394 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
buildings are traces of color, showing that at one time they were decorated with 
paintings. Here then at Pompeii, in Greek painting, is an invaluable commen- 
tary on the methods of decoration, that were certainly in vogue in Athens and the 
Piraeus. Only here can we learn how different was Grecian taste from that of 
the fifteenth century, when the old masters filled the churches with crucifixions, 
dolorosas, adorations and madonnas. I can only suggest the value of these paint- 
ings in showing the customs, in Grseca Majora during the first century. We 
must pass to other rooms equally interesting. 
In a long series of great rooms are preserved the articles in domestic use. 
There are many thousands of them, and yet a plain catalogue of them is interest- 
ing reading, or would be, had one ever been made. None has. 
In the first place is a large model of Pompeii as it now exists. I estimate 
it to be forty feet in diameter. It is made upon a scale of exact proportions. 
Every street, every temple, every residence, or wine shop ; every broken wall, 
every shattered column and broken fountain ; every sentry box or amphitheatre. 
Whenever a building is newly excavated, its counterpart is placed here. Had the 
furniture of a modern house been subjected to the test these have, little would 
have been left but the casters of beds, and tables, and broken chairs, but here 
are bronze beds, bronze tables, bronze lamps, candelabra and dishes, and in the 
forms of these brazen articles we see the Greek taste that required ornament and 
lines of beauty in utensils of the most common use. Here is a frying-pan whose 
handle terminates with a fleur de lis, or a guelder rose, and of a bronze that has 
perfectly defied all these centuries; a candelabrum from the villa of Diomedes or- 
namented by a Bacchus riding a panther. Lamps with a standard representing 
an Ionic column. Hundreds of lamps are scattered through all the collection — 
all are different in design ; all are tasteful and unique, but none of them are adapted 
to furnishing a light. A rag in a tin cup of oil is the pattern so far as practical 
use is concerned. No wonder the ancients were afflicted with ophthalmia. We 
read wonderful stories of elaborate dinners extending deep into the night, of per- 
fumed lights and other similar etcetera. The lamps of Pompeii give these stories 
conclusive contradiction. A few small dull sheets of glass are shown, but win- 
dows are as scarce in Pompeii as in the catacombs of St. Calixtus. So we reason 
that these merry Greeks lived in the open air of their sunny clime, and so also did 
their Roman imitators, and made hay while the sun shone; that theatrical dis- 
plays and gladiatorial games were held in the daytime. Further supporting this 
idea about Ught is the fact that each house of any pretension was built around an 
open court, which was surrounded by galleries. There are a number of ether 
articles in glass, such as vials for medicine, and tear-bottles. I believe there is 
but one chair in the collection ; however, there are many couches, and lounges, 
such as were used during their protracted dinners. These are often daintily 
decked with horses' heads, swans, limbs of beasts of prey — of course all in bronze. 
There are knives, forks, steelyards, a cooking-stove, kettles, pans. We have 
invented little in kitchen furniture since then — possibly explosive stoves. 
