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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4194, 29 August 1874, Page 3

The Stones ■of the Great Pyramid. —According to Professor Piazzi Smyth, the finest specimen of one of the “ casing stones” of the Great Pyramid known at present to exist, either in Europe or even in Egypt, was received in Edinburgh a few weeks ago from Mr. Waynman Dixon, a young engineer who has recently completed an iron bridge across the* Nile between ' Cairo and Ghizeh. The specimen possesses, Professor Smyth says, in a more or less injured condition, five of the ancientlyworked sides of the block, including the upper and lower horizontal surfaces, together with the levelled slope which led the late Mr. John Taylor to what Professor Smyth calls “ the immortal archaeological truth that the shape of the entire monument was carefully so adjusted and exactly fashioned in its own day to precisely such a figure that it does, vulgarly, demonstrate in the right way the true and practical squaring of the circle.” Whether this be the case or no, Professor Smyth declares that the length of the front foot of the stone, or that line or edge from which the angular slope, of the whole stone commences to rise, measures “within the limit of mensuration error now unavoidable the number of just twenty-five pyramid inches, neither less nor more. And twenty-five pyramid inches have been shown to be the tenmillionth part of the length of the earth’s semiaxis of rotation.” Professor Smyth Is very severe bn the Egyptologists of the British Museum for the manner in which they conduct their department. Passion Flower.—This curious flower was first discovered in the Brazils, and its wonders were soon proclaimed to Christian kingdoms as representing the passion of our Lord, whence its present appellation. The leaves were said exactly to resemble the spear that pierced our Saviour’s side, the cords that bound His hands, and the whips that scourged Him. The ten petals are the twelve apostles, Judas having betrayed and Peter deserted. The pillar in