riments on the effects of Schehallien on the Plumb-line. This labour, comprehending the most complicated arithmetical processes, the President observed, would for ever associate his name with one of the grandest and most important physical problems solved in the last century, and transmit it with honour to posterity.

To speak of Dr. Edward Jenner as a man of science of our own particular school, the President observed, would be saying little, for he had a higher claim to our deep regret and profound admiration as a benefactor to mankind in general-After adverting to the invention and effects of vaccination, Sir Humphry Davy remarked, that the originality of Dr. Jenner's mind and the accuracy of his observation are shown in his first communication to the Society, on the Natural History of the Cuckoo; and in the pursuit of his great object, he met with obstacles which required no ordinary degree of perseverance, and of confidence in his own powers to overcome; the fair way of judging of the merits of an inventor, said Sir Humphry, is by the operation of his discovery on civilized and social life;and in this respect Dr. Jenner stands almost alone.

Of Dr. Baillie, the President observed, that whether considered as a physician or as a man, his talents and his virtues were alike distinguished,-his works show the accuracy and coolness of his judgment; his minuteness in observation; and his acuteness in referring effects to their true causes, amidst the complicated phenomena offered by diseased organs. No man was ever more free from any taint of vanity or affectation he encouraged and admired every kind of talent, and rejoiced in the success of his contemporaries; and he maintained, even at court, the simplicity and dignity of his character.

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Col. Wm. Lambton, the President observed, was a veteran in the army of India: two papers of his are published in the Transactions of the Society, on the Admeasurement of an Arc of the Meridian in Hindostau-a work of great labour, displaying minute accuracy and extraordinary perseverance, and carried on in a climate unfavourable to bodily exertion or intellectual pursuit. This arc extends in amplitude very nearly ten degrees; and Col. Lambton had the honour of having laid down the largest single arc ever measured upon the surface of the globe.

The President, when noticing Archdeacon Wollaston, observed that the little which he had contributed to the Society's Transactions occasioned regret that he had not been a more frequent contributor. His papers, said Sir Humphry, on the Measurement of Heights, and on the Alteration of the Boiling Temperature, offer a valuable resource in ascertaining the altitudes of mountains, and are remarkable for accuracy of method and distinctness of detail.

After making respectful mention of Dr. Cartwright and Mr. Jordan, the President proceeded to make some observations on

the award of the Copleyan medal, to John Pond, Esq. Astronomer Royal, for his various observations and communications published by the Royal Society; we can give a still fainter idea of this discourse, than of the tributes of praise to the deceased. members it was received by the Society in a manner which evinced their strong desire that it should be made a permanent record by the press.

Having given an historical sketch of the labours of the Astronomer Royal, and stated his merits as an accurate and indefatigable observer; the President observed, that it is very difficult to point out the specific merits of astronomical observations: they are not, he said, like philosophical or chemical experiments, which produce an immediate result; their delicacy and exactness, he observed, could only be judged of by those who have witnessed the manner in which they are made, and who are accustomed to the same kind of labour; and as they often relate to long periods of time, their correctness and value perhaps can only be fairly estimated by posterity.

The President then took a rapid but luminous historical view of the labours of Flamstead, Bradley, and Maskelyne, and he alluded to the discussion still pending between the Astronomer Royal and Dr. Brinkley on the subject of parallax.

Sir Humphry then adverted to the principal points of discussion in the papers of the Astronomer Royal, viz. the grand and long agitated question of the parallax of the fixed stars, and an apparent declination or change of position in a number of the stars, not to be accounted for by any known laws. He said the Council did not mean by this token of their respect for Mr. Pond, to give any opinion on the subject of parallax, which, however, it was satisfactory to find, was now brought into very narrow limits; nor did they enter at all into the subject of the apparent declination, for on a matter of such great importance, new observations, and the researches of years, were required to fix the judgment of scientific men.

Having mentioned the advantages which navigation has acquired from astronomical observations, and which to this country were peculiarly necessary, on account of its maritime and colonial empire, the President observed, that astronomy had exerted a powerful effect in the general improvement of the human mind, by developing the true system of the universe. In consequence of the discoveries made in it, all the superstitious notions-all the prejudices respecting the heavenly bodies, which had such an effect upon the destinies of individuals and of kingdoms in ancient times, have disappeared; and the science as it now exists is the noblest monument ever raised by man to the glory of his Maker; for its ultimate and refined developements demonstrate combinations which could only be the result of infinite wisdom, intelligence, and power.

On presenting the medal to the Astronomer Royal, the President addressed him nearly as follows:-I now present you this medal. Consider it as a token of the respect of the Society, and of the confidence of the Council in the great accuracy of your observations: receive it likewise as a memorial that future important labours in the same department of science are hoped for, nay, are expected from you. I am well aware that some of the greatest and most important objects of discovery, and those, perhaps, most obvious, have been attained by the labours of your predecessors. Yet Nature is inexhaustible; and the powers and resources of the human mind, and the refinements of art, have not as yet attained their limits. Who would have anticipated, half a century ago, the discoveries of Herschel and Piazzi?

Though pursuing a science that may be considered as in its maturity, you have advantages of a peculiar kind; more perfect instruments than were ever yet employed; more extensive assistance than any of your predecessors; and upon these points the liberality and promptitude with which Government have entered into all the views of the Council of the Royal Society for the improvement of the Royal Observatory, cannot be too much admired. Continue to pursue your honourable career, and endeavour to be worthy of having your name transmitted to future generations with those of your illustrious predecessors. Of all the branches of science, astronomy is that from which this Society has gained most glory, and it never has lost, and I feel convinced never will lose, any opportunity of advancing its progress, and honouring its successful and zealous cultivators.

ARTICLE XV.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE.

1. Supposed Origin of the Art of Smelting Iron.

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THE following remarks explanatory of a passage in the Rev. J. Hodgson's "General Conclusions of an Inquiry into the Era when Brass was used for Purposes to which Iron is now applied," inserted in the last number of the Annals, at p. 407, were precluded from appearing in their proper place as a note to the paper, by circumstances attending their passage through the press.

It would appear, from a paragraph in the former part of his paper (Arch. Æl, vol. i. p. 40), that Mr. Hodgson conjectures the idea of producing metallic iron by the artificial application of fire to its ores, to have been suggested to mankind by the observation, that the stones containing malleable iron, or meteorites, descended upon the earth in

an ignited state, or from fiery bodies in the atmosphere; though the application of the terms aërolite and meteoric stone to meteoric iron and stones indiscriminately, render his remarks somewhat ambiguous. There really exists, however, an indeterminate kind of transition, from the masses of meteoric iron entirely free from earthy or stony matter, to the meteoric stones in which that metal is merely disseminated in grains. Thus, placing the Brazilian or Cape iron, and the Benares or L'Aigle stones at the extremities of the scale, the intermediate degrees will be formed by the Siberian iron, with its globules of (so called) meteoric olivine, the Elbogen iron in which globules of a similar substance are imbedded, and the stones which fell near Tabor, in Bohemia, in 1753, containing nearly one-fourth of their weight of iron. A sufficient quantity of the metal to impart a knowledge of its usefulness might have been separated from such stones as the latter, without much difficulty; and thus (allowing the validity of Mr. Hodgson's conjecture), mankind might have been led to the smelting of iron from its ores. It seems, indeed, that the Esquimaux inhabiting the western coast of Greenland, visited by Capt. Ross, actually edge their bone knives with small pieces of iron extracted from a meteoric stone, and flattened for the purpose. Mr. Hodgson is not the only writer who has attributed the first knowledge of metallic iron to the observation of native meteoric masses of that metal, for this idea has also been expressed by Mr. D. Mushet, in his article on Iron-making, in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica. The circumstance is somewhat remarkable, that the same extraordinary masses of iron, which, when first discovered, and even for a considerable subsequent period, were supposed by various writers to have resulted from ancient smelting operations, should now be considered as having pointed out to mankind the means of obtaining that metal by smelting.

Mr. Hodgson appears to have been misinformed with regard to the balls of iron stone found in Sicily, which he alludes to: they certainly have no similarity in substance "to the true aerolites; " aërolites have no peculiar shape, but are extremely various and irregular in that respect; and the balls of iron-stone have no doubt received the appellation of thunderbolts for the same reasons, indirectly derived from a knowledge of meteorites, which induced different nations of antiquity to confer it on various other minerals, and even on certain organic remains. E. W. B.

II. Composition of Ancient Bronze.

The following particulars respecting ancient bronze are derived from two papers by the late Dr. E. D. Clarke, read before the Society of Antiquaries a few years since, and published in their Archæologia; but not hitherto transferred to any more general medium of scientific information.

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In Dr. Clarke's "Observations upon some Celtic Remains discovered near Sawston, seven miles from Cambridge," Arch. vol. xviii. p. 340343, he describes certain antiquities which had been found on the 3d of August, 1816, accompanying a human skeleton, about three feet below the surface of the ground, on the top of a small eminence called Huckeridge Hill. They consisted of two vessels of bronze, some fragments of the coarsest black terra cotta, an iron sword entirely converted into oxide, a massy bronze ring which had been the foot of the larger vessel, the iron umbo of a shield, a bronze broach or buckle,

and a small iron fibula. There was nothing Roman in their character; the form of the sword, in the Rev. Mr. Kerrich's opinion, was not Roman; the fragments of terra cotta resembled those found with Celtic remains; and these circumstances, notwithstanding their being discovered near the Roman station upon the Gog Magog Hills, tended to show that they were not of Roman origin. The vessels' consisting of an alloy of copper and tin seemed likewise, in Dr. Clarke's opinion, to refer these remains to an earlier period than the time of the Romans in Britain.

Dr. Clarke found that the bronze of which the vessels were made, was composed of 88 parts of copper, and 12 of tin: he ascertained, also, that the bronze coins of Antoninus Pius and of Marcus Aurelius consisted of the same alloy.

In his "Account of some Antiquities found at Fulbourn in Cambridge shire," Arch xix. 56-61, Dr. C. describes two swords, a spear-head, and two ferrules supposed to have been the feet of spears, which were found on Fulbourn Common early in 1817. They were all of bronze, the spear and swords formed on the Grecian model; a bronze sword resembling the latter had been taken out of the river Cam many years. before, and swords of the same kind had been found in Ireland. The alloy was hard and brittle; its fracture, earthy, white, and destitute of metallic lustre, but upon filing showed the splendour and colour of gold; its specific gravity was 9-200; it consisted, like the bronze of the other relics, of 88 copper and 12 tin.

Dr. Clarke adverts, in the conclusion of this paper, to the "uniformity characterising all the results which different chemists have obtained in the analysis of ancient bronze; a degree of uniformity," he continues, "hardly to be explained without supposing that there may have existed a native compound of the two metals thus united. In almost every instance the proportion of the copper to the tin has been 88 to 12. This was the result of the analysis made by Mr. Hatchett, of the bronze nails brought by Sir Wm. Gell from the tomb of Agamemnon at Mycence; the same result was also obtained in the analysis by Dr. Wollaston, of some arrow-heads of bronze found in the South of Russia; and I have found the same constituents similarly combined in various specimens of bronze from Grecian and from Celtic sepulchres; in the bronze lamps of ancient Egypt, and in the lares, weapons, and other bronzes of the same country. That in the analysis of bronze, found in countries widely separated, there should not be a more perceptible difference in the proportion of their chemical constituents, is a remarkable circumstance. The Gaulish axe found in France, by M. Dupont de Nemours, and which cut wood like a steel axe, might be considered as an exception; because it contained, according to the analysis of Vauquelin, 87 parts of copper combined with 9 parts of tin; but in this are there were also present 3 parts of iron; perhaps an impurity of the tin; which is rarely free from an admixture of other metals. The tin of the Fulbourn swords, when exposed to a violent heat, yielded an alliaceous smell denoting the presence of arsenic; and a very small portion of a black insoluble powder remained in the nitric acid after the solution of the copper.

"To conclude, therefore, if we may be permitted to consider these bronze reliques as so many characteristical vestiges of a peculiar peo ple, to whom the art was known of giving a maximum of density to