Father Kircher possessed in his
museum an apparatus which he describes in _Oedipus Egyptiacus_ (t. ii.,
p. 333), and which probably came from some ancient Egyptian temple.
(Fig. 1.)
It consisted of a hollow hemispherical dome, supported by four columns,
and placed over the statue of the goddess of many breasts. To two of
these columns were adapted movable brackets, at whose extremities there
were fixed lamps. The hemisphere was hermetically closed underneath by a
metal plate. The small altar which supported the statue, and which was
filled with milk, communicated with the interior of the statue by a tube
reaching nearly to the bottom. The altar likewise communicated with
the hollow dome by a tube having a double bend. At the moment of the
sacrifice the two lamps were lighted and the brackets turned so that the
flames should come in contact with and heat the bottom of the dome. The
air contained in the latter, being dilated, issued through the tube, X
M, pressed on the milk contained in the altar, and caused it to rise
through the straight tube into the interior of the statue as high as
the breasts. A series of small conduits, into which the principal tube
divided, carried the liquid to the breasts, whence it spurted out, to
the great admiration of the spectators, who cried out at the miracle.
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