Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/418

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

management of mines or smelting-works, and who is an expert in some one branch of his profession—would have been very difficult if not impossible to find in the United States. The inducements held out to ambitious and talented young men to enter the profession were, it must be admitted, very small. By a large portion of the community, a mining engineer was considered to be merely a bait with which unsophisticated capitalists were to be caught, and his opinions were considered to be worth so much a page, and to favor any view which his employer wished to have advocated. He was seldom consulted as to the proper method of working a mine or running a furnace; he was rarely called upon by directors of works, except for extraordinary work, such as to give the direction in which a tunnel should be driven, or to analyze a new ore or limestone. There was no recognized standard in the profession, and there were great openings for unprincipled adventurers, of which many charlatans took advantage. Up to within fifteen years, mining engineers were too often regarded by those who had dealings with them with great distrust, and well-educated persons may yet be found who have no idea what a mining engineer is, nor what he is called upon to undertake. This feeling is, however, wearing away. We now have mining engineers whose names are as well known abroad as at home; whose opinions are respected and paid for, although, I am proud to say, they cannot be bought. We have schools whose graduates are well qualified to enter the ranks of the profession when they have obtained the proper practical experience; and there are few parts of the country without mining engineers of established reputation, unless, in consequence of the peculiar condition of the locality, there is no need of their services."

Studies of a Mummy.—Mr. Frank Buckland, having received from a friend who had been visiting Egypt a mummy-head, set about examining the curiosity, with what results he informs us through the columns of Land and Water. From the general contour of the head he infers that it is that of a woman. The actual features cannot be seen, being covered with a sort of mask of linen cloth. Underneath this can be discerned the outlines of the face; the pupils of the eyes are marked with a black spot. The mummy wears a wig! Mr. Buckland found the whole head covered with what at first appeared to be rolls of hair, but which turned out to be an imitation of hair. The rows forming this wig are arrayed in three tiers, overlapping each other. The lowest tier begins from the top of the ear, and runs almost straight across the forehead; it is not unlike the fashion of hair worn by some ladies of the present day. "To try the effect," adds Mr. Buckland, "I put a modern, smartly-trimmed hat on the head of this Egyptian lady. I see that the fringe of hair is the same as the fringe of the present time. On the whole, there is a little more chic about it." Having washed one side of the mummy's face with warm water and a sponge, and again put on a modern hat, he was more convinced than ever that the head is that of a lady—"very good-natured and smiling."

Effects of English Rule in India.—Mr. C. Macnamara, surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, London, was for twenty years engaged in practice in India, and during that time had every opportunity of learning the feelings and opinions of the natives regarding the present state of things in that country. According to Mr. Macnamara, the deep and growing conviction of many of them is that, although England has in India preserved many millions of human beings from the calamities of anarchy and chronic warfare, nevertheless native society is becoming rapidly disorganized. A vast number of the old families have disappeared; the mothers and wives of the rising generation see their educated sons and husbands given over to vices formerly never heard of, utterly heedless of family or any other ties, and they contrast all this with times past, when there was not so much law, education, or taxation, but when the greatest stain that could be cast on a man's name was that of being an undutiful son. In Mr. Macnamara's opinion all this results from "purely secular education." The rising generation of educated Hindoos break away from the native religion, entirely ignore the existence of a God, and live absolutely for self. "The outcome of a