J. S. B.
Lost Manuscripts (Vol. iii., pp. 161. 261.)—In pursuance of Mr. Mackenzie's suggestions respecting the search for lost manuscripts, permit me to ask, if all hope must be considered as given up of decyphering any more of those discovered at Herculaneum, or of resuming the excavations there, that have been so long discontinued? Perhaps the improved chemical processes of recent days might be found more successful in facilitating the unrolling of the MSS., than the means resorted to so long ago by Sir H. Davy. Can any of your correspondents state whether anything has been done lately with the Herculaneum MSS.?
Eustace says that—
"As a very small part of Herculaneum has hitherto been explored, it is highly probable that if a general excavation were made, ten times the number of MSS. above mentioned (1800) might be discovered, and among them, perhaps, or very probably, some of the first works of antiquity, the loss of which has been so long lamented."—Classical Tour, vol. i. 4to., p.585.
J. M.
Oxford.
The Circulation of the Blood (Vol. iii., p.252.).—In a paraphrase on Ecclesiastes xii. 1-6., entitled, King Solomon's Portraiture of Old Age, by John Smith, M.D., London, 1676, 8vo., 1752, 12mo., the author attributes the discovery of the circulation of the blood to King Solomon. Mede also finds the same anticipation of science in "the pitcher broken at the fountain." Who was the first to suggest the transfusion of blood?
T. J.
Alliteration (Vol. iii., p. 165.)—Your correspondent H. A. B., in quoting the seventh stanza from Phineas Fletcher's Purple Island, observes, that the second line,
"A life that lives by love, and loves by light,"