404 Correspondence. 
the molecules of palpable matter are permeable to the 
undulations of light, which has long since been ably advo- 
cated by Euler and by Mr. Grove.t 
I remain, yours faithfully, 
CHARLES BROOKE. 
ON THE WEARING OF PHYLACTERIES. 
TO THE EDITOR OE THE TECHNOLOGIST. 
Si1R,—I trust that you will grant me a little space in 
your valuable periodical for one or two remarks in refer- 
ence to your observations on the wearing of phylacteries, 
as contained in the TECHNOLOGIST of this month. 
You observe—“ The phylacteries worn by the Jews can- 
not possibly be traced to any Biblical authority. That 
they were used by the Pharisees in the time of Christ is an 
admitted fact; but many other ritual observances were also 
at that time in vogue, although they had no solid basis in 
primitive Judaism.” Permit me to call your attention to 
the following passage in Josephus’s “ Antiquities of the 
Jews,” Book iv., chap. viii., section 13 :—“ They (the Israel- 
ites) are also to inscribe the principal blessings they have 
received from God upon their doors, and show the same 
remembrance of them upon their arms; as also they are to 
bear on their forehead and their arm those wonders which 
declare the power of God and his good will towards them, 
that God’s readiness to bless them may appear everywhere 
conspicuous about them.” Thus far Josephus, the Jewish 
historian, who must have known something of the “ritual 
observances” enjoined on the Jews by their Divine Legis- 
lator. 
You, Mr. Editor, continue, “all commentators, as well as 
rational Jews, of every age (?) have regarded the passage 
‘And thou shalt bind them for sins upon they hands, and 
they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes,” as figurative, 
standing precisely on a level with the meaning of the 6th 
verse. “And these words I command thee, this day shall be 
on thy heart.” And, again, Deut., xi, 18. “And you shall 
lay up, these, my words upon your heart and upon your souls, 
and bind them for a sign upon your hands,’ &c. The editor 
of the Fewzsh Chronicle, in a notice of the TECHNOLOGIST, | 
makes here the following remark—“ Without wishing to — 
_ + Correlation of Physical Forces, p. 163, &c. 
