linen separately and quickly, 

 using very little soap ; rinse in tepid water, containing a little boiled starch ; 

 hang to dry in the shade, and iron when almost dry. 



SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY 



CLEOPATRA^'S NEEDLE. 



Waterloo Place was the site always thought of from 1820, the date of 

 Mehemet Ali's gift of the obelisk to George IV, soon after which the nation 

 was led to look for its erection on that spot, " for ages to serve to revive the 

 recollection of the exploits of our naval and military heroes." Sir Eobert 

 Peel at that time told Lord Westmeath he thought it was a monument 

 which ought to be brought to London and erected as a memorial to Sir 

 Ralph Abercrombj^ and othei'S, who had fought and died in Egypt. But 

 the question slept for thirty years, until, on the 2d of June, 1851, Lord 

 Westmeath cited these authoritative opinions in putting his question to the 

 Earl of Carlisle in the House of Lords as to the means which had beeft 

 taken for appropriating and removing the obelisk to this countiy. On this 

 occasion Lord Westmeath tried in vain to overthrow by counter testimony 

 the damaging report of the late Sir G-ardiner Wilkinson — that the inscrip- 

 tions were in so bad a state that the obelisk was not worth. removing. Mr. 

 Hume, also, on the following July 1, was fain to withdraw his motion in the 

 Commons for the removal of the obelisk, which was thought not worth the 

 cost, although he offered to bring it to this country for £7,000. Happil}', 

 Sir Gardiner Wilkinson turns out, in this instance at least, to have been far 

 from infallible. Prof Wilson, while frankly owning the weather-beaten 

 look of the monolith after the 3500 years through which he holds it to have 

 battled with time, describes cheerily enough the rugged rose granite's tight 

 grip of the written record intrusted to its keeping :. " In places it will be 

 seen that the angles are rounded ; here and there the once burnished sur- 

 face is blurred and rough, and some of the engraving had suffered almost 

 to obliteration ; nevertheless, as a whole, it is remarkably i^erfect. It is 



