331 
of Edinburgh, Session 1867 - 68 . 
of the sides: from which my measures were scrupulously taken. 
Indeed I repel that word imaginary , and fling it back to its author; 
and declare that those traces of the original top of the sides were to 
the best of my testing and examination as unmistakably ancient, 
finished, and precise as any part of the coffer whatever. 
I have also been led since then to perceive, that the frame 
adapted to fill up the ledge, seems to be an independent confirma- 
tion of the sides’ original height. It is so, at least, within less than 
three hundredths of an inch;* and that difference being introduced 
into our first computation, gives us a fourth approach to the true 
cubical contents of the coffer = 71,258. 
These four being combined, give 71,250 cubic Pyramid inches, as 
the best result of all my measurings, true probably, for the 
coffer itself, to within twenty cubic inches. And I venture to 
say this, notwithstanding that the author in the Proceedings attacks 
me violently by means of some of the old and exploded twenty- 
five observers of former times, setting forth (at p. 250) that one 
of their results differs by 6000 cubic inches, and another by no 
less than 14,000 cubic inches, from mine. 
But Sir, is that to my, or to their, confusion ? 
If you will examine the particulars, you will find that the 6000 
inches of difference, arose from that party having made an absolute 
error of 3 whole inches in the depth of the coffer. f While the 
14,000 inches case rests on one Dr Whitman, who himself never 
went inside the Gfreat Pyramid, but depended on a friend. 
If the author in your Proceedings will think that Dr Whit- 
man could understand the coffer better without going near it, 
* For full numerical particulars want of space here compels me to refer to 
a work which I have now almost ready for publication, and entitled, “ On the 
Antiquity of Intellectual Man.” See its chapter 29, p. 300. 
t The faulty measure was that of the French Academicians in 1799, and 
when reduced from the metre to British inches, = 37-285. 
Professor Greaves, in 1638, had previously stated the depth = 34-320 
British inches ; and Colonel Howard Vyse had subsequently, or in 1837, 
made it = 34-5 British inches. But still many persons thought, “ surely 
“ the French Academicians could not have made so great a mistake in their 
“ measurings ; it must be the fault of the coffer, whose depth is different in 
“ different parts of its length or breadth ?” 
The following measures, however, taken by myself in 1865, will show 
clearly that though the depth may vary over different parts of the bottom by 
