- Floral wreath frame
Floral wreath frame - Section of Drain
Besides the coffins themselves, some other curious features are found in the burial-places. The dead are commonly buried, not underneath the natural surface of the ground, but in extensive artificial mounds, each mound containing a vast number of coffins. The coffins are arranged side by side, often in several layers; and occasionally strips of masonry, crossing each other at right angles, separate the sets of coffins from their neighbors. The surface of the mounds is sometimes paved with brick; and a similar pavement often separates the layers of coffins one from another. But the most remarkable feature in the tomb-mounds is their system of drainage. Long shafts of baked clay extend from the surface of the mound to its base, composed of a succession of rings two feet in diameter, and about a foot and a half in breadth, joined together by thin layers of bitumen. To give the rings additional strength, the sides have a slight concave curve and, still further to resist external pressure, the shafts are filled from bottom to top with a loose mass of broken pottery. At the top the shaft contracts rapidly by means of a ring of a peculiar shape, and above this ring are a series of perforated bricks leading up to the top of the mound, the surface of which is so arranged as to conduct the rain-water into these orifices. For the still more effectual drainage of the mound, the top-piece of the shaft immediately below the perforated bricks, and also the first rings, are full of small holes to admit any stray moisture; and besides this, for the space of a foot every way, the shafts are surrounded with broken pottery, so that the real diameter of each drain is as much as four feet. By these arrangements the piles have been kept perfectly dry; and the consequence is the preservation, to the present day, not only of the utensils and ornaments placed in the tombs, but of the very skeletons themselves, which are seen perfect on opening a tomb, though they generally crumble to dust at the first touch. - The Return of the prodigal
" And he arose and went towards his father's house, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him, and was sorry for him, and ran and embraced him. Then he told his father how he had sinned and had lost his title to be called the old man's son, but the father was so glad to have his son come back repentant, that he told his servants to bring the best clothing and a ring to put on his son. And he made a great feast, and they were merry, for he said, "This is my son that was as one dead to me and is now alive again; he was lost and is found." - Bastard Gemsbok (Antilope leucophaea, Pallas
- Rambouillet-Negretti Ram
- Red Blood-Corpuscles presenting, some the Surfaces, others the Edges, of their Discs, together with Single Representatives of Four Types of Leucocyte.
A, the most common type, highly amœboid and phagocytic. Its protoplasm is finely granular, its nucleus multipartite. B, a leucocyte closely similar to the last, but larger, and containing an undivided nucleus. It is shown with a cluster of particles of soot in its body-substance. C, a young leucocyte, or “lymphocyte.” D, a coarsely granular leucocyte. Its granules stain brightly with acid dyes—e.g., eosin or acid fuchsin. - A Sly Couple
A gentleman in the county of Stirling kept a greyhound and a pointer, and being fond of coursing, the pointer was accustomed to find the hares, and the greyhound to catch them. When the season was over, it was found that the dogs were in the habit of going out by themselves, and killing hares for their own amusement. To prevent this, a large iron ring was fastened to the pointer’s neck by a leather collar, and hung down so as to prevent the dog from running, or jumping over dykes, &c. The animals, however, continued to stroll out to the fields together; and one day the gentleman, suspecting that all was not right, resolved to watch them, and to his surprise, found that the moment when they thought that they were unobserved, the greyhound took up the iron ring in his mouth, and carrying it, they set off to the hills, and began to search for hares as usual. They were followed, and it was observed, that whenever the pointer scented the hare, the ring was dropped, and the greyhound stood ready to pounce upon poor puss the moment the other drove her from her form, but that he uniformly returned to assist his companion after he had caught his prey. - Hereford Bull, 'Tredegar'
- A Minute Portion of the Pulp of the Spleen
A Minute Portion of the Pulp of the Spleen,very highly magnified. Stellate connective-tissue cells form spaces containing red blood-corpuscles and leucocytes. In the centre of the diagram is shown the mode of origin of a venule. It contains two phagocytes—the upper with a nucleus, two blood-corpuscles just ingested, and one partially digested in its body-substance; the lower with two blood-corpuscles. - Mariahof Cow, Styria
- White-Eared Antelope (A. leucotes), Male, Central Africa
White-Eared Antelope - European Lynx (Felis Lynx)
- A grateful return
A favourite house-dog, left to the care of its master’s servants, while he was himself away, would have been starved by them if it had not had recourse to the kitchen of a friend of its master’s, which in better days it had occasionally visited. On the return of the master it enjoyed plenty at home, and stood in no further need of the liberality it experienced; but still it did not forget that hospitable kitchen where it had found a resource in adversity. A few days after, the dog fell in with a duck, which, as he found in no private pond, he probably concluded to be no private property. He snatched up the duck in his teeth, carried it to the kitchen where he had been so hospitably fed, laid it at the cook’s feet, with many polite movements of the tail, and then scampered off with much seeming complacency at having given this testimony of his grateful sense of favours. - Waterbok (Antilope [Kobus] ellipsprymna, Ogilby)
- Head of Indian Elephant
- Wreath of grasses frame
Wreath of grasses frame - Delicate floral frame
Delicate floral frame - Esquimaux Dog
- The Wise Men before the King
So King Herod first sent for the learned men of the Jews, the chief priests and scribes, and demanded of them where Christ should be born; and when they had replied that it was to be in Bethlehem, he secretly called the wise men before him, and inquired of them what time the star appeared. After getting the information he needed, he dismissed the wise men, bidding them to go to Bethlehem "and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found Him," said Herod, "bring me word again, that I may come and worship Him also." - Frame for multiple pictures
Frame for multiple pictures - Dorset Ram
- Bony skeleton of Hippopotamus
- Wild-sow and pigs
The wild animals indigenous in Babylonia appear to be chiefly the following:—the lion, the leopard, the hyeena, the lynx, the wild-cat, the wolf, the jackal, the wild-boar, the buffalo, the stag, the gazelle, the jerboa, the fox, the hare, the badger, and the porcupine. The Mesopotamian lion is a noble animal. The wild-boar frequents the river banks and marshes, as depicted in the Assyrian sculptures. - Two-year old Southdown sheep
- Negretti Merino Ram
- Title
A title page border for an art-related page - Estheria obliqua, One of the Conchostraca
- The Woolly Kangaroo
The Woolly Kangaroo - Llama
- Chaldean vases of the first period
Chaldean vases of the first period - African Fat-Tailed Sheep
- Circular vine frame
Circular vine frame - Opossum
- A Deep-sea Lobster
A Deep-sea Lobster (Nephropsis stewartii), from the Bay of Bengal - Chaldean Reeds (from a slab of Sennacherib)
Among the vegetable products of Chaldaea must be noticed, as almost peculiar to the region, its enormous reeds. These, which are represented with much spirit in the sculptures of Sennacherib, cover the marshes in the summer-time, rising often to the height of fourteen or fifteen feet. The Arabs of the marsh region form their houses of this material, binding the stems of the reeds together, and bending them into arches, to make the skeleton of their buildings; while, to form the walls, they stretch across from arch to arch mats made of the leaves. From the same fragile substance they construct their terradas or light boats, which, when rendered waterproof by means of bitumen, will support the weight of three or four men. - Chaldean vases, drinking vessels and amphora of the second period
Chaldean vases, drinking vessels and amphora of the second period - Cardinal frame
Cardinal frame - Lord Chesham's Shropshire
- Walrus, showing the upper incisors in the form of tusks
- Walrus skull, showing the powerful canine teeth
- Small Breed White pig, Shown at Bedford
- Cuneiform Inscription
Among the earliest of the monuments hitherto discovered are a set of bricks bearing the following cuneiform inscription. This inscription is explained to mean:—“Beltis, his lady, has caused Urukh (?), the pious chief, King of Hur, and King of the land (?) of the Akkad, to build a temple to her.” - Manatee (Manatus Americanus)
- Halicore Dugong
- A faithful companion
A gardener, in removing some rubbish, discovered two ground toads of an uncommon size, weighing no less than seven pounds. On finding them, he was surprised to see that one of them got upon the back of the other, and both proceeded to move slowly on the ground towards a place of retreat; upon further examination he found that the one on the back of the other had received a severe contusion from his spade, and was rendered unable to get away, without the assistance of its companion! - Title page
Title page - Cotswold
- The Brine Shrimp (Artemia salina)
- The Berkshire
- The Mehari, or racing Camel
- Podolian Cow, Galicia
- Angora Goats
- Chaldean lamps of the second period
Chaldean lamps of the second period - The Common Sand-hopper (Talitrus saltator), Male, from the Side
- Callianassa stebbingi (Female), a Sand-burrowing Thalassinid from the South Coast of England
- A Woodlouse (Porcellio scaber), One of the Isopoda
- Pylocheles miersii, a Symmetrical Hermit Crab
- An Amphipod (Gammarus locusta)
- Eryon propinquus, One of the Fossil Eryonidea, from the Jurassic Rocks of Solenhofen
- The 'Fairy Shrimp' (Chirocephalus diaphanus)