taining to the perfection of man's nature,' to be the eternal source of life and holiness to his people.

"The two unparalleled declarations quoted by me from our Holy Bible make a gulf between it and the so-called Sacred Books of the East which sever the one from the other utterly, hopelessly, and for ever,—not a mere rift which may be easily closed up, not a mere rift across which the Christian and the non-Christian may shake hands and interchange similar ideas in regard to essential truths, but a veritable gulf which cannot be bridged over by any science of religious thought; yes, a bridgeless chasm which no theory of evolution can ever span. Go forth, then, ye missionaries, in your Master's name; go forth into all the world, and, after studying all its false religions and philosophies, go forth and fearlessly proclaim to suffering humanity the plain, the unchangeable, the eternal facts of the gospel,—nay, I might almost say, the stubborn, the unyielding, the inexorable facts of the gospel. Dare to be downright with all the uncompromising courage of your own Bible, while with it your watchwords are love, joy, peace, reconciliation. Be fair, be charitable, be Christ-like, but let there be no mistake. Let it be made absolutely clear that Christianity can not, must not, be watered down to suit the palate of either Hindu, Parsee, Confucianist, Buddhist, or Mohammedan, and that whosoever wishes to pass from the false religion to the true can never hope to do so by the rickety planks of compromise, or by the help of faltering hands held out by half-hearted Christians. He must leap the gulf in faith, and the living Christ will spread his everlasting arms beneath and land him safely on the Eternal Rock.”

APPENDIX B,

NOTES ON THE COMPARATIVE IMMUNITY OF THE JEWISH NATION * FROM INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

The interesting nature of this question, upon which conflicting opinions are being publicly expressed, will plead an excuse for the insertion of the following remarks, from the pen of one specially competent to deal therewith.

The Jews certainly do enjoy immunity from the ravages of cholera, fever, and small-pox in a remarkable degree. Their blood seems to be in different condition from that of other people.

The public papers reported that there was not one case of death among the Jews from cholera in Naples during the last visitation, though many thousands of the natives died. The average life of Jews is also of greater duration than that of most other classes, this although they suffer much privation, and for the most part live in unwholesome localities, and are obliged to work at disagreeable and even injurious employment. They seem less receptive of disease caused by blood poisoning than others.

The Mosaic laws as to diet and cleanliness have been strictly observed by them during many hundred generations, and must have materially benefited their constitution.

As to diet, the laws against offering in sacrifice any maimed or injured animal, or one out of condition, have led to abstinence from all animal food which is injured or diseased. Careful inspection of animals is practised by competent persons after slaughter, and this bars the possibility of contamination and transmission of disease. through animal food. The prohibition to eat of blood has ever been most strictly obeyed. All trace of blood is cleansed out of (what has been officially passed as pure and wholesome) meat before cooking,so that this source of disease is also stopped. Hence the Jewish constitution can and does resist infection. The sobriety and temperance of their habits also strengthen their resisting power.

1

* Contributed to the Journal.

The Jews also benefit, not only by the annual thorough turning out of their dwellings at Passover and by the whitewashing; but by the ceremonial bathing, especially on the eve of the weekly Sabbath, which is also practised, and conduces to cleanliness.

It is worthy of note that at a recent annual inspection of the Whitechapel Baths and Washhouses, the Inspector, Colonel —, reported that these institutions were mainly supported by Jews and Jewesses, who resort to them in thousands annually.

Ceremonial purification of the person, the clothing, and the dwellings among Jews does check the spread of disease, and help to strengthen the constitutional immunity created in past generations by obedience to the law of God as to diet and purification.

E. A. FINN,

Member of the Royal Asiatic Society.

APPENDIX C.

RECENT EGYPTIAN DISCOVERIES.

The work of excavating the ruins of the Great Temple of Bubastis, which were discovered last year by M. Naville, has lately been resumed with very interesting and important results.

Last year two great halls had been discovered-a grand hypostyle hall, strewn with fallen monolithic columns of the 12th dynasty workmanship, and a hall without columns, but lined with elaborate bas-relief sculptures, representing a great religious ceremony, and containing tens of thousands of minutely. executed hieroglyphic inscriptions. A third hall, dating from the reign of Osorkon I. has now been found between the hypostyle hall of Rameses II. and the festival hall of Osorkon II. The roof was supported by two large columns with palm capitals, and the walls were sculptured with bas-reliefs on a large scale, representing Orsokon I. in the act of worshipping Bast and the other deities of the city. Eastward, that is to say, at the end by which the temple was entered,-two parallel trenches have revealed the site of a colonnade; and here the base of a statue of Nectanebo I., has been found: thus showing that he made additions to both extremities of the structure. The western end, now in course of excavation, appears to be of great width; but its length is as yet not ascertained. That it contains the sanctuary may be taken for granted, and the sanctuary is probably the work of Nectanebo.

Within the hall a series of remarkable discoveries have been made, showing that Bubastis was the site of an important settlement. They consist of two black granite statues, of the unmistakable Hyksos types; the lower half of a seated statue of an unknown King, also of Hyksos work; and a fine red granite architrave engraved with the cartouche of Apepi, the most famous of the Hyksos rulers. The third of these, the statue broken off at the waist, is the most remarkable of them. M. Naville, writing in April this year, 1888, sends the following description :

"Our most important discovery up to the present time was made yesterday morning. I had noticed on Friday the corner of a block of polished black granite which I thought might belong to some good monument, and I had it unearthed yesterday. It proved to be the lower half of a life-sized figure of very beautiful workmanship, with two columns of finely-cut hieroglyphs engraved down each side of the front of the throne to right and left of the legs of the statue. These inscriptions give the name and titles of an absolutely unknown King, who, judging from the work, must belong to the Hyksos period, or, at all events, to one of the obscure dynasties preceding the Hyksos invasion. I forward a copy of the inscriptions. One cartouche contains a sign which is quite new to me, and which I cannot therefore decipher. The other reads 'Ian-Ra' or 'Ra-Ian,'-a name unlike any I have ever seen. He is described, most strangely, as the worshipper of his Ka (i.e. his ghost, or double)...." M. Naville then mentions that the Pharaoh of Joseph is called "Reiyân the son of El Walíd" in Arab literature, but attaches no weight to this fact, for the utter valuelessness of Egyptian history, when written with the reed pen of the Arab Chroni cler, is only too well known. A writer in the Times adds : "In the meanwhile it must be conceded that the letter-for-letter identity of the two names is, to say the least of it, very extraordinary. We must not, however, forget that 'Ra-ian' may with equal correctness be read 'Ian-Ra,' and 'Ian-Ra' is curiously like the name of the Hyksos 'Iannas' or 'Janias,' who, in a long quotation which professes to be given verbatim from Manetho by Josephus (answer to Apion, Book I., section 14), is said to have reigned for fifty years and one month, and to have been the successor of Apōphis, and the predecessor of Assis. It would be unreasonable to doubt that Iannas is as truly an historical personage as Apepi; and it is at least possible that Iannas and Ian-Ra may be one and the same. That Joseph served a Hyksos King has long been accepted by the majority of Egyptologists as a very probable hypothesis, both chronologically and from the internal evidence of the Biblical narrative.”

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[As M. Naville is one of the members of this Institute, a paper giving the final results of the explorations may expected.]