333 
of Edinburgh, Session 1867 - 68 . 
attribute all the fault, and prove it heinous, to the coffer, whose 
makers and friends have been dead for 4000 years, would seem to 
be the very object of the Proceedings' author ; in order that he may 
then take away the primeval vessel’s power to symbolize a standard 
of measure. For says he at p. 249, “ Surely a measure of capacity 
should be measurable ; “ that ought to be its most unquestionable 
“ quality; but this imagined standard has proved virtually unmeasur- 
“ able, — in so far at least as its twenty-six different and skilled 
11 measurers all differ from each other in respect to its dimensions.” 
And as the same author repeats, at his page 252, that “ the coffer’s 
“ cavity seems really of a form utterly unmeasurable in a correct 
“ way by mere lineal measurement,” — and indicates that though 
“ perhaps liquid measurements would be more successful,”* yet the 
object is not “of the slightest moment;” — it must now appear 
plainly, that the grand purport of that gentleman’s essay is not to 
ascertain more correctly than I have done, or attempted to do, what 
is the real capacity of the interior of the coffer, nor to furnish the 
world with correcter numbers than mine, — but merely to damage 
the ancient vessel’s character, as to being considered capable of 
showing any particular capacity, even within 14,000 cubic inches. 
He may argue that this is a mode of inquiring legitimately 
into whether the Pyramid can be possibly regarded as a metrological 
monument, or a sepulchre (p. -247). But seeing that the style of 
workmanship of the whole king’s chamber, as well as of the coffer 
that stands in it, has for ages excited the admiration of all nations, 
for the truthful character of its rectangular shapes, polished 
surfaces, and close fitting joints, — seeing, I say, that such good and 
simple mechanical work in a hard material is precisely what admits 
being well measured by competent men, — and that Professor 
Greave’s length for the whole room 200 years ago, differed from 
my measure of the same, by less than T o-,Vo"o P ar ^ » w ^y the 
Proceedings' author, if he will maintain the “ skilled ” and trust- 
worthy measures of all the twenty-five observers, —would imply 
that the hollow granite block forming the coffer, and reported by 
those observers in different years, as of various sizes, — although 
it is resting quietly in a dark room of equal temperature, — must 
* How such measure is to be applied to a vessel broken down at one corner 
to more than a third of its height, the P roceedings' author does not say. 
