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tist who practiced the encaustic process first spread a mixture of pure bees-wax and liquid balsam over a smooth surface, on which the colors were laid in the form of a mosaic.  The different colors were then blended together by means of the cestrum, a spoon-shaped instrument, the bowl of which had serrated edges, while the handle was rounded.  The portraits painted in distemper were executed in a composition consisting of the yolk of an egg, a little oil and the required powdered colors.   Still another process was to mix was, oil, and color powder together and put it on in a molten condition.   Some of the pictures show that all three processes were employed.  It is difficult to determine the date at which these paintings were executed, but it must have been sometime between 100 and 350 A.D.  The portraits were probably painted from life.   The collection notably exhibits the different types of countenance and the methods of dressing the hair.

The original are still for sale and would be a great addition to any antiquarian collection.

Dr. R.Zehnpfund of Leipzig presented an imitation of an Assyrian clay tablet, written by himself containing a hymn in praise of wine  in the style of the Nimrod Epic composed by Professor Haupt of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.   The tablet was made out a lump of clay which after being