( Wwacp = * 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED: SOCIETIES, 
re 
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF 
FRANCE. 
NOTICE of the LaBOURS of the CLASS 
of LITERATURE aad FINE ARTS, at 
the PUBLIC SITTING Of the 151) MES- 
SIDOR, YEAR 9, by CITIZEN VILLAR, 
SECRETARY. 
( Continwed from-our laft.) 
UR colleague (Citizen Davip LE 
Roy) lias hkewife read, in fome of 
our fittings—rft. An hiftorical fummary 
of the life aud labours of Regemorte, who 
conftruéted, with fo much knowledge and 
geniys, the bridge of Moulins—and. Az 
examen made by order of Government, of 
the canals which it is in agitation to open 
Jrom the Oife to the Seine, and—3d. A 
number of papers, compofed by the Chief 
of Brigade, Grobert, upon Egypt. 
After this recitation, the Clafs, ever 
folicitous to inveftigate any intereiting 
particulars left us by- antiquity, fixed its 
attention on a {word of bronze, found 
under the turf, near Corbie, by the fide 
of the fkeletons of a man and a horfe. 
Citizen MonGez prefented this weapon 
in the name of Citizen Traullé, Prefident 
of the Society of Emulation “at Abbe- 
ville; he, at the fame time, communi- 
cated the reflexfons which it has-given rife 
to. “He fhewed its length, five decimeters, 
318 inches the blade; its form, that is to’ 
fay, the point-and the two edges of the 
Roman {word, from which it differs only. 
as to its materials; but fuppofes that it 
might be only defigned for fuperior offi- 
cers, or that it was moulded in branze in 
a country deftituta of forges proper for 
working iron. 
Our colleague has improved this op- 
portunity to throw a new light on the 
nature of the bronze made ufe of by the 
ancients. He has detailed the reafons 
which induced them to fubftitute bronze. 
for pure-copper. He has not forgotten 
the pretended , tempering with -cdopper 
which has been attributed to them; and 
laitiy, he has defcanted on the exceffive 
dearnefs of the metals which the Romans 
mof frequently made ufe of in the arts, 
and he has compared it with’ the price of 
thefe metals among the moderns, 
Citizen MOnGEz propofes’ to readin 
this fitting an extract of his metallurgical 
refearehes. ™ 
Another literateur, who takes pleafure 
ib entertaining the Clafs on the fubjedct of 
XN 
Egypt, where important interefts are con, - 
tinually attracting our attenticn, has pre- 
fented fome obfervations on the fphynx. 
He praves, in.a particular Memoir, that, 
during a long fpace, this coloffal ftatue 
had religious worfhip paid to it, on the 
banks of the Nile. ‘Sacrifices were offer- 
ed to it, and a coftly incenfe was burnt in 
honour of it. The different documents 
preduced by our colleague, give reafon to’ 
think, that one of the {ubterranean canals — 
of the grand pyramid terminates imme- 
diately underneath the {phynx, and that 
accefs to this canal might be obtained by 
means of the large aperture which has 
been made on the hind part of the coloffus. 
Although the body was then buried in 
the fand, the figure was perfeétly whole, 
and entirely covered with a red colour, 
in the year 1200, of the vulgar ra. For 
it was only inthe 14th century (Citizen 
Langles has precifely noted. the epoch 
in the Memoir which he read,) that 2 
fanatic muflulman thought he was doing 
a pious work when he mutilated this ftatue. 
He confidered it as an idol,’ to which the 
wuffulmen themf{elves attributed the vir- 
tue of preventing the invafion of their 
coal. 
A ftatue of the fame height as the 
{phinx, ferved to the latter for a compa- 
nion, and reprefented Ifis, holding in her 
hands the young God Horus, with the 
cornucopia on her head. Citizen Lan, 
GLEs fhews in his Memoir at what epoch 
and in what manner the ftatue of Iffis was 
deftroyed. © ‘Tjhe Egyptians called this 
goddefs the concubine of the {phinx or of 
Pharoah.’ They believed her power was 
fuch, that fhe could oblige the Nile to 
follow its ordinary courfe when it would 
deviate. Rh 
For a long time the exiftence of the 
canal of Suez has been a problem to the 
learned. Some are yet in doubt whether 
it was ever finifhed. Our colleague pfoves, 
agreeably to the beft Arabian writers, in 
a very copious Memoir, that the ancient 
Kings of Egypt caufed a canal to be dug 
from the extremity of the Red Sea to the 
Nile, between Old and*New Cairo, at an 
epoch which is loft in the night of ages. 
This canal was cleanfed in the year 135 
of the vulgar ra, by order of the Em- 
peror Adrian; dug again in the year 6395 
by order of Amro ben-cl-Afs, conque-' 
ror of Egypt, and filled.up in 767, by 
the khaliph Al-Maufloier, who intended, 
by 
(March I, - 
sae 
se ee ee, a Ae 
