than the expulsion of the Phœnician shepherds, (B.C. 1822), is not
altogether without hope, notwithstanding the general demolition of
the temples of the gods, which took place according to Manetho,
during the long dominion of the Phœnicians in Egypt. We learn from
the _Description de l’Egypte_ that even the most ancient structures
at Thebes are themselves composed of the debris of still more ancient
buildings, used as simple materials, on which previously sculptured
and painted hieroglyphics are still existing; these are doubtless the
remains of the demolished temples, but the inscriptions will require
to be studied on the spot. There is also reason to believe, that
there exists amongst the ruins of the palace of Karnac, a portion of
still more ancient construction than the palace itself; which, having
escaped demolition, was incorporated with the more recent building.
The inscriptions on this apparently very ancient ruin present the
name and title of a king, which form a very interesting subject for
future elucidation. The title does not accord with any one now extant
on the table of Abydus, but possibly may have been one of those which
were destroyed with a portion of the wall, and which are of kings
of earlier date than the expulsion of the shepherds. The name is
Mandouei, which name occurs in the dynasty anterior to Sesostris, but
coupled [p189] with a different title, an effectual distinction; nor
does the name recur in any subsequent dynasty. M. Champollion Figeac
has, with much ingenuity, shown the probability of the identity of
the Mandouei of the ancient ruin with the Osymandyas, Ousi-Mandouei,
mentioned by Diodorus Siculus as an Egyptian king greatly
distinguished by his conquests, whose reign M. Champollion infers,
from the historical passages relating to him, to have commenced 190
years before the Phœnician invasion, or B.C. 2272 years; a prodigious
antiquity, and of the very highest interest should it be established,
since there exist of this individual no less than three statues in
European collections, distinguished by the same name and title: two
of these are colossal, one at Turin, and a second at Rome: a third
is in the British Museum; and as all particulars must interest which
relate to a statue, of which there is at least probability that is
the most ancient existing in the world,—the date attributed to it
being earlier than the birth of Abraham,—we copy from Burckhardt the
following short description of its discovery: “Within the inclosure
of the interior part of the temple at Karnac, Belzoni found a statue
of a hard, large-grained sandstone: a whole length naked figure
sitting upon a chair with a ram’s head upon the knees: the face and
body entire; with plaited hair falling down to the shoulders. This
is one of the first, I should say, the first Egyptian statue I have
seen: the expression of the face is exquisite, and I believe it to be
a portrait.”—(J. L. BURCKHARDT, _Travels in Nubia_, lxxvii. _Letter
to Mr. W. Hamilton, 20th February, 1817_.)—This statue is in the
farthest corner on the right hand side after entering the gallery
of the Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum; and compared
with other statues in the same gallery, which are of kings of the
eighteenth dynasty, the dissimilarity of the features from the very
characteristic ones of the latter family is too striking to be
questioned. The problem of the age of this king Mandouei is, at all
events, a highly curious one; and will probably receive its solution
amongst the many other valuable discoveries which cannot fail to
result from M. Champollion’s projected visit to Egypt, in which
he will be accompanied by the sincere good wishes of every one in
every country, who feels an interest in the restoration of authentic
history.
E. S.
FOOTNOTE:
[33] It appears to us that a slight inaccuracy has crept into the
deduction of all the dates in M. Champollion’s Chronology subsequent
to the expulsion of the shepherds. The date of that event is the
foundation of the subsequent dates, and is supposed to have taken
place B.C. 1822; after which, according to the extract of Manetho in
Josephus cited by M. Champollion, Thoutmosis, the king by whom they
had been expelled, reigned 25 years and 4 months, followed by the
other kings of the eighteenth dynasty, making altogether 342 years
and 9 months: (including the 2 years and 2 months additional of
Horus, in compliance with the version of the passage in the Armenian
text of the Chronicle of Eusebius.) This number, 342 years and 9
months, falling short of the 348 years attributed to the eighteenth
dynasty in Eusebius and Syncellus, M. Champollion has suggested that
Thoutmosis may have reigned the five years which constitute the
difference, before the expulsion of the shepherds, since, according
to the record, he did reign, some years before that event, over
all the parts of Egypt not possessed by the shepherds. So far, so
well: but in such case, the year B.C. 1822, being the epoch of the
expulsion of the shepherds, and not of the commencement of the
eighteenth dynasty, must surely correspond to the fifth year of the
reign of Thoutmosis, and not to the first, as M. Champollion makes
it. We have hesitated to venture this remark on a matter to which M.
Champollion must have given much attention, believing that mistake
in us is much more probable than an accidental inadvertence in
him; but we have returned frequently to the consideration, without
having been able to satisfy ourselves; and the rectification of our
mistake, if it is one, may prevent others falling into the same.
[p190]
_Proceedings of the Horticultural Society_.
_June 19th_.
At this meeting a paper was read from the President, T. A. Knight,
Esq., upon the culture of the mango and cherimoyer. Its object was to
suggest some improvements in the management of these and other trees
cultivated in stoves, deduced from an application of Dutrochet’s
electrical theory of vegetation to practice. It has now become
generally known that this observer is of opinion that the motion
of the fluids in plants depends upon two currents of electricity,
setting with very unequal force between the denser fluid of the tree
and the lighter fluid of the soil in which the tree is planted; the
more powerful current setting from the latter to the former, and
so producing absorption, by conveying aqueous particles into the
roots, through the vegetable membrane of the epidermis. In applying
this theory to practical purposes, Mr. Knight recommends that the
pot in which the cherimoyer or mango is planted, should itself be
surrounded by a medium through which an equable and regular supply
of fluid may be conveyed to the roots, and that the naked surface
of the pot should by no means be exposed to the free action of the
atmosphere. Without entering upon any question of the accuracy of
the French philosopher’s observations, it is quite certain that such
a mode of cultivation is that which is most congenial to plants,
and which is indispensable to those of a habit at all delicate. The
common practice of plunging pots into a tan-bed, or among sand, if
in glass-houses, or in the earth if in open borders, is a proof of
the necessity that gardeners have found, of securing as regular a
temperature and degree of humidity as is possible for the outside of
their flower-pots; through the pores in which, moisture is chiefly
conveyed to the roots, which always cling to the inside surface of
the pot.
Specimens of roses produced by branches budded upon the Rosa indica,
were exhibited by Alexander Evelyn, Esq. We notice these not only
on account of their extraordinary beauty, but also for the sake
of recommending most strongly the adoption of the practice where
delicate roses are found difficult of cultivation _per se_. If we
consider what happens when the operation of budding, or grafting
has succeeded, the reason of the advantage derived from such an
operation will be apparent. When a bud of one variety is inserted
under the bark of another variety, a union takes place between the
cellular substance of the two; the bud is then placed in the same
[p191] situation with regard to the stock, as the seed when sown
is with regard to the earth. It immediately derives its nutriment
from the ascending sap of the new tree, and begins to form its wood
and branches, and to secrete its proper juices in proportion to the
supply of food it now receives. If a plant from any cause produces
roots with difficulty, its whole habit will be delicate, and its
flowers if formed, will, as in the case of that most lovely of
flowers, the double yellow rose, probably fall off without expanding,
from the want of an adequate supply of nutriment from its roots;
but, as in all trees, every bud is, when fully formed, in itself a
perfect and distinct individual, if such an individual be removed
from its own root, and placed where it will be supported by the
healthy vigorous roots of another species of variety, which happens
in budding, it will no longer have to depend upon a source, the
supplies from which are imperfect, but on the contrary, like a seed
removed from barren fertile ground, it will flourish in a degree
before unknown. The contrary effect takes place when a vigorous plant
is transferred to one less vigorous. And hence, the whole effect of
stocks upon the scions, or buds inserted upon them.
There was also a great variety of fruit and flowers upon the table,
and seeds of several useful vegetables were distributed.
_July 3rd_.
Seven medals were awarded to different individuals for fruit sent
by them to the Society’s fête on the 23rd of June; and one to Capt.
Drummond, for his “successful exertions in bringing living plants of
the mangosteen from the East Indies.” A paper by the president was
read upon an improvement in the mode of constructing hotbeds, but we
despair of explaining it successfully without reference to figures.
Among the display of fruits and flowers, which were exceedingly
numerous, we were particularly struck by a collection of twenty-two
varieties of strawberries from the Society’s garden.
Upon this occasion, thirty-nine new members were either ballotted
for, or proposed, a striking proof of the estimation in which the
Society is held by the public.
_July 17th_.
Upon this occasion, an enormous pine-cone from the River Columbia
was exhibited. It measured 16-1/2 inches in length, and was stated
to have been procured by the Society’s collector, Mr. David Douglas.
Its seeds were represented to be as large as those of the stone-pine,
and eatable. The tree is of the family of Pinus strobus, [p192] and
will be an invaluable acquisition to our forests, if it should prove
to succeed as well in this climate as in its own. We have already
given some account of this plant in the last number of the old series
of this Journal. The usual display was made of the finest fruit and
flowers of the season.
_August 7th_.
A complete coloured set of the costly Flora danica was placed upon
the table, having been presented by His Majesty the King of Denmark.
An improved apparatus for fumigating hothouses was exhibited by its
inventor, Mr. John Read: it consists of a brass cylinder, attached to
the orifice of a pair of bellows, and fitted up with a chimney and
draft-hole closed by a valve. The tobacco is put into the cylinder
and ignited, and the blast from the bellows expels the smoke.
The contrivance is ingenious enough, but while a hot-house fifty
feet long, may be filled with smoke in ten minutes by means of a
flower-pot, with a hole in its bottom, and a common pair of bellows,
we cannot recommend any more expensive, and certainly less efficient
apparatus.
The table was covered with a profusion of fruits and flowers.
_August 21st_.
The meeting-room this day exhibited a gratifying proof of the
excellence of the productions of our English gardens. Of _flowers_,
there were dahlias of the richest colours, and the most varied hues;
some produced by plants that retain all their ancient stature, and
others by dwarfs which seem to have lost nearly every character of
the dahlia but its beauty. Of _fruits_, there were endless varieties
of apricots, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, grapes, pine-apples,
and melons; one of the latter, from the garden of John Fuller, Esq.,
weighed thirteen pounds. The best apricot was the Moorpark; the best
apple, the Duchess of Oldenburg, than which no princess has a fairer
bloom, the best pear the Jargonelle, the best peach the Bourdine
(forced), the best pine apple the Black Jamaica. We mention these as
a guide to our readers, in their purchases of fruit-trees; for it is
certain, that no greater service can be rendered to the public, than
to point out the means by which they may avoid encumbering themselves
with the polyonymous trash with which every nursery abounds. [p193]
MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.
I. MECHANICAL SCIENCE.
1. _On the combined Action of a Current of Air and the Pressure of
the Atmosphere_.—The phenomena observed by M. Clement Désormes[34],
when a flat plate is opposed to air or vapour passing into the
atmosphere from an aperture in a plane surface, have been rendered
so easy of production by M. Hachette, as to be at the command of
any person in any situation. M. Hachette has also accompanied the
description of his instruments with elucidations, experiments, and
philosophical reasonings.
The first simplification by M. Hachette was to make the nozzle of
a pair of double chamber-bellows terminate in the middle of a flat
plate; he found that when the bellows were worked, effects were
produced opposite the jet of air of the kind described by M. Clement,
disks of card and other substances being drawn towards the aperture
against the direction of the current. At the same time that he
described this experiment, he also announced his having produced the
same effects by using a stream of water instead of a stream of air.
[Illustration: _Fig._ 1.]
[Illustration: _Fig._ 2.]
The apparatus was still further simplified, so as to make the stream
of air from the mouth sufficient to produce the effect. A tin tube,
A, _Fig._ 1, was soldered to the middle of a round tin plate, in
the centre of which was a small orifice, E; three or four small
projections of the tin, _f f_, were left at the edges of the plate,
to prevent the disks of paper, card, or metal, from slipping off
sideways. The figure is on a scale of one-half. Instead of the tin
plate, a piece [p194] of smooth cork may be used, and for the tin
tube, a glass tube, or one made by rolling up a piece of paper.
If the tube be held horizontally, or inclining a little upward, and a
disk of card or paper be placed loosely against the aperture in the
plate, it will be found that, on applying the mouth to the end of
the tube, and blowing air through, that the disk will not be driven
away, but actually made to apply closely to the surface of the plate;
and if turned towards the ground it will be found to remain opposite
the hole, and not to fall until the current of air is stopped. Even
a plate of tin may in this way be suspended by a current of air;
which at first would be supposed to conjoin with gravity in forcing
it to the ground. When the disk is flexible and slightly elastic, a
heavy sound, and sometimes even a shrill tone, is produced by the
vibrations of the plate.
In explanation of this experiment, M. Hachette says, “The air is
pushed from the mouth A of the tube, towards the orifice E of the
plate; it strikes the part of the disk opposed to this orifice,
and the mean pressure on that part is greater than the pressure of
the atmosphere. The blown air then takes place of that between the
plate and the disk opposed to it; it moves in this interval with a
velocity decreasing from the edges of the aperture: the elastic force
of this air decreases at the same time, so that its mean pressure
between the plate and the inner face of the disk becomes less than
the atmospheric pressure; and as this last pressure is exerted on the
whole external face of the disk H, I, this disk, subject at the same
time to the two contrary pressures on its opposing faces, obeys the
greater, and is pushed towards the plate C D.”
“It is not necessary that the disk, C D, should be near the orifice
E, of the tube A E. Let _Fig._ 2 be an instrument composed of a
hollow cylinder, C D F G, and a flat border of the dimensions C″ F,
or G D″. Let a tube, A E, be fixed to the bottom of the cylinder,
the orifice E having a diameter of about three millimeters (0.12
of inch). If air be blown in at A, against the disk, H I, in the
neighbourhood of the flat border, the disk will be urged towards
the orifice E. This instrument is also delineated on a scale of one
half. The disk, with the attached weight, weighs about 12 grammes
(184.87 grains), being 54 millimeters in diameter; the pressure of
the atmosphere upon it equals 23 kilogrammes: from which it follows
that, in this experiment, the pressure of the air blown upon the
inner surface of the disk, and the atmospheric pressure exerted on
the exterior of the same disk, only differs from each other by about
one two-thousandth part of the latter.”—_Annales de Chimie_, xxxv. 34.
FOOTNOTE:
[34] See the last volume of this Journal, p. 473.
2. _Considerations relative to Capillary Action, by_ M. Poisson.—M.
Dutrochet, whilst explaining his views relative to the cause of
vital movement in plants and animals, stated that if an animal or
vegetable membrane were formed into a bag, having a tube of [p195]
glass attached to its aperture, and were then filled with a liquid
substance, having a strong affinity for another liquid, into which
the bag was to be immersed, it would not only have the power of
absorbing the latter liquid into its pores, but also, in certain
cases, of forcing it up to the top, and even out of the glass tube
held in a vertical position. On this point, a difference of opinion
with regard to the force of capillarity took place: M. Ampère
maintaining that capillary action would raise the fluid to the top of
the tube, but not cause its expulsion; while M. Poisson maintained
that, in certain cases, the latter effect could be produced. The
latter has since then published a note, which we transcribe in part,
from the _Annales de Chimie_, xxxv. 98.
[Illustration: untitled, two vessels separated by a narrow canal]
Suppose that two different fluids, A, B, are contained in a vessel,
and separated the one from the other by a vertical division; the
heights being in an inverse ratio to the densities, so that the
points, _a_ and _b_, in the two faces of the division, and situated
in the same horizontal plane, shall support equal and opposite
pressures: suppose also that the division is pierced with one or more
holes of small diameter, or, in other words, that it is traversed by
several very narrow canals, as _a_, _b_, perpendicular to the two
faces, and which may be regarded at first as filled with air, or any
other fluid.
If the substance of the division exerts upon each of the two liquids
an action superior to the half of that which the liquid has upon
itself, each liquid will enter into the canal _a_, _b_, just as it
would rise above its ordinary level in a capillary tube of the same
size and substance. It would also be urged, by the excess of pressure
which it would exert at the extremity of the canal, against the
elasticity of the included air. When the two fluids have penetrated
the interior of _a_, _b_, the air will be pushed on both sides
in different directions by forces each of which is equal to the
primitive pressure augmented by the corresponding capillary force,
_i. e._ augmented by forces proportional, according to the known
theory of M. Laplace, to double the action of the tube on the liquid,
less the proper action of the liquid itself. It will only be in the
case when the capillary force shall be the same on both sides, that
the air, after being compressed to a certain degree, will remain at
rest: for whenever this force preponderates at one end of the canal,
the air will be driven out at the opposite end, and the liquid with
the strongest capillary attraction will entirely fill the canal.
Suppose this liquid to be A, then let us consider the forces which
will act on the portion _a_, _b_, of this liquid. At the extremity
_a_, it will be submitted to the attraction of the exterior fluid
A: at the extremity _b_, it will be attracted in the opposite
direction by the liquid B. Now the two liquids being different, their
attractions will be unequal, and we will suppose that that of B, on
the matter [p196] of A, is greater than that of A for itself. As to
the action of the canal on the portion _a_, _b_, that will be equal,
and exerted in contrary directions at its two extremities; it will
not, therefore, be either adverse or favourable to the movement of
the fluid in the canal: and the same will be the case with respect
to the pressures exerted at _a_ and _b_, by the external liquids, as
long as they are equal: nevertheless, the action of the canal, and
the external pressures, will prevent the thread of fluid from being
broken, so that it will move without interruption in the direction
in which it is drawn by the greatest attraction, or from _a_ to _b_.
Hence will result an elevation of the level of B, and, consequently,
an increase of pressure at the extremity _b_, of the passage, and
this elevation will proceed until the difference of pressure in _a_
and _b_ shall be equal to that of the attractions exerted by the two
fluids A and B, on the thread _a b_; this effect will be produced
the more rapidly as the division is pierced with a greater number of
passages similar to that which has been considered.
Now let us examine what would occur if the division were formed
of two others different in their nature, and exactly superposed;
exerting no action on one of the liquids, B for example, and one
only acting on the other liquid. The liquid B will then retain its
original position undisturbed; in consequence of the action it exerts
upon itself it cannot penetrate the canal _a b_, just as mercury
cannot escape by a capillary aperture made in a barometer-tube.
It will be the same with A, when that face of the division which
exerts no action upon the liquid is turned towards it; so that how
numerous soever the apertures, the two liquids would, under such
circumstances, remain separate and preserve their original level. But
if the division be turned so that the face which acts upon A shall
be in contact with that liquid, it will penetrate the canal _a b_
by means of capillary attraction; and the velocity which the liquid
urged by this force may acquire, may make it pass that point in the
canal where the division changes its nature, and even make it reach
the extremity in the liquid B, so that it is possible that the liquid
A should entirely fill the canal _a b_, as in the case which has
already been examined. Then if we always suppose the attraction of B
for A to be superior to that which A has for itself, the thread _a
b_ will flow into B until the level of the latter is so far altered
that the excess of pressure at _b_ can balance the difference of
attractions exerted by the two liquids at _a_ and _b_.
M. Poisson then observes that, without pretending to assign a cause,
exclusive of all others, for the phenomena of absorption by vegetable
and animal membranes observed by M. Dutrochet, his object is to
show that effects which have at least a great resemblance to these
important phenomena, may be produced by capillary action conjoined
with the difference of affinity existing between heterogeneous
substances without the assistance of electricity, either moving or
quiescent. It appears that M. Dutrochet afterwards [p197] found
mineral substances, as a piece of slate, might be substituted for the
organized tissues; this being the case, the opinion which refers such
effects to a general cause, as capillary attraction, acquires more
probability.