relievo, visible in the letters when a 'leaf' is held to
the light in a horizontal direction," it is not impossible,
indeed it is quite probable, belonged to an era centuries
later than the period to which it has been assigned.

"No perfect papyri, but only fragments, have been
found at Pompeii. At Herculaneum, up to the year
1825, 1,756 had been obtained, besides many others
destroyed by the workmen, who imagined them to be
mere sticks of charcoal. Most of them were found
in a suburban villa, in a room of small dimensions,
ranged in presses round the sides of the room, in the
center of which stood a sort of rectangular bookcase.

"Sir Humphry Davy, after investigating their
chemical nature, arrived at the conclusion that they
had not been carbonized by heat, but changed by the
long action of air and moisture; and he visited Naples
in hopes of rendering the resources of chemistry
available towards deciphering these long-lost literary
treasures. His expectations, however, were not fully
crowned with success, although the partial efficacy of
his methods was established; and he relinquished the
pursuit at the end of six months, partly from disappointment,
partly from a belief that vexatious obstacles
were thrown in his way by the jealousy of the
persons to whom the task of unrolling had been intrusted.
About five hundred volumes have been well
and neatly unrolled. It is rather remarkable that, as
far as can be learned, no manuscript of any known