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cludes modifications the result of disuse and alterations which bear a prospective relation to the future wants of the altered insect form.

It appears at first sight that this separation into different stages of life is necessary for the insect, and that it must have a time devoted to eating, digesting, and assimilating, a quiet condition devoted to internal changes, and a stage where reproduction can be carried on. But this generalisation fails when it is remembered that some larvæ eat and reproduce, and some imagos reproduce and lead bloodthirsty lives also. It is important to recog nise the distinction already hinted at. The growth of the young embryo larva within the egg, and that of the escaped and skinshedding larva, is progressive, but the descriptions given of the changes in the shape and in the anatomy of the digestive organs of the pupa and imago, prove that they do not depend upon simple progression from elementary condition to complexity. The changes of structure belong to a different order of things to the simple growth of the larva's tissues; they appear to be superadded.

(To be continued.)

NOTES

THE Medals in the gift of the Royal Society have this year been awarded as follows:-The Copley Medal has been awarded to Professor Friedrich Wöhler, of Göttingen, For. Memb. R.S., for his numerous contributions to the Science of Chemistry, and more especially for his researches on the products of the decomposition of Cyanogen by Ammonia; on the Derivatives of Uric Acid; on the Benzoyl Series; on Boron, Silicon, and their compounds; on Titanium, and on Meteoric Stones. A Royal Medal has been awarded to Professor Thomas Anderson, M.D., for his investigations on the Organic Bases of Dippell's Animal Oil; on Codeine; on the Crystallised Constituents of Opium; on Piperin and on Papaverin; and for his researches in Physiological and Agricultural Chemistry. A Royal Medal has been awarded to Mr. Henry John Carter, F.R.S., for his long-continued and valuable researches in Zoology, and more especially for his inquiries into the Natural History of the Spongiada. The Rumford Medal, awarded every two years, has been awarded to Anders] Jonas Angström, For. Memb. R.S., for his Researches on Spectral Analysis.

THE annual meeting of the Fellows of the Royal Society, for the election of officers and Council for the ensuing year, will be held, as usual, on the 30th inst. As we have before announced, Dr. Sharpey, after a long period of service as secretary, resigns his functions, which have been of such great advantage to the Society, and by the performance of which he has earned the thanks and respect of all men of science, Prof. Huxley being nominated by the council as his successor.

IN the Boston Daily Advertiser for Saturday, Oct. 26, 1872, the conclusion of Prof. Tyndall's last lecture is thus reported :"There are three great theories which enable the human mind to open the secrets of nature-the theory of gravitation, the mechanical theory of heat, and the undulatory theory of light. These three pillars, as far as the human intellect is concerned, support the universe. To whom are we indebted for these discoveries? To men who had no practical ends in view, and who cared only for the truth. To-day, when there are so many temptations to young men to leave pure science for practical aims, it behoves us to look with sympathetic eyes upon the investigator who makes all this knowledge possible. I met on the steamship Russia a respected friend who ascribed the electric telegraph to fa source to which I certainly should not have thought of referring it. It is the direct outcome of men who never made a shilling by it. Volta, Faraday, never made a shilling by it. All honour to the men who make these discoveries. Gauss and Weber, at the University of Göttingen, actually constructed a telegraph line from the physical cabinet to the observatory. Give all honour to the men who apply discoveries, but do not forget the men who make them. Many of you in this country

have made fortunes, and have shown that you know how to apply them. Look with sympathetic eye upon the investigators. Give them opportunities. Do not overload them with other work. 'Cast your bread upon the waters,' and believe me it will return to you after many days.' My course among you is nearly over. I began it with some anxiety and end it with regret. It has been harder for me at times than I had expected, and I owe much to my assistants. I shall long and gratefully remember my reception on the occasion of my first lecture here. If I am treated in the same manner elsewhere, I shall return to the old country full of content. During my stay here I have heard the old country' mentioned again and again. You cannot alelish your antecedents. Out of England's loins you have come. Your ancestry is stamped upon your faces, your laws, your politi, and your characters. De Tocqueville, sympathising with demo cratic institutions, says, regarding England and America: "I refuse to regard these people as two; one is the outgrowth of the other." Atrocious ignorance of each other is at the bottom of all our differences. I trust that hereafter each nation will respect the individuality of the other; while thoroughly maintaining own.' The lecture was listened to with great attention, and loudly applauded at the close. Every point made in behalf of the investigators, and upon our relations to the mother country, received loud approbation. Our report cannot do justice to In Tyndall's earnestness in the latter portions of his lecture. It to be hoped that some of our so-called 'practical men' maş take to heart the lessons he has tried to teach them."

THE late Prof. De Morgan, in a note to his article on Tables in the "English Cyclopædia," strongly expresses his regret that the British Museum did not purchase Dr. Hutton's valuable mathematical library, and, consequently, the first set of mulle matical tables ever collected in England was dispersed. Wi view to avert a similar break-up, we may inform our readers that at a very early date the mathematical collections of the late Mr Babbage must be disposed of. It is with reference to these the De Morgan, in the above-cited article, acknowledges his indest edness ("large and rare collection of Tables"). Its excellence. however, is not confined to this special department only. We learn that catalogues will be issued in the course of a few days IN reference to the Swiney Lectureship, which we announcel recently as having become vacant, we venture to hope the po will not be thrown away on some one who is already well i, and has taken his place in life, but that it will be given to some young man who has shown himself well qualified for scienti research, and who may thus be enabled to devote his time to investigations which may lead to results of enduring value Several eminent men have already held this lectureship, in cluding, we believe, Dr. Carpenter.

PROF. WEISS, of the Vienna Observatory, has recently passer through London, on his return from a tour of inspection throu the United States, where he has visited all the principal observ tories, in order to collect materials for a report on the instrumen demanded by modern science in a first-class observatory like that of Vienna, which is about to be removed and extended. It a Government, as soon as the completion of Mr. Newall's magnit pears that the 26-inch object-glass ordered by the America cent instrument has established the feasibility of such an engra aperture, is already finished, and the mounting is in a forwar

state.

Silliman's Journal for November mentions the death of the Rev. John B. Perry, Professor of Primordial Geology in Harvard College, and of Dr. John F. Frazer, Professor of Natural Phil sophy and Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania.

THE death is announced, in the Isle of Wight, on Friday las, of Dr. H. B. Leeson, F. R. S., for many years lecturer on chemitry at St. Thomas's Hospital.

THE University of Aberdeen certainly is not disposed to eglect science in looking out for a Lord Rector; among those poken of to be put up for the next election, are Mr. Darwin, rof. Huxley, and Dr. Lyon Playfair.

WE are glad to call attention to the fund now being raised for e education and maintenance of the family of Mr. John Cargill rough, subscriptions to which may be paid at Messrs. Robarts nd Lubbock's bank. We understand that a considerable mount has already been received.

THE winter course of lectures at South Kensington Museum or the instruction of women in science and art was opened on Monday by Prof. Duncan. The course is to consist of three eries-the first by Prof. Duncan, on "Cosmogony and the World as a Planet;" the second by Prof. Carey Foster, on Physics;" and the third by Prof. Rutherford, on "Physilogy." There was a large attendance of ladies.

THE Committee of Directors of the Crystal Palace have resolved to extend the uses of that Institution by establishng practical engineering classes, in connection with their School of Art, Science, and Literature, under the Principalship of Mr. J. M. Wilson, Assoc. Inst. C.E. Such a preparatory course will render pupils on entering an engineer's office at once useful to their employers, and will enable them to take advantage of the opportunities offered to them during the time they are articled. These classes have been established for the purpose of affording to students of civil and mechanical engineerng the advantage of thorough practical instruction in the rudiments of either profession, and in the manipulation of materials. The classes are also available for gentlemen anxious to become engineering draughtsmen, or to compete for the Whitworth Scholarships, or to enter the Steam Mercantile Marine. The course of instruction will consist of three terms extending over welve months. One term will be spent in the drawing office, one in the pattern shop and foundry, and one in the smith's fitting and erecting shops. The students will be engaged in mechanical drawing, estimating and calculating, pattern-making, and constructing machinery for the market. Lectures will be delivered from time to time by the Principal, or by some eminent professor, on subjects connected with theoretical and practical engineering, and the students will be required to pass an examination upon such lectures at the expiration of each term. Convenient and extensive shops and offices, supplied with the best engineering machinery, have been fitted up for the purposes of the institution. The shops will be finished and the teaching commenced on January 1, or within a few days of that date. The premium for the year's instruction will be fifty guineas. The Crystal Palace is in many respects most suitable for such a purpose; for, irrespective of its being central and easy of access, it contains so many engineering models, works of science and art, hydraulic, pumping, and other machinery, that illustrations of important works in great variety are always accessible.

LORD F. CAVENDISH, M.P., presided on Monday at a meeting of the committee appointed to consider the proposed plans for establishing a College of Science at Leeds. The cost originally estimated was 61,000/.; but the funds are not forthcoming, and a committee was appointed to reconsider the subject.

SIR H. C. RAWLINSON, in his inaugural address on Monday night to the Geographical Society, referred to two contemplated African expeditions-one, got up by Livingstone's friends, and called the "Livingstone Congo Expedition," is to ascend the Congo from above the rapids, and endeavour to penetrate to the equatorial lake where Livingstone's rivers are lost, and in the vicinity of which it is expected the great traveller will be found at the close of next year. Livingstone's close friend, Mr. J. Young, of Kelly, has taken upon himself the expenses of the

expedition to the amount of 1,500% or 2,000l. A rival German expedition has been officially announced as in preparation for the same reason.

THE following numbers are stated to have been sold of Mr. Murray's scientific books at his annual "sale" last week :6,200 of Mr. Darwin's new work on the "Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals;" 1, 100 of Darwin's "Origin of Species" and other works; 350 of Lyell's "Principles of Geology," 2 vols. ; 900 of Lyell's "Students' Elements of Geology;" 1,500 of Kirk's "Handbook of Physiology;" 300 of Sir Roderick Murchison's "Siluria;" 1,200 of Prof. Newth's "Natural Philosophy;" 380 of Whymper's "Scrambles on the Alps."

A TELEGRAM from Copenhagen states that Mr. Edward Whymper has arrived there from his second journey of exploration in North Greenland. He brings with him rich collections of curiosities, among which are some very singular specimens of fossil wood.

THE Conversazione of the Photographic Society was held on Tuesday evening last, and the Annual Exhibition of Photographs will be open at the rooms of the Society, No. 9, Conduit Street, till the 30th inst., from nine till dusk, and on Monday and Saturday evenings.

THE members of the Hunterian Society were received by their President, Dr. Herbert Davies, on Monday evening last, at 23, Finsbury Square. In the course of the evening some original experiments were performed by Prof. Norris, of Birmingham, showing some hitherto unnoticed manifestations of the attraction of cohesion, with a view to explain the possibility of the passage of blood corpuscles through the capillaries in certain morbid states of the body, without the capillaries themselves being destroyed.

ON the evening of November 5 two new planets were discovered at the Paris Observatory. The first, discovered by M. Paul Henry, about 9 o'clock, is of the 11th magnitude; the second, discovered by M. Prosper Henry, is in magnitude 11°5.

PROF. WINLOCK communicates to 1,909 of Astronomische Nachrichten carefully tabulated "Results in Right Ascension of Observations of 156 Fundamental Stars observed with the Meridian-Circle of Harvard College University" (in English).

It may not be generally known, says the Astronomical Register, that amongst other works translated of late years into the Chinese language are the following:-Herschel's "Outlines of Astronomy," by Wylie, 3 vols., sm. folio, China, 1859; De Morgan's 'Algebra," by the same, 8vo., 1859; Mac Gowan's "Law of Storms," China, 1853; Milner's "History of England," abridged, by Muirhead, Shanghai, 1856. There is also a Treatise on Arithmetic, in Chinese, by Wylie, 1853.

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THE Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund have just received a first instalment of the work of surveying the Holy Land. It consists of the first three sheets of an Ordnance map of the country, on the scale of one inch to a mile, based on an accurate trigonometrical survey, and including the district between Jaffa and Jerusalem, and the country north of Jerusalem towards Nablous, and embracing an area of 560 square miles. The survey has been already completed over an area of about 1,000 square miles, and further sheets may be expected about the beginning of the new year.

THE Ninth Report, just issued, of the Belfast Naturalists Field Club, speaks of continued activity and enterprise on the part of the Society. A considerable portion of the report is occupied by accounts of the various excursions, and short abstracts are also given of a number of papers read at its meetings, many of them having a chiefly local interest.

THE BIRTH OF CHEMISTRY

IV.

Iron, lead, quicksilver.-Colours used for painting and dyeing. Glass.-Certain minerals known to the ancients.-Miscellaneous processes.-Association of the seven metals with the seven greater heavenly bodies.- Consequent introduction of symbols into the history of matter.

IRON

RON was not in common use till long after the introduction of copper. It is far more difficult to procure, because it is not met with in the native state, and the fusing point is very high. The metallurgy of iron is more complex than that of copper, and when obtained it is a more difficult metal to work. According to Xenophon the melting of iron ore was first practised by the Chalubes, a nation dwelling near the Black Sea, hence the name Chalups (xávy) used for steel, and hence our word Chalybeate applied to a mineral water containing iron. Steel was known to the ancients, but we do not know by what means it was prepared; it was tempered by heating to redness, and plunging in cold water. According to some, kuanos (kúavos) mentioned by Homer was steel; but Mr. Gladstone prefers to conclude that it was bronze. Iron was known at least 1537 B.C. It was coined into money by the Lacedæmonians, and in the time of Lukourgos was in common use. It was used in the time of Homer for certain cutting-instruments, such as woodmen's axes, and for ploughshares. Its value is shown by the fact that Achilles proposed a ball of iron as a prize for the games in honour of Patroklos. Neither iron money nor iron implements of great antiquity have been found, because, unlike the other metals of which we have spoken above, iron rusts rapidly, and comparatively soon disappears. No remains of it have been found in Egypt, yet Herodotus tells us that iron instruments were used in building

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Although we hear less of lead than of the preceding metals, it was known to the Egyptians at an early date, and it is men tioned by Homer. In the time of Pliny leaden pipes were used to convey water; and sheet lead was employed for roofing pur poses. The chief supply of the metal came from Spain and Britain. Pliny believed that lead was reproduced in the mine, so that if an exhausted mine were closed it would be fit to work again in a few years' time. This idea of the growth of the metals was very generally accepted by the alchemists. Tin and lead were sometimes alloyed together by the ancients, and ti was used as a solder for lead. Litharge, or protoxide of lead, and cerussa usta (burnt ceruss), or red lead, were used by painters Cerussa, which we now call "white lead," or more strictly, carbonate of lead, was prepared by exposing sheets of lead to the fumes of vinegar in a warm place, a heap of decomposing manure for instance. A basic acetate of lead is formed by this means, which is partially converted into carbonate by the carbonic acid given off by the decomposing organic matter. Cerussa wa used by Athenian ladies as a cosmetic. Cerussa usta was first formed accidentally from cerussa during the burning of a house near the Piraeus. Litharge is easily formed by heating lead above its melting point in air, when it absorbs oxygen gas, and the resulting oxide may be skimmed off.

Mercury was common in the time of Pliny, but it is not montioned by earlier writers. It was found native in Spain, but was more generally obtained by heating cinnabar (sulphide of mercury

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FIG. 3.-Egyptian Bellows. Fifteenth Century B.C.

the pyramids; moreover, steel must have been employed to engrave the granite and other hard rocks, massive pillars of which are often found engraved most delicately from top to bottom with hieroglyphics. Again, the beautifully engraved Babylonian cylinders and Egyptian gems, frequently of cornelian and onyx, must have required steel tools of the finest temper. We have no record of the furnaces in which iron ore was smelted, but we know that bellows were in use in the 15th century B. C. in Egypt, and some crucibles of the same period are preserved in the Berlin Museum. They closely resemble the crucibles in use in the present day. The accompanying woodcut (Fig. 3) represents a double pair of bellows, a furnace, fuel, and above perhaps a

crucible.

The native Indians prepare iron from hæmatite at the present time by equally primitive bellows, which indeed resemble the above very closely, and which, without doubt, have been unaltered for centuries. A small furnace, A (see the accompanying section, Fig. 4), is rapidly constructed of clay, and into the bottom of this two nozzles, B, are introduced; these are connected with the bellows by bamboo tubes. The bellows, c, consist of cup-shaped bowls of wood covered with goatskin above, and connected with the bamboo below. In the centre of the goat-skin cover a round hole is cut; the blower places his heel upon this, which is thus closed, while at the same time the skin is depressed and a blast is driven from the tube. then he steps upon the second skin, and thus a continual blast is kept up. The bent bamboo and string, D, is for the purpose of raising the goatskin cover of the bellows after depression, which,

*We are indebted to Dr. Percy for permission to copy this figure from his "Metallurgy," and to Mr. Murray for the other woodcuts.

FIG. 4.-Smelting Furnace and Bellows used by native Indians in the present day.

with iron filings in an earthen vessel, to the top of which a cover was luted. The iron decomposed the sulphide, and the liberal mercury was volatilised and condensed on the cover of Dioscorides, is the first crude example of distillation, which ana vessel, whence it was collected. This method, described b wards became a principal operation among the alchemists an chemists for separating the volatile from the fixed. In the tize of Dioscorides cinnabar was called minium, but it became a largely adulterated with red lead that the term minium was ul for red lead. Pliny was acquainted with the high specific grav mately applied to the latter. Minium is still one of the name of mercury, and with its power of dissolving gold. Substance used, as now, for extracting gold from its earthy matrix; the gol were sometimes gilded by a gold amalgam. Mercury was al bearing rock was powdered and shaken up with mercury, whe dissolved out the gold; the amalgam of gold and mercury wa then squeezed through leather, which separated most of the me cury; the solid amalgam was heated to expel the mercury, a pure gold remained. Vitruvius states that gold was recovere from gold embroidery by burning the cloth in an earthen 1 and throwing the ashes into water to which quicksilver added. The latter attracted the gold and dissolved it; the am hands, and the mercury, on account of its fluidity, was force gam was put into a piece of cloth and squeezed between th through the pores of the cloth, while the gold remained.

Native mercury was called argentum vivum (quicksilvery while mercury distilled from cinnabar was called hydrargyr

dwpăpyupov, liquid silver), from which we take our present mbat for the metal, Hg. The alchemists, among whom, as we all hereafter see, mercury was a very principal metal, call it by e various names of mercurius, argentum vivum, hydrargyrum, ith others of a more fanciful nature.

The ancients were not acquainted with any other metals in an ncombined state, except the seven mentioned above. Stibium -r silphide of antimony, was used in the East at an early period r painting the eyelashes. It is still used for that purpose, and is alled kohl. Native carbonate of zinc was known, and black oxide f manganese. The two sulphides of arsenic were known, and vere used as pigments. The yellow sulphide was called aurigmentum and arsenicum; the red sulphide went by the name sandaracha. Auripigmentum became contracted into orpi nent, a word which we find both in alchemical treatises and in our most modern treatises on chemistry.

The colours used by the ancients for painting were examined by Sir Humphry Davy at the beginning of this century, and he came to the conclusion that "the Greek and Roman painters ad almost all the same colours as those employed by the great italian masters at the period of the revival of arts in Italy." Various colours have been examined from the frescoes in he Baths of Titus, from Pompeii, and from Egyptian tombs. The colours of the Egyptians were red, yellow, blue, green, black, and white. The red was bole, that is a clay deriving its colour from oxide of iron; the yellow an ochre, also clay, coloured by a paler form of oxide of iron; the green a mixture of this ochre with a blue powdered glass, produced by fusing together sand, carbonate of soda, and oxide of copper. The black was ivory black, prepared by heating bones out of contact with air until completely carbonised; the white was powdered chalk. These various colours were mixed with gum and water before use. The Greeks and Romans used red lead and cinnabar, as well as red ochre, and yellow protoxide of lead. The blue powdered glass mentioned above was called kúavos by the Greeks, Caruleum by the Romans. Vitruvius describes the method of preparing it; and Davy prepared a substance which perfectly resembled the ancient colour, by fusing together fifteen parts of carbonate of soda, twenty parts of powdered flints, and three parts of copper filings. The green of the Romans was carbonate of copper, and for browns they sometimes used dark oxide of iron, sometimes oxide of manganese. The purpurissum of the Romans was Tyrian purple, a very valuable colour ob. tained from a shell fish, and much used for dyeing. In order to obtain the colour for the purposes of painting, clay was placed in the childrons of dye, so as to absorb the colour, and was afterwards removed and dried. Indicum purpurissum was probably indigo; Pliny mentions that the vapour possesses a fine purple colour. Ivory black was called Elephantinum; lamp black, that is soot, was called Atramentum. The latter mixed with water constituted the ink of the ancients.

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According to Pliny, glass was first discovered by some Phoenician merchants who were returning from Egypt with a cargo of natron (carbonate of soda), and who landed on the sandy banks of the river Belus. In order to support the vessels they used for cooking their food over the fire, they used some large lumps of atron, and the fire was sufficiently strong to fuse it, with the fine sand of the river. Hence resulted the first glass. Whatever may be the value of this story, we find representations of glass-blowing on the monuments of Thebes and Beni Hassan ; and the Egyptians were well acquainted with it 2450 B.C. The most celebrated manufactory of glass was in Egypt; and, according to Strabo, a peculiar kind of earth found near Alexandria was essential for the finer kinds of glass. The Egyptian glass had nearly the same composition as our 'crown glass," which contains 63 per cent. of silica, 22 of potash, 12 of lime, and 3 of alumina. The Phoenicians and Egyptians exported lage quantities of glass to Greece and Rome. The Egyptians engravedand cut glass with the diamond; they also possessed extraordinary skill in colouring glass with various metallic oxides, and combining several colours in the same vase, and they imitated precious stones with great success. We read of whole statues made of emerald, but these were undoubtedly of emerald glass, viz., glass coloured by oxide of copper. The Egyptians under. stood the art of enamelling on metals. Aristophanes is the first Greek author who mentions glass (Tv Saxov); he alludes to the use of a lens of glass, as a burning glass in the Nepéλai, which play was acted in Athens. B. C. 423. Colourless glass was the most valuable, and a small quantity of oxide of manganese was added then as now for the purpose of decolourising it. A very ancient opique green glass, analysed by Klaproth, was found to contain

65 per cent. of silica, 10 of oxide of copper, 7.5 of oxide of lead, 3.5 of oxide of iron, and about 6 per cent. of both lime and alumina. A red glass was found to be coloured by red oxide of copper.

Dyeing was well understood by the ancients; the Egyptians understood the effect of acid on some colours, and were acquainted with mordants, that is, substances which "fix" the colouring matter in the fabric, and prevent it from being washed out. The most celebrated dye of antiquity was the purple of Tyre, discovered about 1500 B.C., perhaps earlier. It was produced by certain shell fish which inhabit the Mediterranean; these are spoken of as buccinum and purpura by Pliny. A few drops only of the dye were obtained from each fish, and the colour hence became very valuable, and was monopolised by the emperors of the world. The Egyptians dyed linen with indigo, which they procured from India, for they had considerable intercourse with that country at an early period.

Lime was used for removing the hair from skins about to be tanned. Leather made in the time of Sheshonk, the contemporary of Solomon, has been found in a good state of preservation. For the process of tanning, they used the pods of the Acacia Nilotica, a plant which, according to Sir G. Wilkinson, was also prized for its timber, charcoal, and gum.

Nitrum was a term applied to carbonate of soda, or natron, which, we have already seen, was used in the manufacture of glass. The substance which we now call nitre (nitrate of potash) was probably known in India and China before the Christian era. Dr. Thomas Thomson has suggested that when the real nitre was imported into Europe, it received the same name as carbonate of soda (nitrum) from the similarity of its appearance, and retained the name on account of its greater importance. Roger Bacon always speaks of nitrate of potash as nitre. The low Latin name for soda became natrium, hence our present symbol for sodium, Na.

Soap is first mentioned by Pliny; it was made by mixing wood ashes, which contain carbonate of soda, with animal fat. It was used solely as a kind of pomatum. The Greeks added wood ashes to water to increase its cleansing properties.

The only acid with which the ancients were acquainted was acetic acid, or vinegar. It has been suggested that the Egyptians discovered nitric acid and nitrate of silver, because a silver stain has been found upon some linen, but the evidence is insufficient. We remember the story about Cleopatra dissolving two pearls, valued at ten millions of sestertii, in vinegar; although only a story, it would seem to show that vinegar was the most powerful solvent known. This is further indicated by the story of Hannibal dissolving rocks by vinegar.

A number of minerals are mentioned by Pliny, but we can recognise but few of them. Iron pyrites (sulphide of iron) was used for striking fire with steel in order to kindle tinder, and was hence called pyrites (rûp, fire), or fire-stone. Sulphur was well known, and was used for matches; it was also apparently burnt in a current of air, and the sulphurous acid produced employed for bleaching purposes. Asphalt was used for embalming, and undoubtedly also for torches.

Thus far we have become acquainted with the various theories of the Ancients, in which changes in the composition of matter are discussed, and with various processes by which changes were actually effected. Before we leave the Ancients, and pass at one bound to the eighth century A.D., we must notice the commencement of a symbolical system in the history of matter, which in the hands of the Alchemists and early Chemists assumed vast proportions, and still appertains to the science of Chemistry. This system was commenced by the association of the seven metals with the seven greater heavenly bodies. We do not know at what period the metals were designated by the names and symbols of the planets: certainly

at a very remote age.

At a very early date the Chaldeans represented the stars by symbols, and these gradually increased until astrology became one mass of symbols. On the occasion of certain religious ceremonies the Kings of Assyria wore a necklace in which the sun, moon, and stars were represented as emblems, for they were first worshipped as emblems of the Deity. Sculptural representations of necklaces with seven discs upon them have also been found. Symbols were carried before Egyptian priests, and their gods were represented with certain signs symbolical of their special attributes. The Assyrian goddess Astarte, carries in her left hand a symbol,(¿) (Fig 5.) not very different from the crux ansata of the Egyptians (a); and the symbol (c) by which the planet Venus was afterwards repre

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FIG. 5-a Crux ansata of the Egyptians; b Assyrian symbol of Astarte ; e Later symbol of the planet Venus.

of the Turin papyrus, a copy of which exists in the British Museum. The upper portion of the crux ansata was frequently made more rounded in form, and it is obvious that if in addition to this the cross was somewhat lowered, we should arrive

at the third symbol (c) shown above. The crux ansata (a), if written quickly, could easily pass into this latter symbol (c), and this may account for the occurrence of both symbols in the judgment picture, to which we have alluded above.

Plato speaks of the sun, moon, and five planets, but does not distinguish them by the names of gods; Epinomis mentions them in conjunction with the names of gods. It is probable that the Chaldæans also associated the principal heavenly bodies with the names of deities-San with the sun, Hurki with the moon, Bel Merodach with Jupiter, Astarte or Ishtar with Venus, Nergal with Mars, &c. The relative position of the planets was generally as follows: the Earth was the centre of the system; next in order came the Moon, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; but these positions were sometimes varied. It was known that Saturn completed a revolution in about thirty years, while Jupiter required twelve years, Mars only two, and Mercury and Venus occupied about the same time as the Sun; hence the above order. As Saturn was farthest from the source of heat, and the slowest in his motion, he was supposed to be of an icy character, and to assert an evil influence.

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While speaking of the seven greater heavenly bodies, and the seven metals, we may allude incidentally to the curious prominence of that number in many matters-"that mysterious number," as Mr. Layard calls it, so prevalent in the Sabæan system." Thus (to select a few instances at random) we have seven days of the week, seven wise men of Greece, seven won. ders of the world, seven cardinal sins, seven-stringed lyre, seven harmonic proportions, seven heavens, seven walls of Ecbatana, seven gates of Thebes. The list might be extended almost indefinitely. Among the Hebrews the number was specially prominent. Not to mention the frequent allusion to it in the Apocalypse, we may recall the incidents of the fall of Jericho : the town was surrounded for seven days; on the seventh day the walls fell at the blast of seven trumpets, which were carried round the walls seven times by seven priests.

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We cannot tell why the seven metals were associated with the seven deified heavenly bodies, unless it was because all things which amounted to the same number were connected with them. This, at least, we know, that long before the time of Geber, the first writer on chemistry, the metals had received the same names and symbols as the planets. "There is abundant evidence,' says Mr. Gladstone," of a correspondence between the seven metals of Homer and the seven metals of the ancient planetary worship of the East." In the time of Homer only six simple metals were known, and the seventh was the compound kuanos; quicksilver afterwards became the seventh simple metal, and received the name and symbol of the seventh planet. The metals were apportioned as follows :

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Herodotus tells us that Ecbatana had seven walls, the outermost of which was the lowest, and the others gradually ascendet like steps to the highest, which enclosed the king's palace. They were each painted of a particular colour; the outermost white, the second black, the third purple, the fourth blue, the fifth red, the sixth the colour of silver, the seventh the colour of gold Undoubtedly these had reference to the seven greater heavenly bodies. It is impossible to account for the colours, hut it u curious to notice the particular colour which would fall to any particular metal. Placing the planets in order as applied to metals, we should have gold to goid, silver to silver, red to copper, blue to iron, purple to tin, black to lead, the most de spised of the metals. It is probable that the Sabeans associates these colours with the seven heavenly bodies. The temple of Bel-Merodach, rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar, and called by ha the "Wonder of Borsippa," appears also to have consisted seven terraces differently coloured. The following is a porti of the inscription from a clay cylinder found among the ruins the temple:-"I (Nebuchadnezzar) have completed the a nificence of the tower with silver, gold, precious stones, enamell.d bricks, fir, and pine. This most ancient monument f

Borsippa is the house of the seven lights of the earth." How the symbols conferred upon the planets and after wards upon the metals arose it is difficult to say; they are doubtedly of Chaldæan origin, but to what extent they have since been modified no one can tell. They exist in eary MSS. on Alchemy. That the sun should be represented be a circle, the symbol of perfection, is no wonder. Again, that the moon should be symbolised by a crescent we can understa but the others present greater difficulties. Among these, so say we have the looking-glass of Venus, the thunderbolts of Jupiter, the spear and shield of Mars, the scythe of Saturn, and the caduceus of Mercury. In the temple of Hermes at Pelos he is represented with a staff having a serpent twining around from which it has been suggested the caduceus of Mercury m have been derived. Some see in 2, not the thunderbolts, Lthe throne of Jupiter; others the Zeta of Zeus; others, ag the Arabic 4, indicating that Jupiter was the fourth plant order. Some, too, have seen in h the K of Kronos. is less difficult to understand why a particular metal was assigne to a particular heavenly body. Thus gold would naturally associated with the sun, on account of its colour, perfection, beauty, and because it was ever regarded as the noblest meta For the same reason silver would fall to the moon, with its pal silvery colour and light. So, again, iron, the metal of war. would be associated with Mars; lead, the dull, despised mea with Saturn, the slowest of the planets; quicksilver, the num volatile metal, with Mercury, the messenger of the gods.

These signs became in the hands of the Alchemists the cr mencement of a symbolic system in chemistry.

(To be continued.) G. F. RODWET! SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES LONDON

The Prese

Royal Geographical Society, Nov. 11.-Major-Genera Sir H. C. Rawlinson, president, in the chair. The President his inaugural address, recapitulated the leading incidents whi have occurred in the exploration of Africa since June, at wha time we were in receipt merely of a brief telegraphic announ ment that Mr. Stanley had arrived at Zanzibar with despa ehaving left Livingstone alone and well at Unyanyembe; stated that, as the Society honestly consider Mr. Stanley's p ney to Lake Tanganyika to be in its results the most impor geographical achievement of the year, they feel that, in awa ing him their medal, they are only discharging their strict du while at the same time they are doing honour to Livingst and promoting the great end of African discovery. dent then passed on to the history of the Society's own Red Expedition, touching which he said :-"Much disappointme was felt at the abrupt termination of this expedition. The mittee of the Geographical Council charged with the mant ment of the Search and Relief Fund, after a most patient inve gation, delivered two reports to the subscribers, the purporte which was that they disapproved of the conduct of Lieutenas. Dawson in breaking up the expedition, and that they attributed it to a lamentable error of judgment that he did not carry on th the Doctor, as supplementary to Stanley's relief, a supply d arins, instruments, medicines, and other articles of which he manifestly stood in need. The judgment delivered by the com mittee has since been greatly fortified by letters written by Li

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