a ram, and hold in their hands the emblem of truth and justice. In the centre is a human figure in an erect and firm position, painted blue, with the arms extended up towards the heavens; and falling, as it were, from this figure, is that of a human being, painted red, and is typical of the earthy part of man being thrown off from his spiritual. At the ends of the lid and body of the sarcophagus, are hawks, the Agathodæmon, representations of the sacred eye of Osiris, and a libation offered to the deceased and to Isis.

The sides of the sarcophagus give each seven representations of the deceased; and between these are various lines of hieroglyphics, many of which Mr. P. deciphered. From them we read, "OSIRIS, Hieraphoros of Amun; OSIRI deceased, son of the priest of Amun; OUONNOPHRI (Onuphris of Plutarch, manifester of good, a name of Osiris), son of the priest ONHKOSO, deceased, son of the priest HORSISI, deceased; his mother, lady of the house, MASHR-SE, &c."

There are some curious variations in the mode of spelling the name of the deceased, and also of his mother, in the hieroglyphics on the sarcophagus, which are highly deserving of notice. His name is spelt in four different ways: 1. OSIRI; 2. OSIRIAO; 3. OSIRIOSAO; 4. REREAO. The name occurs very frequently; but the modes in which it is most generally spelt are the 1st. or 2nd., Osiri or Osiriao. Certain variations often occur in writing the names of Egyptians, which generally consist of the introduction or omission of certain vowels, which in Eastern languages is not of the same importance as in European. In Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, the principal vowel of a word is alone introduced in writing, the force of the others being known by certain marks or points, which are generally omitted except in the Koran. In this case, however, in the fourth example the variation seems to occur in the consonants, which offers some difficulty, since the force of the sitting figure with its hand to its mouth, has been fixed from the word Kaiseros, where it occurs as an S, in more than one instance; its phonetic value is therefore to be regarded as determined. Were it not so, one

might suppose from the first hieroglyphic in the 4th example in Plate III. (p. 37,) being substituted for it, that this figure merely served to represent a man, and therefore stood for the letter R, the initial of the word Romi (Man); but it signifies a child, as is proved by the position of the hand to the mouth; and the reason of its having the force of S, is that Se, or Sheri, signifies child. Upon the whole, however, the name Osiri is so much like one that we well know (Osiris), and the instances are so many of Osiri or Osiriao, that Mr. P. was inclined to suppose the introduction of the R in this single instance might have been an oversight, or accidental. The name of the mother of Osiri is spelt in three different ways: 1. MASHARSI; 2. MASHARSI or TASHARSI, which is the general mode of writing it; 3. TASHARGE. Perhaps, therefore, the T of Tmau is to be understood, instead of the Tm or m of Tmau, or Maut, (the vulture;) but this is very unusual, the vulture being usually M.

Having thus far remarked upon the process of embalming, the modes in which the embalmed body was afterwards preserved, the character of the cases, and the hieroglyphics depicted upon them; and

having shown, that according to these the mummy to be examined was that of Osiri, the son of Ouonofri, who was the son of Onkhonso, who was the son of Horsiisi, and that all these were priests belonging to the Temple of Ammon; that his mother's name was Masharsi, and from the inscription at the feet, and the representation of Isis, that he might probably have been one of the priests officiating in the mysteries of the worship of Isis; it now remained to unfold the mummy and see how far the appearances would correspond with what had been described, and Mr. P. here took occasion to remark that it might possibly occur where a process was so general as that of embalming among the Egyptians, that the body of one person might be accidentally placed in a case belonging to, or intended for, another. In the event of such a casualty, the only proof which could be offered of the identity of the contents of the case was to be found in the name of the deceased being written upon the bandages, as had already occurred in the instance of that of Horsiisi, unrolled in the Royal College of Surgeons. With this preliminary caution, Mr. P. removed the mummy from its case, or inner coffin, and commenced the unfolding. The outer bandages were all marked by the impression of a coating, or dress of beads, made of vitrified earth, of various colours, and which had been separated from their connexions by the destruction of the string upon which they were hung. Several portions were preserved and exhibited. The outer folds of bandage consisted of a large sheet, tinged of a reddish-pink colour, and this was fastened on by some strips of a nankin colour, which were made to act as cords or bands to fix the whole. Beneath the outer sheet the bandages appeared as fresh as the day they were applied, and were passed round the body with the greatest neatness and precision; they were fringed at one end, and the other had a selvedge. They were very numerous, and consisted of scarcely less than 900 yards. They were chiefly 5 yards in length, and about 6 inches in breadth. They had been formed from cloth measuring one yard and ğ in width. The bandages took various directions, and several compresses were found between them. A large portion, resembling a nightcap, was taken off the top of the head. The texture of the bandages was pretty uniform throughout, neither very fine nor coarse. Upon the end of three portions, hieroglyphical inscriptions were found, which seemed to identify the body with the individual mentioned upon the case, and thus rendered the examination very satisfactory. The inscriptions were to the following effect: "life, intellect, power." "Osriis," merely the name, and wrongly spelt. “Linen made bandage eternal (sepulchral) of Osriis.”

As the unfolding proceeded, it became evident that the limbs were separately bandaged, and that the bandages near to the body were firmly fixed to it by the pitchy matter that had been used in the embalming. The process of developement, therefore, became necessarily slow; but in a short time one-half of the head was exposed, and was found to be devoid of hair; in this respect corroborating the opinion as to the condition of the priesthood. Near to the surface of the body, a large mass was discovered, which proved to be the liver of the deceased, that had been removed from the body, embalmed, and then placed upon the body, amidst the bandages. Various other portions of the different visceral

were afterwards found, and in the most entire state of preservation. These had been extracted from the body through the incision into the left flank, as described by Herodotus, and the inside of the body was filled with cedar-dust and aromatics. The ears were remarkably preserved, and their form rendered entire by small dossils of linen being placed into the cavity of the outer ear, and the brain had been extracted through the nostrils, which were somewhat disfigured by the operation. No papyrus was found either between the legs or on the inside of the arms, as is sometimes the case; nor were there any amulets, scarabæi, &c. to be seen. The mummy of OSIRI is to be regarded valuable, inasmuch as it affords another proof of the certainty of hieroglyphical literature—his character was found to correspond, as far as possible, with the description upon the case.

It is to be hoped that the trustees of the British Museum will relax from their determination not to allow any of the specimens contained in that national collection to be unrolled, as much curious if not useful information may be obtained by such a research. The Museum ought to possess specimens of mummies in every state and condition, and they should be exhibited in the Gallery of Egyptian Antiquities, in the first, second, third, and fourth series of bandages arranged also according to their condition in life; and their history, as depicted upon the cases containing them, detailed. In this way, the collection, for which lately the Government have so liberally supplied the means for the purchase of Mr. Sams's collection, and various articles from Mr. Salt's, will be rendered truly useful.

A POPULAR COURSE OF CHEMISTRY.

No. IV.

CHEMICAL AFFINITY.

THE elements and their compounds are the materials with which we have to experiment; some of them are very powerful and dangerous substances, and Sir Humphry Davy has well compared these to the refractory spirits of Arabian romance, which, although occasionally subject to the skill of the magician, would often suddenly escape from control, and endanger his person.

All experiments should be undertaken with some.degree of caution, for chemical action is frequently amazingly sudden and vehement; in spite of every precaution, the most experienced chemists sometimes meet with accidents, and they are almost certain to happen to the juvenile operator. If he mixes substances together rashly and incautiously, an unexpected result takes place, perhaps a torrent of fumes, or a blaze of flame, is evolved; he loses his presence of mind, becomes alarmed at the spirit which he has thus unwittingly conjured into existence, and, being ignorant of the means of subduing it, he is half suffocated, scalded, scorched, or otherwise injured. Many accidents of this kind have happened in consequence of the ignorance and awkwardness of the young operator, and Chemistry is often denounced as a dangerous and disagreeable study; with a very little care, however, experiments may be performed without injury to himself, or annoyance to others.

Experiments should always be made in a room exclusively devoted to their performance, divested of any valuable furniture, yet well stored with chemical preparations and apparatus, so as to constitute a laboratory, within whose charmed precincts, the young chemist will find hours and days rapidly and imperceptibly glide away; for the "beginning of chemistry is pleasure, its progress knowledge, its objects truth and utility."

Most of the preparations which are requisite for the pursuit of this fascinating science, may now be readily procured at the shops of those who designate themselves "operative chemists," and thus great facilities for the study of chemistry are afforded to the juvenile student. The scene is vastly changed since the time of the alchymists, who were obliged to prepare all their own compounds, or even within the last thirty years, when there was much difficulty in purchasing " chemicals." In those days the possession of any larger quantity than a few drops or grains, of some substances, was only to be acquired by long and anxious labour over the furnace, crucible, or distillatory apparatus; and experimenters had to sacrifice much time in preparing the materials for their experiments. There were but very few shops where chemicals were sold, and that at a most exorbitant rate; oil of vitriol, for example, being charged at the rate of thirteen shillings per pound, to obtain which quantity the maker had to work for upwards of seventy hours. The process being gradually improved and expedited, the result became more copious, and it fell to halfa-crown per pound, but even then the supply was limited. At the present day, about fifty thousand tons of oil of vitriol are annually manufactured, and it is sold at the rate of five farthings per pound. Spirit of salt, or