374 
VARIETIES. 
Judge  Storer  asked  Mr.  Merrill  how  much  he  thought  might  be  sold  by 
his  house  during  a  year.  He  asked  this  question  in  view  of  a  calculation 
he  was  making. 
Witness  answered,  "  Probably  as  much  as  ten  pounds ;  that  would  be  a 
high  estimate." 
The  Judge  said  by  a  careful  calculation  he  found  it  would  take  one 
hundred  and  sixty  years  to  dispose  of  the  pith. 
The  case  was  taken  under  advisement. 
[It  was  called  up  again  on  the  20th  of  June,  but  not  concluded. J 
An  Important  Discovery. — The  Pall  Mall  Gazette  has  the  following  an- 
nouncement: "  A  discovery,  of  at  least  a  vital  importance  for  Egyptology 
as  the  celebrated  Rosetta  stone  itself,  was  made  about  three  weeks 
ago  by  a 'party  of  four  German  explorers — Reinisch,  Rosier,  Lepsius,  and 
Weidenbach — at  a  place  called  Sane,  the  whilom  Tanis,  the  principal 
scene  of  Rameses  II. 's  enormous  architectural  undertakings.  A  stone 
with  Greek  characters  upon  it  was  found  protruding  from  the  ground, and 
when  fully  excavated  proved  to  contain  a  bilingual  inscription  in  no  less 
than  thirty-seven  lines  of  hieroglyphics  and  seventy-six  lines  of  Greek,  in 
the  most  perfect  state  of  preservation,  and  dating  from  the  time  of  the 
Ptolemy,  Euergetes  I.,  in  238  B  C.  The  stone  measures  two  metres 
twenty  two  centimetres  in  length,  and  seventy-eight  centimetres  in  width, 
and  is  completely  covered  by  the  inscriptions.  Their  first  attempts  at 
editing  this  important  inscription  having  failed,  the  travellers  returned  to 
the  spot,  and  during  a  stay  of  two  days,  the  22d  and  23d  of  April,  copied 
the  inscription  most  carefully,  and  photographed  it  three  times.  The  next 
post  will  bring  particulars  as  to  the  contents,  and  copies  of  the  documents 
itself." — Drug.  Cir.  &  Chem.  Gaz.,  Sept,  1866. 
Glycerin  in  the  Arts. — A  German  chemist  named  Pusher,  a  native  of  Nu- 
remberg, reported  to  the  Trades  Union  of  that  place,  that  he  met  with  great 
success  in  using  glycerin  together  with  glue.  While  generally,  after  the 
drying  of  glue,  the  thing  to  which  it  is  applied  is  liable  to  break,  tear,  or 
spring  off,  if  a  quantity  of  glycerin,  equal  to  a  quarter  of  the  quantity  of 
glue,  be  mixed  with  it,  that  defect  will  entirely  disappear.  Pusher  also 
made  use  of  this  glue  as  lining  for  leather,  for  making  globe  frames,  and 
for  smoothing  parchment  and  chalk  paper.  He  also  used  it  for  polishing, 
mixing  wax  with  the  glycerin,  and  using  it  as  an  underground  for  laying 
on  auiline  red  color.  The  red  was  found  to  exceed  all  others  in  which 
glycerin  is  not  used.  The  glycerin  has  also  some  properties  in  common 
with  India  rubber,  for  it  will  blot  out  pencil  marks  from  paper,  so  as  to 
leave  no  mark  whatever. 
A  paste  made  of  starch,  glycerin,  and  gypsum  will  maintain  its  plasticity 
and  adhesiveness  longer  than  any  other  known  cement,  and  does  there- 
fore recommend  itself  for  cementing  chemical  instruments,  and  apparatus 
used  by  pharmacists.—-  Journal  of  Applied  Chemistry. 
