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ative principle of the yeast, whatever it may be, must possess a corresponding or complementary configuration, and so be able to come into very close relation to the molecule of the sugar it ferments, much as a key can only unfasten a lock for which it is constructed and to whose parts its own shape corresponds. The configuration of the two fitting as it were into each other, the disruption of the sugar molecule by the action or possibly vibration of the fermentative principle becomes conceivable.

Fischer does not base this hypothesis upon supposition merely, but has tested it by studying the action of some of the soluble enzymes upon the bodies they attack. His results with invertase are very interesting. According to Van 't Hoff's stereochemical theory, there are possibly to be found two methylglucosides, a and 8, which differ only in their configuration. Fischer synthesised both these bodies and heated a quantity of each with 20 times its volume of invertase solution to 30-33° C. At the end of some time about half of the a body was hydrolysed, yielding glucose as one of its products. The 8 body underwent no change. Yet the two methyl-glucosides have the same composition, are formed from the same alcohol (methyl alcohol) and from the same sugar (glucose), and differ only in the configuration of a single carbon atom rendered asymmetric by the introduction of the methyl group into the sugar.

The great advances made in the study of fermentations under the action of soluble enyzmes during late years, has drawn the attention of many to the possibility of the secretion of an alcoholproducing enyzme by the yeast cells. It is evident that the introduction of the idea of an enyzme need not involve a new view as to what fermentation itself is. It is only necessary to substitute the secreted enzyme for the protoplasm of the cell, as the active agent in the process.

The idea was advanced some time ago by Berthelot, who compared both lactic and alcoholic fermentations to the conversion of starch into sugar. It has also been suggested by Moritz Traube and by Hoppe-Seyler.

The enyzme has, according to Buchner, actually been prepared from very active yeast by grinding the cells and squeezing the fluid contents from the resulting mass under the very heavy pressure of 500 atmospheres to the square inch.

As a review of Buchner's work appeared in this journal comparatively recently, it is not necessary to recount his experiments in detail.

The discovery, should it be confirmed, deals a very heavy blow to the vibration theories of fermentation due to Liebig and Naegeli. Their views are only tenable on the theory that most, if not all, of the action takes place in the liquid outside the cells. If Buchner is correct, and the work is done by means of an enzyme, it must necessarily be intra-cellular, for enzymes, so far as they have at present been investigated, show no tendency to diffuse through such a membrane as the cell wall. It also militates against Pasteur's theory of intramolecular respiration, which demands the idea of the decomposition being brought about by chemical action between the protoplasm and the body from which it, according to the theory, obtains its oxygen. J. REYNOLDS GREEN.

THE METALS USED BY THE GREAT NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY.

AT the beginning of this century little was known of the great nations of antiquity, except through the classic poets and historians, and the sacred writings of the Hebrew people. Since then our knowledge has been enormously increased by the labours of scholars and explorers; the ruins of ancient cities have been exhumed, and the contemporary literature of Egypt and Assyria, inscribed on papyri or tablets of clay, and painted or carved on the walls of temples, palaces and tombs, has been deciphered. What is in some respects still more important is, that objects found in these ruins have thrown great light upon the daily life of the people, and their ornamental and useful arts. One of the departments of this inquiry concerns the metals used by the different nations, and at the different epochs of their history; and it is to this that my attention will be confined this evening. The difficulty I experience is the vast amount of material; and I cannot attempt anything more than a general view of the subject, and some of the most salient points.

The area over which the inquiry extends is that of the lands 1 A Friday evening ciscourse delivered at the Royal Institution, on February 11, by Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S.

bordering on the eastern half of the Mediterranean, and stretching eastwards to the Persian Gulf. The time, so far as Egypt is concerned, includes the whole period from the first Pharaoh, Menes, to the conquest of the country by Alexander the Great ; ranging from about B.C. 4400 to B.C. 332. The chronology employed throughout is that of Dr. Wallis Budge, of the British Museum, who has adopted in the main that of Brugsch Bey. This period of 4000 years appears to me reasonable, and errs, if anything, on the side of moderation. Our knowledge of the other nations does not extend to anything like so remote a time.

EGYPT.

If we take as our starting-point Seneferu's triumphal tablet in Wady Maghara, in the Sinaitic peninsula, we see the king flourishing his battle-axe over the head of his enemy. This symbolises the conquest of the copper and turquoise mines of that region, and implies, of course, their previous existence as a source of wealth. In the hieroglyphic inscription above his head there is not only the king's name spelt phonetically, but in the royal titles are seen two ideographs which bear upon our subject. One is the necklace or ornamental collar which is the well-known symbol for gold; and the other an axe, the head of which resembles rather that of a copper than of a stone weapon. These titles have no reference to the metals themselves, but mean "Golden Horus" and "Beneficent Divinity." Before such symbols could be used to express abstract ideas, they must have been well known in their concrete form. The date assigned to Seneferu is B.C. 3750; but the discoveries of the past year have put in our possession the actual metals themselves, of a much greater antiquity. M. de Morgan, late Director General of Antiquities in Egypt, has explored an enormous royal tomb at Nagada, the centre chamber of which contained the mummy of the Pharaoh, with the cartouche of King Menes, the reputed first King of Egypt. If it be really his tomb, the probable date will be B.C. 4400. What is interesting to us is that in two of the chambers, among a multitude of articles made of ivory, quartz, porphyry, wood, alabaster, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, obsidian, earthenware, cornelian, glass and cloth, there were found some small pieces of metal, viz. two or three morsels of gold, and a long bead of that metal of a somewhat crescent form, together with some articles of copper-a kind of button, a bead, and some fine wire. The button was analysed by M. Berthelot, the well-known French chemist and politician, to whom we are indebted for the examination of a very large number of ancient metallic objects; he states that it is nearly pure copper, without arsenic or any other metal in notable proportion.

These are the oldest metallic objects in the world to which we can assign a probable date. But Prof. Flinders Petrie had discovered, three years ago, also at Nagada, a great number of objects of the same character, and among them a few small

copper implements. Some filings from a dagger, a celt, and a little harpoon were analysed by me, and found to consist of practically pure copper, without any trace of tin. The remains of these filings are in the little bottles on the table. The age of these tools must be comparable with that of the royal tomb, and may possibly be even older.

Of about the same period, and perhaps even earlier, are a number of tombs at and near Abydos, which have been explored by M. Amélineau, bearing the names of kings unknown to history, accompanied by hieroglyphics of archaic form. In these have been found larger quantities of copper utensils, viz. pots, hatchets, needles, chisels, &c., which M. Berthelot also finds to be nearly pure metal, but some contain a little arsenic. It would appear, therefore, that the Egyptians, at the very be ginning of the historic period were acquainted with the use of gold and copper. Let us follow the history of these two metals, beginning with gold, which, as it is generally found native, was probably the first known to man.

According to a letter just received by me from M. Berthelot, all or nearly all the ancient gold that he has examined contains more or less silver. This pale coloured gold is sometimes termed electrum, and was found in great quantity in Asia Minor, where the Pactolus and other streams "rolled down their golden sands." Gold is frequently represented in the Egyptian sculptures and pictures; for instance, in the very interesting scenes of social life at Beni Hassan, circa B.C. 2400, illustrations of which I now throw upon the screen, we see the goldsmiths making jewellery, weighing out the metal, melting it in their little furnaces with the aid of blowpipe and pincers, washing it, and working it into the proper forms. In the picture of a bazaar at Thebes we

find a lady bargaining for a necklet; and in another picture we see the weighing of thick rings of gold and of silver, which were used as articles of exchange. I wish I could show you the exquisite gold jewellery, inlaid with gems, found in the tombs of four princesses buried at Dahshur, about B.C. 2350, and which is now exhibited in the museum of Gizeh ; but I can throw upon the screen the photograph of the beautiful enamelled gold necklace of Queen Ahhotpu, B.C. 1700. The great kings Seti I. and Rameses II., B.C. 1300, worked extensive gold mines in Nubia, which yielded gold free from silver.'

To return to the history of copper. In the inscriptions we cannot distinguish between copper and its various alloys, for they are all expressed by the general term chemt, and the symbol of the battle-axe blade. But if we can get the substance itself and analyse it, we know what we are dealing with. Many specimens of copper implements dating from the fourth to the sixth dynasty, say from B.C. 3750 to 3100, have been examined. They consist of almost pure copper. One of the earliest, analysed by me, was a piece of a vessel from El Kab, which contained 98 per cent. of copper, the remaining 2 per cent. being made up of bismuth, arsenic, lead, iron, sulphur, and oxygen, evidently the impurities in the original ore.

It was evidently very important for the Egyptians to harden the copper as much as possible; and this might be effected in several ways: (1) by hammering, (2) by the admixture of arsenic, (3) by the admixture of tin, (4) by the admixture of zinc, (5) by the presence of a certain amount of oxygen in the form of cuprous oxide. As to arsenic, some of the oldest copper implements contain a notable quantity. Dr. Percy found 2'29 per cent. in a knife which was dug up some distance below a statue of Rameses II.; and I found 3'9 per cent. in a hatchet from Kahun, dating back to B.C. 2300. It is said, however, that the addition of 0'5 per cent. of arsenic is sufficient to produce a hardening effect; and many specimens of ancient copper implements contain this amount, though the proportion of arsenic in copper ores themselves rarely exceeds o'i per cent. As to the mixture of tin. It is well known that bronze, the alloy of copper and tin, is stronger than pure copper. The extent of this depends upon the proportion of the two metals, and probably on other circumstances. The oldest supposed occurrence of an admixture of tin is in a bronze rod found by Flinders Petrie in a mastaba at Medum, probably of the fourth dynasty, which I found to contain 9.1 per cent. of tin. It seemed so improbable that tin should be employed at so remote a period, and that in sufficient quantity to make what we call gun-metal, that I was suspicious of its genuineness, notwithstanding the very circumstantial account of its discovery; but M. Berthelot has since found in a ring from a tomb at Dahshur, believed to be not much later than the third dynasty, 8.2 per cent. of tin; and in a vase of the sixth dynasty, 5'68 per cent. of tin. These seem to restore the credit of Dr. Petrie's specimen. At a later period weak bronzes become common. Thus, at Kahun tools found in a carpenter's basket by Prof. Petrie contained varying amounts of tin from 0.5 to 100 per cent. ; 6 or 7 per cent. of tin was subsequently common. Bronze implements abound in Egypt. I am able not only to throw upon the screen representations of arrow- and spear-heads and battle-axes, but, through the kindness of Sir John Evans, to show a beautiful large spear-head with an inscription of King Kames (B.C. 1750) down the blade. I am also indebted to Prof. Flinders Petrie and Dr. Walker for this collection of implements of the twelfth dynasty from Illahun, including a fine mirror with ivory handle, necklets, and a bronze casting for a knife which was never finished; also many objects of the eighteenth dynasty, or thereabouts, such as a sword, dagger and axe, together with mirrors, bracelets, earrings and pendants, and a steelyard. My own collection contains specimens of what are believed to be razors of different types, and small statuettes.

As to the admixture of zinc. There does not seem to be any specimen of brass, properly so called, found in Egypt within the period of our inquiry; but various attempts are known to have been made to imitate gold, of which aurochalcum is an instance, and that may have been yellow brass.

As to oxygen. It is generally supposed to exist in copper in the form of the red cuprous oxide; and most of the copper, and many of the bronze, implements have a covering of this sub

1 Since the lecture was delivered the Egypt Exploration Fund has issued a memoir, under the title of "Deshasheh," from which it appears that in the very ancient tombs at that place there were found a few gold beads and copper objects, and a picture of an artificer weighing a copper bowl.

stance.

This is caused by the gradual formation of an oxychloride of copper through the action of alkaline chlorides in the soil, aided by the air and moisture. Berthelot has worked out the chemistry of this substance very fully, and shows how when once formed it gradually works its way into the solid metal, transforming it into the suboxide, and frequently disintegrating it. Some good specimens of little bronze images suffering this disintegration are exhibited by Mr. Joseph Offord. Two at least of the copper adzes on the table consist to the extent of 30 or more per cent. of oxide of copper; they are exceedingly hard, and it becomes a question whether the formation of the oxide is due to the slow chemical change, or whether it was purposely produced in the manufacture in order to harden them. The effect of different proportions of oxygen on the tenacity of copper is known to be very various, and certainly deserves further investigation.

It is difficult, or rather impossible, to express in definite figures the advantage gained by the ancient Egyptian metallurgists through this alloying of the copper. Arsenic, tin, or zinc may and do affect the hardness or the tenacity, or the elasticity, in different ways, and also according to the proportion of the metal united with the copper. Thus there are several very different kinds of alloys of copper and tin, though they are all included under the name of bronze; moreover, a piece of copper which has been exposed to a considerable stress is permanently altered in its properties. Again, in any table of numerical values it should be taken into account whether the copper with which the alloys are compared had been made as pure as possible, or contained a normal amount of oxygen.1 We must rest contented with the knowledge that copper can be rendered stronger and more serviceable by these means, and that the ancient artificers were acquainted with the fact.

After the extensive use of copper and bronze in ancient Egypt, other metals were gradually employed. Silver, as distinct from electrum, seems to have been little used, except for ornamental purposes.2 The diadem of one of the kings named Antef (B.C. about 2700), and that of the Princess Noubhotep (B. C. 2400), were made of silver and gold. Silver also occurs among the beautiful jewellery of the princesses buried at Dahshur, and that of Queen Ahhotpu. But when the intercourse between Egypt and the neighbouring nations of Asia was better established, silver became much more common; thus we find it frequently mentioned in the Great Harris papyrus (B.C. 1200), in which the King Rameses III. describes his magnificent presents to the temples and priesthood of Egypt. The metal lead also occurs frequently in the same lists, and was used, as elsewhere, for mixing with copper and tin in the formation of the easily fusible bronze used for statuary.

Tin has a more interesting history. We have found it used in combination with copper as far back as perhaps B. C. 3400, and enormous quantities of it must have been afterwards employed. It is still a question whether in the first instance some stanniferous copper ore was used, or whether the Egyptians found that the addition of a certain black mineral was advantageous for hardening their copper, or whether from early days they reduced the metal from its ore and added it to the copper in the furnace. That, at any rate, they were afterwards acquainted with the metal itself, is clear from the discovery by Flinders Petrie of a small ring at Gurob (B. C. 1450), which, on examination, I found to be of tin, imperfectly reduced from its Berthelot has also analysed what was essentially a tin ring, though alloyed with copper, dating about a century later; and Prof. Church describes a scarab of the same metal, which was found on the breast of a mummy of about the seventh century B.C. This metal also appears more than once among the rich gifts catalogued on the papyrus of Rameses III., if "tehi" is to be so translated.

ore.

Although kohl, the sulphide of antimony, was used for blackening the eyebrows from a very early period, I am not aware of any metallic antimony in Egypt of older date than some beads found by Prof. Petrie at Illahun in a tomb of about 800 B. C. They proved to be fairly pure metal. It is curious that the art 1 For tabulated results of experiments bearing on these points, see Testing of Materials of Construction," by Prof. Cawthorne Unwin; and the second Report to the Alloys Research Committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, by Prof. Roberts-Austen, with the discussion thereon.-Proc. Inst. Mech. En., April 1893.

"The

2 In the translation of "The Book of the Dead," by Dr. Wallis Budge, vol. iii., published since the lecture, it appears that in one of the oldest chapters, said to have been found by Herutataf, about B.C. 3600, there is a formulary to be said over a scarab of greenstone encircled with a band of refined copper, and having a ring of silver.

of preparing this metal was afterwards lost, and only rediscovered in the fifteenth century of our era.

The period of the first use of iron in Egypt is at present a matter of great controversy. Some contend for its use even in the mythological period, while others would bring it as late as 800 or 600 B.C. There exist the exidised remains of some wedges of iron intended to keep erect the obelisks of Rameses II. at Tanis, which is near the border of Palestine; but there is no positive proof that they were placed there during his reign, I have little doubt, however, that the Black Baa, mentioned several times in the Harris papyrus, B. C. 1200, is the same as the μexas σidnpos of Hesiod; i.e. iron. In the long account which King Piankhi gives of his invasion of Egypt from the Upper Nile, he mentions iron more than once among the presents made to him by the minor chieftains of the time in token of their submission, indicating that at this period, B. C. 700, it was still not very common.

ASSYRIA.

In the country lying between or near the Euphrates and the Tigris we have some antiquities dating, perhaps, as far back as any in Egypt. We have also a great amount of Accadian and Assyrian historical and other literature on tablets and cylinders of clay, and on the walls of the great palaces and temples. As in the case of Egypt, the discoveries of the remotest age are those which have been most recently published. Dr. Peters has just given us the records of the explorations of the American Oriental Society at Nippur, and describes the successive layers of the great temple of Bel. These appear to indicate the absence of metal in very remote periods. The oldest specimens are those recently found by M. de Sarzec at Tello (Lagash) in Southern Chaldæa. They consist of some votive statuettes, and a colossal spear, an adze and curved hatchet, all of copper without tin, according to M. Berthelot's analysis. A small vase of antimony, and a large one of silver have also been found. The period of these is supposed to be some considerable time anterior to B.C. 250C. A Tel el Sifr, in the same neighbourhood, Mr. Loftus discovered a large copper factory, in which were cauldrons, vases, hammers, hatchets, links of chain, ingots, and a great weight of copper dross, together with a piece of lead. The date of these is believed to be about B.C. 1500. At Nippur the American explorers found at a higher level, in the temple of Bel, what they term a jeweller's shop, which consisted of a box full of jewellery, mainly precious stones, but also containing some gold and copper nails; these apparently date from about B.C. 1300. In Babylonian graves and other places of about the same period there have been found objects made of copper and iron and silver wire; but the use of metals seems much more restricted in these great alluvial plains than in contemporary Egypt. Iron, however, was perhaps an exception. According to Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez, excavations at Warka seem to prove that the Chaldæans made use of iron sooner than the Egyptians; in any case, it was manufactured and employed in far greater quantities in Mesopotamia than in the Nile Valley; in fact, at Khorsabad M. Place found hooks and grappling irons, fastened by heavy rings to chain cables, picks, mattocks, hammers, ploughshares, &c., in all about 157 tons weight. Mr. Layard also found at Nimroud a large quantity of scale armour of iron in a very decomposed state, but exactly resembling what is represented in the sculptures of warriors. Of this he collected two or three basketfuls.

Coming down to the period of the great Babylonian Empire, we find very large treasures of the precious metals changing hands during their sanguinary wars. Thus, on the black obelisk of Shalmaneser II. in the British Museum, we have depicted the embassies from different nations bringing their tribute to the feet of the king; the second of these has an inscription reading: "The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri; silver, gold, bowls of gold, vessels of gold, goblets of gold, pitchers of gold, lead, sceptres for the king's hand, and staves; I received.' The gates of his palace at Balawat, now at the British Museum, were of stout timber strengthened with bands of bronze, and the Trustees kindly gave me a small piece of the metal for analysis; it yielded about 11 per cent. of tin. The grandson of this king, Rimmon Narari III., probably B.C. 797, took Damascus, and the spoil, according to the inscriptions, comprised 2300 talents of silver, 20 of gold, 3000 of copper, 5000 of iron, together with large quantities of ivory, &c.

Lenormant gives two verses of a magical hymn to the god Fire, which exist both in Accadian and Assyrian; they run-"Copper, tin, their mixer thou art; gold, silver, their purifier thou art.

PALESTINE.

Between the great territories o. Egypt and Assyria lies a narrow strip of country, small in extent, but very important in the history of civilisation, commerce and religion. During the period of which we are speaking it was occupied by a succession of different nations. It formed part of the possession of the great Hittite people. We cannot read their inscriptions, and we know little of their history. We have, however, bronze and silver seals that are supposed to belong to them, and curious bronze figures. They seem to have had abundance of silver, probably from the mines of Bulgardagh in Lycaonia. We read of Abraham purchasing a piece of land from Ephron the Hittite for which he weighed out "four hundred shekels of silver current money with the merchant." He was, in fact, rich in silver and gold, and among the presents given to Rebekah were jewels of silver and jewels of gold.

The first notice of metals in Palestine to which we can give an approximate date is in connection with the invasion of that land, and other countries further to the eastward, by the great Egyptian King Thothmes III. He led his army through the plain of Esdraelon, and gained a victory at Megiddo, and amongst the spoil were chariots inlaid with gold, chariots and dishes of silver, copper, lead, and what was apparently iron ore. This took place about B.C. 1600. The original of the long treaty of peace and amity between Katesir, King of the Hittites, and Rameses II. is said to have been engraved on tablets of silver.

When the Children of Israel left Egypt they were, of course, acquainted with the metals used in that country. They borrowed the jewels of silver and gold of their oppressors: and of these the golden calf was afterwards made. We read, too, of the "brazen serpent,"1 and of elaborate directions for the use of silver, gold, and brass in the construction of the Tabernacle. Lead is mentioned once, but iron seems to have been unknown to them, the word never occurring in the Book of Exodus; and though it is occasionally mentioned in the later Books of Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua, it is always with reference, not to the Israelites, but to the nations they encountered. Thus we read of the Midianites having gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and lead, which were to be purified by passing through the fire; of the King of Bashan, a remnant of the Rephaim, who had the rare luxury of an iron bedstead, which was kept afterwards as a curiosity at Rabbah; and of the spoil of the Amorite city of Jericho, comprising gold, silver, copper and iron. Later on the Canaanites were formidable with their "nine hundred chariots of iron"; and later still the Philistines, whose champion, Goliath of Gath, was clad in armour of bronze, and bore a spear with a heavy head of iron. Among the materials collected by David in rich abundance for the building of the Temple were gold, silver, bronze and iron; but the best artificers in metals were furnished by Hiram of Tyre, at the request of Solomon. During the reign of the latter there was an immense accumula. tion of these precious metals in Jerusalem. The comparative value of the different materials is indicated by the words of the prophet in describing the Zion of the future, for brass ! will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron" (Isaiah lx. 17). Another prophet (Jeremiah vi. 29, 30) uses the simile of the refining of silver by the process of cupellation.

The

The great mound of Tel el Hesy affords a very perfect example of the débris of town upon town during many centuries; and of the light that these mounds throw upon the progress of civilisation. When Joshua, after the decisive victory of Bethhoron, led his troops to the plain in the south-west corner of Palestine, he besieged and took Lachish, a city of the Amorites. It then became an important stronghold of the Israelites : its vicissitudes are frequently mentioned at various dates of the sacred history, as well as on the Tel el Amarna tablets. mound has lately been explored by Messrs. Petrie and Bliss: and in the remains of the Amorite city (perhaps B.C. 1500) there are large rough weapons of war, made of copper without admixture of tin; above this, dating perhaps from 1250 to 800, appear bronze tools, with an occasional piece of silver or lead, but the bronze gradually becomes scarcer, its place being taken by iron, till at the top of the mound there is little else than that metal. The Palestine Exploration Fund has kindly lent me specimens of these finds for exhibition. About B. C. 700,

1 The word "brass" at the time of the translation of our Bible was used

indiscriminately for copper or any of its alloys. In the Old Testament it never refers to the alloy of zinc, to which the term is now confired.

Lachish was the headquarters of Sennacherib, during his invasion of Palestine. From it he sent his messengers to Hezekiah, and at the same town he received the peace offering of the Jewish king, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold, to raise which he had to despoil his palace and the Temple. In Sennacherib's own version of the transaction, the silver is given as 800 talents, and the gold 30. Lachish was finally deserted about 400 B C.

GREECE.

We know little of the very early history of Greece, for the most ancient monuments bear no inscriptions, and literature did not commence till the time of the Homeric poems. In these, and in Hesiod, there are many graphic descriptions of the habits and arts of the heroic period, including the use of metals; and many of the towns described in them have recently been explored with great success, and have yielded up the very materials about which they sang.

Probably the earliest find has been in the volcanic island of Santorin, where, under beds of pozzolana, which are sup posed to date about 2000 B. C., have been found two little rings of beaten gold and a saw of pure copper. In the Ashmolean Museum there are a very ancient silver ball, and beads of the same metal rolled from the flat; also a spear-head of copper. These were obtained from Amorgos. In Antiparos there have also been found very ancient objects of silver mixed with copper.

Passing to the mainland, the towns of the Peloponnesus and the mound of Hissarlik, the supposed Troy, have been explored by Dr. Schliemann, Dr. Tsountas, and Dr. Dorpfeld; and they reveal what is termed the Mycenaean period, which figures so largely in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. In these the precious metals, gold and silver, are constantly mentioned, together with xaxos, generally translated brass. Thus, in the description of Achilles' shield, we are introduced to Hephaistos at his great forge on Etna, heating the bars of silver, or brass, or tin, or gold, and then hammering them on the anvil, so forming the designs which represent so beautifully the various scenes of peace and war. After having fashioned the shield, he is represented as forging for the warrior a cuirass of copper, greaves of tin, and a helmet with a golden crest.

Homer frequently mentions iron, but generally gives it the epithet "worked with toil," and treats it as a rare and costly metal. Thus a huge iron discus was given as a valuable prize to the hero who could throw it the farthest in the athletic games at the funeral of Patroclus.

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Mr. W. E. Gladstone, who has long turned the great powers of his mind from time to time to Homeric studies, wrote me last summer : "The poems of Homer showed me, I think, forty years ago that they represented in the main a copper age." The reasons he assigns in his letter, as well as in his published works, are fairly conclusive, and the recent explorations, and the analyses of Dr. Percy, Prof. Roberts-Austen, and others, have shown that in the early period of the Mycenaean age copper without tin was employed for numberless purposes; but as time advanced, bronze came into use. At Hissarlik, in the lowest and second city have been found a gilded knife-blade, needles and pins, of practically pure copper; while in the third and sixth cities occur battle axes of copper containing 3 to 8 per cent. of tin. In the very old town of Tiryns, the palace apparently had its walls covered with sheets of copper; much lead was also found there. At Mycenai, the Achaian capital, the metals in use were gold, silver, copper, bronze and lead; copper jugs and cauldrons are common, and great leaden jars for storing grain; also elegant bronze tools and cutlery; mirrors, razors and swords. In the tombs the bodies are laden with jewels, largely ornaments of gold, with a much smaller amount of silver.

Some of these objects illustrate the poems of the time; thus, in the Odyssey we find Nestor making a vow to Athena: "So the heifer came from the field; . . . the smith came holding in his hands his tools, the means of his craft, anvil and hammer, and well-made pincers, wherewith he wrought the gold. Athenæ, too, came to receive the sacrifice. And the old knight Nestor gave gold, and the other fashioned it skilfully, and gilded therewith the horns of the heifer, that the goddess might be glad at the sight of her fair offering." Now at Mycenai there was found the model of an ox-head in silver, with its horns gilded, and between them a rosette of gold, not directly attached to the silver, but to a thin copper plate. In Vaphio, a town near Sparta, of a somewhat later period, tombs were

found containing many beautiful objects in silver, gold and bronze. Especially noteworthy are two golden cups embossed with figures of bulls and men; in the one case it is a spirited hunt in the woods, in the other a peaceful scene on the meadows. Iron, in Mycenai, appears only as a precious metal of which finger-rings are formed.

In the remains of a Greek colony in Cyprus, belonging to the end of the Mycenaean period, which is now being explored by the British Museum, iron plays a much more important part. At Athens also large iron swords, which belonged to the ninth or tenth century B. C., have been found in an old cemetery.

After this came the intellectual period of Grecian history. Aristotle must be mentioned in any account of the science of the day; and he it is who gives us the first description of the metal mercury, and also how to produce the alloy which we call brass, by heating together copper and calamine, the carbonate of zinc. Metallic zinc, however, was not known for many centuries afterwards.

CONCLUSION.

In tracing back the history of these great nations we have found evidence of a time when metals were little, if at all, employed the potter's art was well known, and early man became wonderfully proficient in working hard stone, and especially flint. The earliest indications we have of metals are of gold and copper, both being scarce, and no doubt costly. Gold was probably the earliest to attract the attention of mankind, because it occurs native, of bright yellow colour, and is easily worked. Copper, however, dates to a similar period, so far as the remains which have come down to us are concerned. Probably the deep blue carbonate, such as occurs in Armenia, was first worked. When silver was first used is not very evident, but it is certain that it was far more common in the northern portion of the area we have been considering, than in the southern. The metallurgy of copper was doubtless a matter of much study and experiment, so as to produce the hardest metal. This seems to have led to the discovery of tin, but at what precise period we know not; nor do we know whether it was brought from Etruria, or found in some nearer region. Mines of tin were certainly worked at Cento Camarelle, as Egyptian scarabs have been found in the old workings,1 and near Campiglia and in Elba, as well as in the Iberian peninsula. This search for the metals, and the necessity of carrying the ore or rough metal to the places where it was wrought, or of the finished material to distant customers, must have greatly promoted commerce. This took place both by land and sea, in caravans and ships. In this way tools and other objects were disseminated through the more distant parts of Europe and Asia the similarity of type over large areas shows a common origin, and hence we can even roughly form an opinion as to whether they were introduced in earlier or later times. Thus,

in Switzerland and Scandinavia we meet with copper implements as well as bronze, and ancient as well as modern forms; while in Britain we find no evidence of copper tools, though bronze objects are abundant.

The Phoenicians, arriving on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean from the direction of the Persian Gulf, formed an important nation for about 1000 years, from B.C. 1400 to B.C. 400. They were great artificers, but not having much originality they adopted the patterns and designs of Egypt or Assyria. They were also pre-eminently traders, and founded cities and emporia of commerce, so that their metal work was spread over all the Mediterranean. It is to be found in Cyprus, mixed with the workmanship of the Grecian Mycenaean age. Their ornamental jewellery was eagerly sought in Etruria, Greece and Calabria; for the beauty of it I may refer you to the Etruscan cup of gold in the South Kensington Museum, and the wonderful work in gold in one of the Greek rooms in the British Museum.

Commerce implies a large extension of a medium of exchange. The whole question of money is far too wide a subject for us to deal with now; suffice it to say that Herodotus attributes to the Lydians the introduction of the use of coins. The earliest were of electrum, issued in the form of oval bullets, officially stamped on one side. They date back, perhaps, to B.C. 700; but according to other authorities, silver money was coined at Egina more than a century before that time.

The great period which has been under our consideration terminated in each conntry with an age of disorder and deterior1 See "Early Man in Britain," by Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins.

ation. The rise of the Roman Empire introduced a new era: it was in one sense an iron age-ferrum being synonymous with the sword. We now live in another kind of iron age, but in better and brighter times than those of Hesiod, and we may hope that our great engineering works, our iron roads and iron steam-ships may lead not to the enslaving but the brotherhood of nations.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

MISS JANE CRUIKSHANK has given 15,000l. to Aberdeen University, to provide a botanic garden at Aberdeen in memory of the late Dr. Alexander Cruikshank.

THE University of Edinburgh has conferred the honorary

degree of LL.D. upon Mr. Horace T. Brown, F.R.S., Prof. D. G. Ritchie, and Prof. J. Victor Carus, assistant professor of zoology at Leipzig.

IN order to make accessible under the most favourable conditions to university students, to teachers, and to investigators, the facilities and environment of the Illinois Biological Station, reinforced by the equipment of the biological departments of the University of Illinois, the university has decided to open, on June 15, a summer school of field and laboratory biology at this station on the Illinois River, at Havana. Opportunity is thus given for personal studies, in field and laboratory, of the plants and animals of a peculiarly rich and interesting situation, and of the methods of modern biological station work.

THE following are items concerning the extension of provision for scientific training in the United States :-Syracuse University will shortly begin the erection of a 45,000-dollar science building. -Adelbert College at Cleveland, Ohio, has a biological building under way, which will cost about the same amount.-Richmond College, Virginia, has received 5000 dollars towards a science building.-The University of Chicago has received a gift of about 150,000 dollars from an anonymous donor. Miss Gould has given a further sum of 10,000 dollars towards the endowment of the engineering school of New York University. Mr. Chester W. Kingsley has given 25,000 dollars to Colby University.

IT was briefly noted last week that the University of Paris had taken up a loan amounting in all to 1,700,000 francs. Referring to this action, the Paris correspondent of the Lancet remarks:-The law which has reconstituted the universities has given to them a civil personality; they have their own budget and their own sources of income, which are definite and assured, and they are able to contract loans on the security of these sources of income. The 1,700,000 francs which the university has borrowed will be devoted to carrying out two schemes. The greater part of this sum will be devoted to the construction of buildings for the accommodation of first-year students in medicine. The other portion of the loan will be devoted to the keeping-up of a laboratory of natural history at Fontainebleau.

DURING his term of office, Sir A. Mackenzie, the LieutenantGovernor of Bengal, has done much to advance the cause of scientific and technical education in his province, and a speech he delivered recently at the Indian Association for the cultivation of science is a further expression of his sympathies with the development of education on scientific lines. In the course of his address he said:-"I would have the student of the future cease to be brought up on badly assimilated words and on high-faluting rhetoric, and I would have him taught to observe and think, and educate himself in the way Herbert Spencer indicates as the great desideratum in all education. The oriental mind is only too prone to rest on authority and accept inaccuracies. Pupils trained on books and books alone are mere passive recipients of other people's ideas. They ledge. The study of science cultivates the judgment as the never learn the arts of observing facts and applying knowstudy of language never can. Science constantly appeals to and develops the individual reason. It is no doubt the case that even in England people are only now waking up to the knowledge of a wise pedagogy, but they are waking up at last. The idea of development of faculty is being substituted for that of mere acquisition of knowledge. The mere cultivation of words and application of formulæ is being discredited. The ideal education is being recognised as one which multiplies the power of the eye to see, of the ears to hear, of the hand to execute; which puts a mind well stored with knowledge into active contact with faculties capable of translating it into action." In India at present science holds but a very secondary place in the curriculum of high education, and if the country is ever to advance there must be an educational revolution which will release the youth of India from the bonds of a purely literary education. The University of Calcutta has as yet done little for science culture, but the Bengal Government has within the last few years done good work for the advancement of technical education. The reconstruction of the Medical College begun by Sir Charles Elliott has been pushed on; and the Sibpur Engineering College has been expanded so as to make it a school where civil engineering, mining engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering can be and are being thoroughly taught to over 300 students. The Presidency College, having as principal Prof. A. Pedler and upon its staff Profs. J. C. Bose and Roy, has also admirable work to show. Sir A. Mackenzie concluded by saying: "As the Bengali has conquered the field of medicine, so he may conquer the field of engineering and mechanical industry, if those engaged in the instruction of the young will only shake themselves free from the trammels of a literary curriculum which, coupled with the absence of moral and religious training and the failure to impart a sound knowledge of their own country, its material wants and capabilities, is in my judgment fast ruining the youth of the country and stunting their development."

SCIENTIFIC SERIAL.

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, March.-The relations of analysis and mathematical physics is the translation, by C. J. Keyser, of the interesting address delivered before the International Congress of Mathematicians, at Zürich, on August 9, 1897. The writer, Prof. H. Poincaré, answers some questions which he says are often asked, as "What is the utility of mathematics, and whether its nicely constructed theories, drawn entirely from the mind, are not artificial products of our caprice? "The end of mathematical physics is not merely to facilitate the numerical calculation of certain constants, or the integration of certain differential equations. It is more; it is, above all, to disclose to the physicist the concealed harmonies of things by furnishing him with a new point of view."-The roots of polynomials which satisfy certain linear differential equations of the second order, is a short note by Prof. M. Bôcher, follow. ing up work by Stieltjes in vol. vi. of the Acta Mathematica.

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THE Technical Education Board of the London County Council will proceed shortly to award not less than five Senior County Scholarships. These scholarships are of the value of 50%. a year, together with the payment of tuition fees up to 30%. a year, and are tenable for three years at university colleges and advanced technical institutes. They are confined to residents within the administrative county of London, and are open only to those whose parents are in receipt of not more than 400l. a year. Candidates should as a rule be under twenty-two years of age, though the Board reserves the right to give preference to candidates who are under nineteen years of age. The scholarships are intended to encourage more especially the teaching of science, and to enable those students who cannot afford a university training to pursue advanced studies for a period of three years in the highest university institutions in this country or abroad. Of the seventeen students who are now holding Senior Scholarships five are studying at Cambridge, five at the Central Technical College in Exhibition Road, three at the Durham College-Inflexional lines, triplets, and triangles associated with the of Science, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, two at German Universities, and two (ladies) at Bedford College and Holloway College respectively. The scholarships are awarded on a consideration of the past record and general qualifications of the candidates, and not upon the results of a set examination. Application forms may be obtained from the Board's Secretary, 116 St. Martin's Lane, W.C., and must be returned not later than Monday, May 16.

plane cubic curve, by Prof. H. S. White, considers the configuration of the nine inflexions of a non-singular plane cubic and the twelve lines containing them 3 and 3, from what the writer thinks to be a novel point of view. The statements are of some interest.—On the intersections of plane curves, by Prof. Charlotte Scott, brings together several passages bearing on Maclaurin's paradox (i.e. Cramer's so-called, but it is here carried back to Maclaurin). It is a valuable paper on curves.

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