698 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



beaten sufficiently thin it is cut by girls into squares of four inches, and each half 

 placed between the leaves of proper books having red chalk — argillaceous red 

 oxide of iron — rubbed on them. The leaf is cut by a splint of bamboo or cane, 

 the outer or silicious portion forming an edge quite superior to that of steel for this 

 purpose. The process of the silver plate for silvering is similar to that for making 

 gold leaf. The metals are melted in crucibles of Stourbridge clay which are used 

 only once and then broken up and sold with the sweepings of the shop, which 

 bring from $40 to $60 per barrel, according to the amount of the precious metals 

 extracted. A singular fact connected with gold beating is that all the finer golu 

 beater's skins used in Europe or this country are made by one house in England, 

 the secret of their preparation having been kept in the family for several genera- 

 tions. — Boston Journal of Commerce. 



BIBLE DATES AS ESTABLISHED BY EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS. 



REV. JAMES FRENCH. 



Chevalier Bunsen, in his work on Practical Corollaries, says: "The only 

 chronology adapted to Universal History is that according to years before and after 

 Christ." Jewish history counts from Christ backward through the line of Jewish 

 Kings. Now it is a remarkable fact that monumental history synchronizes with 

 Jewish history as recorded in the Bible. 



One instance, that of Schishonk, King of Egypt, plundering Solomon's tem- 

 ple during the reign of Rehoboam about B. C. 974, we have alluded to in a 

 former article. This is recorded in the temple of Karnac. Schishonk belonged 

 to the 22nd dynasty. There is another record which places Pharaoh Hophra, the 

 4th King of the 26th dynasty, as contemporary with Zedekiah and Jeremiah, about 

 B. C. 586. Here is a definite period of less than four centuries, extended over 

 four Egyptian dynasties from the 2 2d to the 26th inclusive. 



Bunsen calls these two cases where monumental and Bible history synchronize 

 with scientific exactness, "interesting points of contact." He says the scripture 

 data accord on the most satisfactory manner with the traditions and contempo- 

 rary monuments of Egypt. He declares further that "the pivots of the history of 

 Egypt, and perhaps of the whole world, are nothing less than these two points." 

 The determination of these dates is reached by the most crucial scientific tests 

 imaginable. 



A still more remarkable event, the building of the great Pyramid, occurred, 

 as is not disputed, during the reign of Cheops of the 4th dynasty. In a former 

 article we showed that it was impossible to have erected it only when its entrance 

 passage pointed to the then North Star, either B. C. 3,440 when Alpha Draconi 

 was moving towards the pole, or B. C. 2,170 when it was moving from it. We 

 are aware that Richard A. Proctor has been endeavoring of late to show that the 

 earliest date was the most probable one, and has quoted one ancient historian to 



