Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-01-02

y. ~, TO relieve him from severe pains
In his head. The record clearly states
that the King was rendered unconscious,
his Uranium opened. the cause OF the
trouble removed from the brain, the
wound closed I'd. and his trouble COM
pletely cured. Javaka. who was Buddha's
own physician. performed similar opera
tions.
such claims tend TO shake the self-es-
tecm Of western peoples as the wisest
and most highly inventive that have ever
occupied the earth. and 10 cast a doubt
upon their boast that they are "the heirs
OF al the ages In the foremost files Of
time" II Is no new thing. however. for
us 10 be told that all light travels from
the east TO the west. and not from the
west 10 the east. We speak Of Asia as
"the cradle OF the race" and so IL un-
doubtedly was. We need not be surprised
therefore, II as Asia becomes better known
and its antiquities more closely inquired
into. we should find that mach Of the
supposed new knowledge Of le West
was familiar in the East when the world
was Young Wendell Phillipss most cee-
brated lecture was entitled THE Lost
Arts" Curiously enough. il is not in
cuded In the standard edition OF his pub
lished works. \ pamphlet copy of IL,
IMUlsNfA twenty YEARS dEDf - AAdAA ~
find. The famous Massachusetts orator
very largely forestalled the claims Of
Prince Thakore. He boldly declared that
of a hundred marvellous things known TO
the nineteenth century ninety-nlne OF
them had been anticipated by the an
clients lie pointed more particularly TO
mechanical arts and inventions. He
quoted Pllny TO show that Nero had a
ring with q gem in it through which he
looked and watched tho sword-pay Of the
gladiatorg In the arena more clearly than
with the naked eye-a style Of opera
glass unknown 10 as mOderns.
The use Of microscopes of immense
power in ancient Egypt, Persia. and
Greece is fairly prcsumable. because there
IS q gem shown at Parma, once worn
on the finger of Michael Angelo the en-
craving wherein Is 200 years old. and
which reveals the fingers Of seven women.
only with the aid Of "a strong magnify
ing-glass Sir Henry Rawlnson brought
home from Nineyah a stone about twenty
inches long and ten inches wide. contain
ing O. whole treatise on mathematics
that was utterly illegible without a mi
croscope. And. If 10 cannot be read
without a microscope. IL could not have
been engraved without similar aid. Sir.
Phillips averrcd that the art Of c0lOrng
reached a perfection among the ancients
far beyond our own. The burned city
OF Pompeii was n city OF succO. The
eXteriOrs Of the walls Of an IT'S build
ings were OF stucco. and the stucco was
stained with Tyrian purple-the royal
color Of antiquity. The city has been
buried ls0O years, yet whenever the walls
Of one Of its houses are dug out the royal
purple flames up TO view with a great
deal richer hue than any we can produce.
Evidently, the Pompcians possessed a
secret for making fast cOlOrs that we
have not. When the English despolled
tie summer palace Of the Emperor of
China, they brought home curiously-
wrought metal vessels Of every kind
and European metal-workers confessed
their inability TO reproduce them. Shelf
field steel Is an English boast. but it
Will not bear the atmosphere of India
without gliding. Yet the Damascus
blades used I'm the Crusadcs were not
gilded, and they are as bright and keen
to-day as they We're eight centuries ago.
There was one shown at the London Ex-
hiDiticn I'm 1852, the point Of which could
be made 10 touch the hit. and which
could be put into "A scabbard Ike 4 cork
screw and bent every way without break
ing. The best steel in the world to-day
Nl0fr llOA NNlllf ilOlt flAfnf EsuTOUN
America, but from the Punjaub
Sir Walter Scott. I'm his Tales of the
Crusaders" describes a meeting between
Richard Occur de Lion and Saladln. IN
which the English monarch is made 10
think that Saladin practices the black art
because the latter takes an eidcrdoWn
pillow from the sofa and causes 10 TO fail
iu two pieces by drawing his keen blade
across it,. Travellers in India tell Of see
ing HindOCs throw handouts Of hOss-silk
into the air and cut them I'm pieces with
their fne-edged sabres. There is no steel
made I'm western workshops of that quail
~. So, too with the art Of glass-cutting
IL was supposed thirty years ago that
there were no ancient glass-factories. -
the Pompeian excavations revealed "a
workshop full of ground glass, window
glass, cut-glass, and colored glass Of
every variety. We plume ourselves upon
cur canals, but ancient Palestine had
many magnificent canals. with perfectly
arranged gates and slClces Ii is doubt
ful If, Notwithstanding MacAdam. we
build any better roads than the Romans.
We have not yet discovered q perfect way
of yentilating either our public buildings
or our private houses, but the exploration
OF the pyramids in Egypt show that those
Egyptian tomb5 We're ventilated I'm the
Our architects are well aware that their
ancient predecessors knew some things
that are still mysteries 10 them. Alr.
Archibald Dunn. president of the North
ern Architectural Association of Great
Britain. i'm an address reprinted I'm a re-
cent issue Of Architecture and Building.
speaks i'm this sense Of the stupendous
works Of the Egyptian builders of the Nile
temples. lie says that it almost passes
belief that the blocks of granite used in
building those wonderful structures could
have been handled at all and lifted into
their places. For example many of the
stone slabs forming the roof Of the great
Temple Of Karnak weigh upward of arty
tons, and some Of them are believed TO
weigh from 100 10 30J tons each. Yet all
these huge stones are set without NOR
tar. and to-day. after all the centuries
that have passed since they were placed.
they are found 10 be jointed with
such accuracy that the blade Of
penknife cannot be forced between them.
Lord Armstrong wrote with wonder
and admiration of the great statue
Of Rameses the Great. which is cut ont
OF single block Of syenite, calculated 10
have weighed 100 tons before the artist
commenced upon IT, He observed thar IN
D4i"7 ~ vi 9'Ohc from dis
lance of 13j miles was a feat which
would daunt the courage Of modern
engineer although aided by powers and
appliances unknown 10 the ancient Fevn-
tians." These hugs blocks Of stone v,sra
quarried by means of wooden wedges
which were inserted and afterward sweu-
cd by water, ana Lord Armstronq
was of opinion that no engineer OF fbe
present day could detach them from the
quarry by that ancient process.
The contemplation Of these evidenced
Of ancient achievement j. well calcu-
lated TO abate our admitted tendency
to indulge in too much self-admlration
II will do Us no harm TO take our eves