1841 .] THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION. 127 
From M. Serruys, Charge d’Affaires of Belgium. 
Belgian Legation, Washington, December 8, 1841. 
Dear Sir: In addition to the Antique Roman Lamp, which you had the kind¬ 
ness to accept in my name for the National Institution, I hope you will allow me 
to offer you now— 
1st. A Medal struck by the Royal Society of Science, Letters and Arts of Ant¬ 
werp, on the occasion of the bis-secular fetes in honor of Rubens. 
2d. A Medal of the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1839, intended as a 
national reward. 
3d. A Medal commemorating the opening of the first section of the Belgian Rail- 
Road, in 1834. 
4th. A Medal struck in honor of the Regent of Belgium. 
These Medals are presented by me, in the name of the Belgian Government, as 
a proof of the warm interest in the establishment and prosperity of the National 
Institution for the Promotion of Science, founded at the seat of Government, which 
is destined, I believe, to shed lustre on the United States. 
Very respectfully, &c., CHARLES SERRUYS. 
From Lieutenant Harwood, U. S. Navy.— (Extract.) 
U. S. Navy-Yard, New-York, November 16, 1841. 
My Dear Sir : Several months ago, I collected sundry trifles wherewithal to 
show my desire to serve the National Institution. ****** But I beg to re¬ 
mind you that they are not forwarded so much for their novelty or intrinsic value 
as to point out a way in which the officers, particularly of the Mediterranean 
Squadron, may render very essential service to the Institution, the interests of 
which I feel assured they will all take a pride in advancing. 
By means of that simple apparatus the Electerotype, perfect fac-similes of the 
choicest medals, both ancient and modern, may be collected; and if the apparatus 
of Daguerre could be placed on board one of the ships, perfectly accurate views of 
the most interesting sites and monuments of classic history be obtained. The “ mo¬ 
dus operandi ,” in both cases, being well understood, I need not here refer to it; but 
I must be allowed to lay before you a more humble, yet hardly less complete method, 
of copying and preserving ancient inscriptions, a specimen of which you have in 
the copy of an ancient Egyptian monumental slab, in the collection of the Naval 
Lyceum at this place. The whole apparatus consists of a sheet of unsized paper, 
such as is used by lithographers, a hat brush, and a little water. The paper is wetted, 
laid upon the stone, and beaten into the intaglio of the monument, and, when dry, 
will preserve perfectly the form of the inscription and figures. This method is not 
only shorter but much more effective than any other, as it shows every thing of the 
proper form and size ; and had it been applied to the hieroglyphics on the Dighton 
Rock, would have sayed the learned antiquaries of Copenhagen a world of trouble, 
arising from the misconception or imagination of the draughtsman, who very often 
gives a finish to forms, which, like those we fancy in the sky, require some assist¬ 
ance in the making out. 1 have passed whole fields strewed with inscriptions in 
the course of my travels in the East, and, on a second visit, looked in vain for some 
of the most remarkable. A hat brush and a little water would have preserved the 
