194 



may conclude that the strength of long similar pillars of wrought and 

 cast iron will be nearly as 12 to 7. 



It is also worthy of note that, if the same pillar be bent in different 

 degrees, T will vary as h, while h remains constant ; whence it follows 

 from equation (I.) that W, the weight which keeps the pillar bent, is 

 nearly the same whether the flexure be greater or less. This statement 

 would be accurately true, were it not that equation (I.), on which it is 

 founded, is only approximate. It will, however, agree very closely with 

 experiment so long as h is considerable, that is, whenever the flexure is 

 not slight. From this it follows, that any weight which wiU produce 

 considerable flexure will be very near the breaking weight, as a trifling 

 addition to it will bend the pillar very much more, and strain the fibres 

 beyond what they can bear. 



The Seceetakt of Council, for Hoddee M. Westkopp, Esq., read a 

 paper — 



OiS" the Fanaiix be Cimitieees and the EOUISTD TOWEES. 



\-E reading De Caumont's Eudiments d'Archeologie," I have been 

 struck with a remarkable analogy between the Irish Eound Towers and 

 what are named in De Caumont's work '^Eanaux de Cimitieres," and 

 also ''Lanterns of the Bead." The following is his description of 

 them : — 



'' Eanaux de Cimitieres are hollow towers, round or square, having at 

 their summit several openings, in which were placed, in the middle ages 

 (twelfth and thirteenth centuries), lighted lamps, in the centre of large 

 cemeteries. The purpose of the lamp was to light, during the night, 

 funeral processions which came from afar, and which could not always 

 reach the burial-ground before the close of day. The beacon, lighted, 

 if not always, at least on certain occasions, at the summit of the towers, 

 was a sort of homage off'ered to the memory of the dead-— a signal re- 

 calling to the passers-by the presence of the departed, and calling upon 

 them for their prayers. Mr. Yillegille has found in Pierre de Cluni, 

 who died in 11 56, a passage which confirms my opinion. These are the 

 words in which he expresses himself with regard to the small tower of 

 the beacon of the monastery of Cherlieu : — ' Obtinet medium cemiterii 

 locum structura qusedam lapidea, habens in summitate sui quantitatem 

 unius lampadis capacem, quse ob reverentiam fidelium ibi quiescentium, 

 totis noctibus fulgore suo locum ilium sacratum illustrat.' 



" Mr. Lecointre Dupont remarks, that these towers or beacons are 

 found particularly in cemeteries which were by the side of high-roads, 

 or which were in greatly frequented places. ' The motive for erecting 

 these beacons was,' he says, ' to save the living from the fear of ghosts 

 and spirits of darkness, with which the imagination of our ancestors 

 peopled the cemeteries during the night-time ; to protect them from 

 that timore nocturno, from that negotio peramlulante in tenelris of whom 

 the Psalmist speaks ; lastly, to incite the living to pray for the dead.' 



