19, 
those of Antoninus and Marcus Aure- 
lus; “ ?Antiquité expliquée,” of Mont- 
faucon ; the descriptions of the “ Museum 
Capitolinum ;” that of the “ Museum Pio 
Clementinum ;” the “ Monumenta Ma- 
theiana ;” the “ Musée de Verone;” the 
works of “ Count Caylus, of Guattani;” 
and the “Cours Historiques du Musée 
Napoleon.” 
Specimens of these basso-rilievos and 
térra_cottas, of excellent workmanship, 
decorate the walls of the first room; 
‘which, as a fowt-ensemble, is certainly un- 
equalled in England, perhaps in Europe. 
. Having now gone so farthrough the 
‘antiquities of this first room, I shall insert 
in my next a list of the chief objects, and 
some account of them; but before I 
left the rooms, I took another peram- 
bulation- through their maze of beau- 
ties; in doing which, my attention was 
most forcibly arrested, by the great 
sarcophagus, commonly called the tomb 
of Alexander the Great, one of the 
celebrated specimens of antiquity, that 
was Cecer to us at the memorable capi- 
tulation of Alexandria, in 1801. It was 
brought from the mosque of St. Athana- 
sius, at Alexandria, where it had been 
transformed by the Mahometans, in- 
to a kind of reservoir, consecrated to 
contain the water for their pious ab- 
Jutions. It is of considerable magnitude, 
and would form an oblong rectangle, 
were not one of the ends or shorter sides 
of the parallelogram, rounded somewhat 
like a bathing tub. It is probable that 
formerly it was covered witha lid, but 
no trace of it is now visible; but is en- 
tirely open lke an immense laver, of 
one single piece of beautiful marble, 
spotted with green, yellow, reddish, &c. 
on a ground of a finé black, of the spe- 
cies called Breccia, a sort of pudding 
stone, composed of agglutinated frag- 
ments of various sizes, which are deno- 
minated according to their component 
parts. This comes under the class of cal- 
careous breccias. But what renders this 
magnificent fragment of antiquity pecu- 
larly interesting, is the predigious quan- 
tity of small hieroglyphie characters, 
with which it is sculptured both within 
- and without, as you may perceive by the 
drawing. It would employ me nearly a 
month to make faithful copies of them: 
their shape and general appearance 
is pretty fairly given in the annexed 
sketch; but it can only serve to con- 
vey to you an idea of the monument in 
one view. A.correct and faithful copy 
of all the hieroglyphjgs, though an Her- 
4 ; 
Red-hot Iron applied to the Tongue without Injury. {Feb. 1, 
culean task, is a- desideratum: for 
it can be’ only by copying with 
scrupulous accuracy, and of a large. 
size, the figures of this symbolical lan- 
guage, that we can attain the knowledge 
of a mysterious composition, on which 
depends that of the history of a country, 
once so highly celebrated: When that 
language shall be understood, we may 
perhaps learn the original purpose of this 
sarcophagus, and the history of the puis- 
santman whose spoils it contained. Tull 
then it is but the vain and flittmg field 
of conjecture. 
Many men_of science and learning, 
have examined this memento of Egyptian 
skill and industry}; but no positive deci- 
sion of its former application is yet 
found by the learned. Sonnini and < 
non, who both closely and attentivély 
examined it, have pronounced nothing 
decisive on the subject. Dr. Clark of 
Cambridge, an indefatigable and learned. 
antiquary, has gsserted that the sarco- 
phagus of the museum really was the 
tomb of Alexander; but it requires more 
talents than I possess, to remove the 
obstacles that withstand the clear intelli- 
gibility of this invaluable antique. te , 
Yours, &c. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR; . 
N your last number, under the head 
*¢ Literary and Philosophical Intelli- 
gence,” I observed an article, taken from 
the Philosophical Journal, mentioning the 
circumstance of a person passing, without 
injary, a red hot poker over his tongue. 
To which is subjoined an account of two. 
other facts equally extraordimary, viz 
putting the finger into melted lead, and. 
skimming melted iron with the naked 
hand. ‘The first of these experiments £ 
have often seen repeated, which has led 
me to investigate the cause of so singular 
a phenomenon; and from the result of 
several experiments, made for the pur- 
pose, I am convinced that injury is pre- 
vented oniy by the vaporization of the 
saliva on the tongue (as observed by the 
correspondent to the Philesophical Jour- 
nal,) the expansive force of which, during 
the momertary operation, prevents the 
iron fromy coming im contact with the cu- 
ticle. This is the principle on which the 
safety of the experiment depends, but 
it is not to be attempted without 
some precaution; for if the iron be 
heated to a white heat, that 1s, nearly in 
a fusible state, it will instantaneously 
carbonize the gmall quantity of saliva 
which 
