containing armillary spheres, globes, solstitial and equatorial
armils, astrolabes, parallactic rules, and other apparatus then
in use, the graduation on the divided instruments being into
degrees and sixths. On the floor of this observatory a meridian
line was drawn. The want of correct means of measuring time and
temperature was severely felt; the clepsydra of Ctesibius
answered very imperfectly for the former, the hydrometer floating
in a cup of water for the latter; it measured variations of
temperature by variations of density. Philadelphus, who toward
the close of his life was haunted with an intolerable dread of
death, devoted much of his time to the discovery of an elixir.
For such pursuits the Museum was provided with a chemical
laboratory. In spite of the prejudices of the age, and especially
in spite of Egyptian prejudices, there was in connection with the
medical department an anatomical room for the dissection, not
only of the dead, but actually of the living, who for crimes had
been condemned.

3. For the diffusion of knowledge. In the Museum was given, by
lectures, conversation, or other appropriate methods instruction
in all the various departments of human knowledge. There flocked
to this great intellectual centre, students from all countries.
It is said that at one time not fewer than fourteen thousand were
in attendance. Subsequently even the Christian church received
from it some of the most eminent of its Fathers, as Clemens
Alexandrinus, Origen, Athanasius.

The library in the Museum was burnt during the siege of
Alexandria by Julius Caesar. To make amends for this great loss,
that collected by Eumenes, King of Pergamus, was presented by