Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-05-18
THE LORE OF LONG AGO.
Recent Researches Prove That tho An
clients Were Not So Ignorant.


The vainglorious spirit of the nineteenth
| century mocks at the assumption that the
ancients knew nothing worth knowing
that the modern do not know and boasts
over Its own particular achievements as
things unique. IL will not, as whole,
admit that many of its discoveries are only
SO many rediscoveries, and that the most
absolutely true axiom Is that There Is
nothing new under the SUM-" The deliver
into ancient records, however, meets with
good many surprises. For instance, in
one of the transactions OF the New York
Academy of Sciences there is this reference
To ancient Egyptian chemistry: 1.-THE
earliest chemical Laboratories of which
wo have knowledge are those that were
connected with the Egyptian temples.
Each temple had its library and labora-
tory, commonly situated In definite part
Of the huge structure. In these labora-
tories the priests prepared the incense, oils
and other substances used In the temple
services, and on the granite walls were
carved the recipes and processes. There
also we see the processes of gold washing
and smelling, the use of blowpipes and
of double bellows, various forms of fur
naces and cruciblcs, having shape quite
similar TO those in use today. The skill
Of the Egyptians in glass manufacture is
also depicted on monuments dating back
TO $500 b. c."
There are older records even telling Of
other things that people still more ancient
knew. The prevention Of smallpox by vac
cination is supposed to be Of modern ORR
gin. The British army surgeon, II. Pringle
however, made the following statement
before the ARCHAEOLOGICAL Society of
British Scientists: Vaccination, so far
from being n modern discovery, was
known ages ago TO the Hindoo nation.
Listen TO this extract from an old Hindoo
work The smallpox produced from the
udder Of the COW will be of the same mild
nature as the original disease. The pox
should be OF good color, filled with n clear
liquid and surrounded with circle Of red.
There will be only slight fever of one,
two or three days, but no fear need be en-
tertained Of smallpox as long as life con-
tinues.
That this same nation has long known
and used the lately undiscovered forces Of
mesmerism and hypnotism is a fact too
widely proved for more than a passing
word. Other things there are long ago
known TO this mother OF the nations.
AS / write l have before me an English
translation Of very old tantric work from
the original Sansl>rit by the Hindoo Pan
dit, Rama Prasad. In il may be found the
ancient Hindoo philosophy as regards the
finer forces Of nature. Among its pages /
find definite reference TO and explanation
of such things as tho interstellar ether; its
general properties and subdivisions; the
laws of vibration; the circulation of the
blood and Of the nervous fluid; the nerv-
Gus centers and the general anatomy of
the body; the rationale of psychometry
and of occult phenomena, and good
many other things besides of which mod
ern science as yet knows little or nothing.
The portions treating Of vibration are es.
pecially interesting and remind one of J.
W. Keely's ideas on that subject. In fact,
Keely would seem TO be on the road TO the
retliscovery of concepts presented in this old
Hindoo work some thousands of years ago.
The Hindoos, warned by past experience
of the skeptical and material nature of
western science are chary of giving up the
records of their past achievements in
science, sut from late advices l understand
that there is now in process of translation
an old Sanskrit work on medicine. It's
appearance will doubtless add still more
TO western chagrin.