317 
of Edinburgh, Session 1867 - 68 . 
now to be stated in public ; for not only have the printed copies 
been distributed amongst the members, but one copy having 
reached the “ Medical Times” of London, was commented on thus 
definitively in its impression of March 28, 1868 : — 
“ SIR J. Y. SIMPSON ON THE PYRAMIDS. 
“ It is characteristic of the brilliant and diversified gifts of the 
“ great Northern Professor, that he should have taken in hand the 
“ demolition of a curious notion about the G-reat Pyramid of Egypt, 
“ which has been promulgated by Professor Piazzi Smyth, and has 
“ found favour with many religious persons. That notion is, that 
“ the Pyramid was constructed under Divine guidance, to show to 
“ all time a correct standard of weight and measure, and that the 
“ coffer contained in the central chamber is an inspired measure of 
11 capacity, and the Base of the Pyramid an inspired measure of 
11 length, having a definite relation to the earth’s polar axis. Sir 
“ James Simpson shows, in a 'paper read before the Royal Society 
“ of Edinburgh , that the Pyramid has all the characters of the 
“ huge sepulchral monuments scattered over the earth ; that the 
“ coffer in the King’s Chamber was a sarcophagus ; that it contained 
“ a body till despoiled by the Caliph El Mamoon about a thousand 
“ years ago ; that it is irregular in form, incapable of being exactly 
“ measured, and hence no standard of measure. In fact, any one 
“ who desires a treat, in seeing how a thorough 1 craze ’ is melted 
“ away before common sense, should read Professor Simpson’s 
“ paper. The kind of argument of Professor Piazzi Smyth, to 
“ show that the Pyramid was built by Noah, is one which we 
“ thought peculiar to the medical profession : — Noah was a preacher 
“ of righteousness ; a just system of weights and measures is 
“ righteous : ergo , Noah built the Pyramid!” 
M. WACKERBARTH’S PAPER. 
The first of the two papers printed by the Society appears, in- 
deed, only in the shape of an abstract of the original essay ; was 
composed by a native of Sweden, and is, in truth, such a naive pro- 
duction, in the total want of knowledge which it displays of the 
progress of all Pyramid research during the last three or four years ; 
