so 6 Sir Humphry Davy on the papyri 
mixture with a camel's hair pencil, the results are still 
better. 
It is remarkable, that no fragments of Greek, and very 
few only of Latin poetry, have been found in the whole 
collection of the MSS. of Herculaneum; and the sentences in 
the specimens we unrolled, in which Mr. Elmslly was able 
to find a sufficient number of words to infer their meaning,* 
show that the works, of which they are the remains, were of 
the same kind as those before examined, and belonged to the 
schools of the Greek Epicurean philosophers and sophists. 
Nearly 1000 columns of different works, a great part un- 
rolled under the superintendance of Mr. Hayter, and at the 
expense of his present Majesty George IV. have been co- 
pied and engraved by the artists employed in the Museum ; but 
from the characters of the persons charged with their publica- 
tion, there is very little probability of their being, for many 
years, offered to the world ; which is much to be regretted ; 
for though not interesting from their perfection as literary 
works, they would unquestionably throw much light upon the 
state of civilization, letters and science, of the age and country 
to which they belonged. 
Should discoveries of MSS. at any future time be made at 
Herculaneum, it is to be hoped that the papyri will be im- 
mediately excluded from the atmosphere, by being put into 
air-tight cases, filled with carbonic acid after their introduc- 
tion. There can be no doubt that the specimens now in the 
Museum, were in a much better state when they were first 
discovered ; and the most perfect even, and those the coarsest 
in their texture, must have been greatly injured during the 69 
* Engravings of copies of a few of these fragments, selected from nearly 100, are 
annexed to this paper, for the purpose of showing their nature. 
