shape. In this they contrast with many

There is thus more similarity between worms and men than might appear, in spite of various well-known remarks and comparisons.

FRANK E. BEDDARD, F.R.S.

From Chambers' Journal. EGYPT FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO.

Another and almost more singular other animals. The converse is more parallel between the human and vergenerally true. Earth-worms, however, mian inhabitants of the colder and lead a monotonously similar life in all hotter regions respectively is the pigparts of the world, and there is there-mentation of the body; not only is the fore no scope for any varied moulding Ethiopian burnt by the sun, but the of outward form. And besides, the earth-worms of tropical countries are shape which they have already got is frequently deeper in color than those that which is best suited to a burrowing of more temperate latitudes. creature; no change would be desirable. Hence all the energy of variability, which might have been expended in producing infinite diversity of external form, has been transferred to the internal organs. It has been recently proved that every part of the world has its characteristic worms, which are as different from each other as the limits of worm organization permit. It will probably astonish some of those who read these lines to learn that there are over two hundred different kinds of earth-worms. Some of them are of the most brilliant colors. In South Africa is a monster of its kind six feet in length of a bright grass-green color with orange underparts; this particular worm has an intelligence not usually associated with giants. Two worms dynasties—that is, of a period about were observed crawling at a great rate, evidently with an appointment to keep; they crawled rapidly and in the straightest of lines till they met. What sense could have guided them? It was mentioned just now that earth-worms had all the senses of man; but we must credit them with some additional senses not possessed by ourselves.

THE Archæological Survey of Egypt undertaken by the Egyptian Exploration Fund is proceeding under favorable auspices, and the results of each year's discoveries seem of increasing interest. Last year, several artists were sent out to make fac-simile drawings of the wall-paintings in tombs belonging to the eleventh and twelfth

two to three thousand years B.C., or approximately five thousand years ago. These drawings, supplemented by portions of the original wall of a tomb which had been shattered by an earthquake, rendering the removal possible without any destruction on the part of the explorers, have recently been exhibited at the residence of the Marquis of Bute, and present many special points of interest. The freshness and beauty of the pigments employed in these very ancient frescoes are most

Another curious point is the extreme power of colonization possessed by the European species-remarkably paralleled by the human races of the same part of the world; whenever a Euro- remarkable. We are accustomed to pean form is introduced into a tropical look with wonder at the works of what country, it drives the native worm in- we call the "old masters," and to think habitants before it into the fastnesses the coloring of Orcagna, Cimabue, and of the interior. The converse does not Giotto marvellous after the lapse of five occur; when a foreign species gets or six centuries; but here we get colinto this country it does not flourish. ors which have stood the test of ten This is a further proof of the modern times that period, and yet retain their characters, and therefore the great freshness and beauty almost unimvigor, of the animals of the northern paired, so that you may trace the delilatitudes, as compared with those of cate gradations in the plumage of a the tropics the older and more worn-bird, and thus classify numerous varieout regions of the globe. ties of ducks, evidently domesticated

crooked pointed stick driven by hand, whereas this is drawn by an ox, and has a cross-handle, painted red. Then there are the bearers of the palanquin, two of whom appear to be shaven, as was the manner of the Egyptians ; whilst a third wears a full crop of hair or a wig, probably to denote superior rank. In another painting, rank is shown by the leopard-skiu robe, worn apparently by an overseer, who is directing two workmen; and it may be remarked that even to the present day the leopard skin denotes the priestly caste, medicine-man, or chieftainship, in all parts of Africa.

and carefully bred; and even in the hieroglyphics the birds are so carefully portrayed that the species designed is easily recognizable. Three species of domesticated dogs appear with characteristics resembling those of to-day. There is a great lean-bodied, longlegged creature which might be the ancestor of our greyhound; but the legs are much thicker, and it is altogether more clumsy and less graceful. Then there is a dog possessing the characteristics of the boarhound, but with a mottled coat somewhat resembling that of a tortoise-shell cat. This coloring is also observable in the third species of dog, which has a strong Perhaps the most interesting of the affinity with the modern spitz or dachs- human figures depicted is a group, or hund, having a long body and short, rather procession, of red-haired, lightbandy legs; but the latter character-skinned, blue-eyed people, supposed to istic is not so decidedly marked as at be Lybians, the men bearing in their the present day. This little dog would hands crooked clubs resembling boomeseem to have been a favorite with the rangs, and having other weapons, Egyptians at that remote period, for notably a huge knife, thrust through two of the kind are depicted, a male their shaggy red hair; whilst the and female, one accompanying a lady women carry their children in baskets in a close palanquin. It may here be on their backs; and two are depicted remarked that a dog very closely re-bearing monkeys instead of children. sembling the one here portrayed is Conventionally, the Egyptian women still found in South Africa, where it is are always represented as much lighter bred and highly esteemed by the Hot-in color than the men, and two groups. tentots, who even make the women in these paintings are especially renurse the puppies with their own chil-markable. In one, two women are dren. This dog, known as a "brach- represented standing facing each other, hond," is long-bodied and short-legged, one foot raised, touching that of the but not so bandy-legged as the dachshund; the coloring also is more like that of the ancient Egyptian dog, being mottled, and often spotted with red like a cow.

There is also a cat, large and gaunt and fierce, certainly not our domestic tabby, but something approaching to the wild-cat. Whether this was the variety dedicated to Pasht, and of which so many mummies are found, can hardly be determined by the painting; but probably it was intended to represent that sacred animal.

adversary, one hand being also placed on that of the other, whilst a round object, supposed to be a bladder, is attached by a long string to the hair of each at the back, hanging down to the shoulders. This is evidently a game, in which the performers whirl round and strike each other with the ball or bladder attached to the hair; and it is easy to see that if the ball were not very light, the game might be an exceedingly rough one. In the other group, two women tossing balls are seated on the backs of two other The types of mankind shown on women, the supposition being that these very early paintings are of pecul- when they fail to catch, they in turn iar interest. There is the swarthy become horses for the others. These Egyptian ploughman, holding the prim- two games of ball strike one as new, itive wooden plough, not, however, of and especially noteworthy from the the earliest type, which was only a performers being women. The great

peculiarity in all these human figures and have diligently chipped away the is the extraordinary length of the fin- figures from all the fragments which gers and toes. In those days, it was have fallen into their hands, either out evidently a mark of beauty to have of pure love of destruction, or more a long foot and hand, and the artists probably in order to sell the painted must have complimented their subjects hieroglyphs thus detached as amulets. by exaggeration in these points. This shows the necessity for completHere, too, we may see the mode of ing the Survey as soon as possible, in making fire in the twenty-fifth century order to preserve these precious relics B.C., for we see a man represented of hoar antiquity from the hands of the using a fire-drill such as is still in use modern spoiler, for the value of these among some uncivilized races, which paintings and hieroglyphs in illustratconsists of a thong or bowstring ing the history of the world cannot be twisted round a pointed stick, inserted over-estimated. In them we see life in a very dry board, the thong being as it existed in the most civilized counpulled rapidly backwards and forwards try of the world three thousand years until fire is produced by friction. This and more before the birth of Christ; is of course an advance upon the earlier the manners and customs, dress, and practice of rubbing two sticks together, even the amusements of this remote which is the custom among very prim- time are here revealed to us. We can itive savages, and upon the drill twirled trace their commerce with distant in the hand, which is also still in use. lands, their modes of navigation and The figures and hieroglyphs of these agriculture, their method of trapping tombs, which are situated in the rocky birds, as well as the game they hunted ground on the east bank of the Nile, in and the water-fowl they domesticated, the provinces of Minieh and Assiut, in all so faithfully delineated as to be unUpper Egypt, differ from the general-impeachable witnesses of the truth of ity of Egyptian hieroglyphs, which are ancient historical records; whilst the usually incised in the granite, whereas, inscriptions enlighten us as to the in these the figures having been first names and exploits of their rulers, traced on the stone, the interspaces probably with some exaggerations and were then chipped away, leaving the embellishments, yet on the whole trustdesign in relief, these raised figures worthy as to matters of fact, and incibeing afterwards very carefully and dentally throwing light upon much that beautifully painted. The Arabs have is obscure in the writings of ancient taken advantage of this raised-work, historians, both biblical and secular.

THE STORY OF ZERO.- The word "zero" scientific discovery, and hastily concluded is from the Spanish, and means empty, that he had found the lowest degree of temhence nothing. It was first used for a perature known in the world, either natural thermometer in 1795 by a Prussian mer- or artificial. He called the degree zero, chant named Fahrenheit. From a boy he and constructed a thermometer, or rude was a close observer of nature, and when weather-glass, with a scale graduating up only nineteen years old, in the remarkably from zero to boiling point, which he numcold winter of 1709, he experimented by bered 212, and the freezing point 32, beputting snow and salt together, and noticed cause, as he thought, mercury contracted that it produced a degree of cold equal to the thirty-second of its volume on being the coldest day of the year. And that day cooled down from the temperature of freezbeing the coldest that the oldest inhabitant ing water to zero, and expanded the onecould remember, Fahrenheit was the more hundred-and-eightieth on being heated from struck with the coincidence of his little the freezing to the boiling point.

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