The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-08-03
Loot.

The largest of the pyramids is 4S1 feet
! high and 693 feet on the sides; its base
covers eleven acres. The stones are
above 80 feet in length and the layers
are POS; 100000 men were employed in
its erection.
Anaxagoras, an Athenian, who -four
ished in the fifth century before Christ,
taught that wind was owing to rarefac-
ton; that the rainbow was owing to re-
Fiction; that the moon is enlightened
by the sun; that comets are wandering
stars; that the fixed stars were beyond
the sun, etc. many of them regarded
as modern discoveries. He was perse-
cuted and banished by the priesthood.
Androides, to perform human actions,
have been made in all ages. Bacon
made one to speak and Albertus Magnus
spent thirty years in making another.
The writing Androides is merely pen
tograph, worked by confederate out of
sight. So also the automaton chess
player and the invisible girl; but they
are in general constructed of wheelwork.
Vaucanson, in this way, made flute
player; Kempelen, the chess player and
speaking figure.
The growth of the nails is more rapid
in children than in adults and slowest in
the aged it goes on faster insummer than
in winter, so that the same nail which is
renewed in 1872 days in winter requires
only 1l6 in summer. The increase of
the nails of the right hand is more rapid
Il Il. Inf q u
fers for the different fingers, and in or
der corresponds with the length of the
finger, consequently it is the fastest in
the middle finger, nearly equal in the
two on either side of this, slower in The
little finger and slowest in the thumb.
The growth of all the nails on the left
hand requires eighty-two days more than
those of the right.
Calico, he father of modern philoso-
ply, in alluding to the general doctrine,
in 1910, that the tides are occasioned by
the attraction of the moon, says the
tides are local and sensible, and cannot
be brought to obey occult qualities and
such-like vain fancies; all which are so
far from being the cause of the tides,
that, on the contrary, it is The cause of
them, inasmuch as it creates the idea
of attraction in brains more apt for To-
quacity and ostentation than for inquiry
into the secrets of nature; and who,
rather than be driven to pronounce the
wise, ingenious and modest words, Il
don't know blurt from their tongues
all sorts of extravagances." He referred
the tides to the annual and diurnal mo.
tions; and, if he had superadded the
moon on the same principle, his theory
would have been complete.
Amphitheaters were vast erections in
the Roman empire to amuse, or rather
brutalise, the people, and qualify them
for military life by the exhibition Of
murderous contests between gladiators
and wild beasts. They were of an clip
tical form, and adapted for thousands Of
spectators, to whom carnage was made
pastime. They were invented by
Julius Caesar and Curio. Augustus
caused them to be erected everywhere
In the reign of Tiberius one fell at Fl
dena, by which $4,000 persons were
killed or wounded. Vespasian built thu
first of stone, the diameter is 615-5 feet
and the other $40, covering five and {
half acres, and being 120 feet high. /
was initiated at Capua, Verona, Nismes
Autun and Pola; while at Italica, Alba
Otriculi, Puzzuoli, Postum, Syracuse
Corinth, Aries, Caerleon and other places
smaller ones were constructed.
The facade or portico of st. Peters il
379 feet long and 148 feet high. The
vestibule is 468 feet long, 66 feet high
and so feet wide, being longer thar
most churches. On the central pave
ment of the nave are marked the re
spective lengths of St. Peters, and Of
some other Of the principal churhes o.
Christendom. st. Peters is there stated
to be 6135 feet in length. The height
of the nave nearest the door is 1921 feet
the width of this portion is 87s feet
The width of the side aisles 33a feet
The width of the nave and side aisles j,
1879 feet. The extreme length of thu
transepts from end to end is 446! feet
The height of the baldacchino, or higf
altar to the top of the cross upon<it, il
954 feet. The circumference Of the foul
great pilasters that support the dome il
253 feet. The diameter of the cupola
including the outer walls, is 1861 feet
the diameter of the interior of the cupols
is 1879 feet, or 3 feet less than the Pan
theon. The height of the dome from
the pavement to the cave of the Lantern
is 405 feet, and from the pavement t.
the top of the cross outside is 448 feet.