front of which the President was seated, is a large fresco representing Arts and Science; and round the amphitheatre there are niches containing busts of Robert de Sorbon, the founder of the Sorbonne, or University of Paris; of Richelieu, Pascal, Descartes, Lavoisier and Rollin-the elite of the Frenchmen who have exercised influence on French education and on arts and sciences. On the right of the President the band of the Garde Républicaine welcomed him with the Marseillaise, the audience all standing, and the proceedings began punctually at 10 a.m. They were opened by a discourse from the Ministre de l'Instruction publique, M. Leygues, who gave an impassioned address on the services which M. Berthelot had rendered to French education; he noted how the ubiquity of M. Berthelot's genius had led him to pay attention, not merely to scientific work, but also to extend his purview to the systems pursued in schools and to the primary and secondary education of French citizens. M. Darboux, sécretaire perpetuel of the Academy of Sciences, in a careful and well-delivered address, alluded specially to M. Berthelot's contributions to general science and to the recognition of his labours, testified by the international response to requests for subscriptions, and to the numerous societies and associations which had presented him with addresses. M. Darboux was succeeded by M. Fouqué, president of the Academy of Sciences, who echoed what M. Darboux had said and expressed the gratification of the Academy that one of its members, who had devoted his life to the pursuit of truth for its own sake, had, in receiving respect and recognition from the whole civilised world, conferred honour on the body of which he had so long been a member, and whose proceedings he had enriched by so many valuable contributions.

M. Moissan, now professor of chemistry at the Sorbonne, gave in his address an account in general terms of M. Berthelot's contributions to chemical science. As early as 1855 Berthelot's work on sugar, which led to the synthesis of formic acid and of alcohol, directed the attention of chemists, who had formerly regarded analysis as the chief aim and end of chemical work, to synthesis. Although the idea of a "vital force" had been attacked by Wöbler and Liebig, still Berthelot, by numerous brilliant syntheses, contributed more than anyone, during the decade 1855-65, to render the idea untenable. In this he was helped by his friends Pasteur and Claude Bernard, each of whom, at the later date, was laying the foundations of the work which rendered his name immortal. M. Moissan aptly remarked, in alluding to "vital force," "nous avons d'autant plus de théories que la chose est moins claire." Sketching rapidly Berthelot's work on acetylene, on explosives, on thermochemistry, on the absorption of nitrogen by plants, and his contributions to chemical history, he having translated and edited numerous Greek and Arabic writers on the subject, he concluded by the remark that, owing to the universality of his knowledge and attainments, M. Berthelot must be regarded as the last of the "encyclopædists." The address was concluded by the phrase, "Nous vous remercions pour nous avoir donné un peu plus de la verité."

M. Gaston Paris, one of the executive of the Collège de France, was the next speaker. He alluded to the long connection which had subsisted between M. Berthelot and the Collège de France. In 1851 he was recommended by Balard as deserving of the position of his " préparateur," or assistant., After eight years, however, he migrated to the Ecole de Pharmacie, where, in 1865, he was made "Professeur titulé" of organic chemistry. Shortly after, however, he was recalled to his old home, the Collège de France, where he has remained ever since, in spite of numerous calls to accept more lucrative positions elsewhere.

After a few words from the president of the Academy of Medicine, Emil Fischer, the eminent professor of chemistry of Berlin, read an address in German from the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and at the same time presented one from the German Chemical Society; Dr. J. H. Gladstone followed, introducing first Prof. Ramsay, who, after a few prefatory remarks, read the address sent by the Royal Society, and next Prof. Emerson Reynolds, who presented an address from the Chemical Society, of which he is president; and lastly Dr. Gladstone handed in an address from the Royal Institution. Prof. Lieben, of Vienna, conveyed the congratulations of the Imperial Academy of Vienna; and Prof. Guareschi, those from the Academy of Turin. M. Troost, the former professor at the Sorbonne, read a list of academies and societies which had sent congratulatory addresses, so numerous that nearly a quarter of an hour was occupied by the mere recitation of the names; and concluded by reading a personal telegram from the King of the Belgians, conveying His Majesty's felicitations, and announcing that the Queen Regent of Spain had conferred on M. Berthelot the Grand Cordon of the Order of Charles III.

The following translation of M. Berthelot's speech in acknowledgment of the tribute to his genius and scientific work is from Monday's Times :-

I am deeply touched and really embarrassed by the homage which you are offering me to-day. These honours, I am aware, are not due merely to your affection for my person, I must attribute them also to my age, my long labours, and to certain services which I have been able to render to our Fatherland and to my fellow men. Your sympathy makes the lamp which is about to be extinguished in the everlasting night shine with a final brilliancy. The respect of humanity for old men is the expression of the solidarity uniting present generations with those that have preceded us and with those that are to follow. What we are, in fact, is only to a very slight degree attributable to our personal labour and individuality. We owe it almost entirely to our ancestors, ancestors by blood and our spiritual ancestors. If each of us adds something to the common domain in the field of science, of art, of morality, it is because a long series of generations have lived, worked, thought and suffered before us. It is the patient labours of our predecessors who created the science that you are honouring to-day. Each of us, whatever his individual initiative, must also attribute a considerable portion of his success to contemporary savants concurring with him in the great common task. In fact, no one-let us proclaim it loudly-no one has the right to lay exclusive claim to any of the brilliant discoveries of the past century. Science is essentially a collective work, prosecuted during the course of time by the efforts of a multitude of workers of all ages and every nation succeeding one another and associated by a tacit understanding for the search of pure truth, and for the application of this truth to the continuous transformation of the condition of all men.

Of yore savants were looked upon as a little group of amateurs and men of leisure maintained at the charge of the working classes, and executing a task of luxury and pure curiosity for the amusement and distraction of those favoured by fortune. devotion to the truth and our services, this prejudice, finally This narrow and unjust view which paid so little heed to our disappeared when the development of science showed that the laws of nature were applicable to the practice of industries, and had as a consequence the substitution for the old traditional and empirical receipts of the profitable rules of the theories based on observation and experience. To-day who would venture to regard science as a sterile amusement in presence of the general increase of national and private wealth which results therefrom? To confine ourselves to mentioning the most interesting perhaps of the services which science has dition of the popular classes in the past as revealed to us by rendered, it suffices to compare the servile and miserable conhistorical documents with their condition at present, already so advanced in dignity and well-being without counting the just hopes of which they are pursuing the realisation. Is there a statesman who doubts the services, greater still, which are to be looked for as the result of this incessant progress? Science

is the benefactor of mankind. Thus it is that the tangible utility of scientific results has convinced the State that laboratory work should be encouraged and sustained, because it is economically a benefit to all, and for the public health. Science carries still further its legitimate pretensions. It claims today at once the material direction, the intellectual direction, and the moral direction of human society. Under its impulse modern civilisation marches with a more and more rapid stride.

Since the first half of the century that has just gone by, not to go further back, the world has strangely changed its face. Men of my generation have beheld coming on the scene by the

side of and above that nature which had been known since antiquity, if not an antiphysis, a counter nature, as is sometimes said, yet a superior and in a way transcendent nature where the power of the individual is multiplied a hundredfold by the transformation, hitherto unknown or not understood, borrowed from light, magnetism and electricity. Nor is this all. Let us rise to a loftier and more fruitful range of ideas. From the deeper knowledge of the universe and the physical and moral constitution of man there results a fresh conception of human destiny governed by the fundamental ideas of human solidarity between all classes and all nations. In proportion as the ties uniting the peoples are multiplied and made tighter by the progress of science and the unity of doctrines and precepts which science deduces from the facts which it notes and which it imposes without violence, yet relentlessly, upon all convictions, these ideas have assumed a growing and more and more irresistible importance. They are tending to become the purely human bases of moral life and of the politics of the future. Hence the rôle of savants as individuals and as a social class has constantly grown in modern States.

BERTHELOT, AND THE METALS OF ANTIQUITY.

THE

HE metals of antiquity are among the many subjects which, from time to time, have been studied by that he has investigated the matter: (1) the writings of M. Berthelot. It is principally by two different methods ancient alchymists, (2) the analysis of metallic objects sent him by modern explorers. In 1885 Berthelot published a handsome volume, "Les Origines de l'Alchimie," in which he described his researches among the Greek papyri, and the still older documents of the Egyptian, Chaldean, Jewish, Gnostic and Chinese philosophers. in succeeding years he brought out several volumes under the title of "Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs,' under the auspices of the Minister of Public Instruction. By far the most important for the present purpose is the collection of papyrifat Leyden. The Papyrus X is more especially chemical. It dates from the end of the third century, but contains the lore of earlier times. I: is described in fairly full detail in the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 1886, vol. ix. Berthelot shows that the earlier alchemy was not founded upon purely chimerical fancies, but rests upon positive experiment, by which the adepts made imitations of gold and silver and precious stones, or taught how to increase their weight. In interpreting these ancient writings we are met with great difficulty in fixing the meaning of the terms used for the metals and gems and the preparations made from them, the vagueness of the language being augmented by the idea that these substances were susceptible o transmutation into one another, and also by the Platonic doctrine of a primary matter from which everything may be derived. In this particular papyrus there are no less than 101 receipts for making gold, asèm (electrum), silver, &c., and the processes to be adopted. These are de scribed by Berthelot as being genuine and definite, and not overlaid with fanciful notions; but the later philoso

ence.

The medal (or rather plaque) with suitable inscription was then presented to M. Berthelot by M. Loubet, the President of the Republic, and, according to continental fashion, the ceremony was concluded with a fraternal

embrace.

Such is a brief account of the proceedings at this very interesting ceremony; and one is led to seek for analogies in our own country. The Kelvin jubilee at Glasgow and the Stokes jubilee at Cambridge may be cited as events of a similar character; but in France the ceremony appeared to be of greater national importance, owing to the presence of the Head of the State, the Ministers and the Ambassadors. In his reply M. Berthelot alluded humorously to the former position of science; it was regarded as a harmless pursuit, carried on by amateurs and men of leisure at the charge of the working classes, for the amusement and distraction of those favoured by fortune; it has now become one of the most potent influences for civilisation that the world has known, and will ever retain that position. Is it possible that in England the former view of science still retains some hold on the people, and that in France this aspect of science has long been outlived? Whether this be so or not it is certain that all Englishmen will join with the whole French nation in congratulating M. Berthelot on the completion of so many years of work, and will wish him health and a long life during which he may enrich the world by further investigations into the wide domain of Nature.

and governed by mystic ideas: thus there was supposed to be a connection between the seven known metals and the seven planets, seven colours and seven transmutations. The later alchymists threw their energies into the search after the philosopher's stone which was to trans mute baser metals into gold.

More important, perhaps, than his studies of the ancient manuscripts has been the prominent part which Berthelot has taken in examining chemically the metallic objects which have been unearthed by the great explorers of the the greater part of the countries bordering the Mediter present day. These researches are being carried on over ranean and extending to the Persian Gulf. It is hardly necessary to say that they are enabling us to picture to ourselves these great nationalities of old in a way that was never before possible. The part that Berthelot bas taken is not that of an explorer, but that of a scientinc analyst; and it has been mainly confined to the metals employed in these ancient civilisations. He commenced Chaldæa, some from the palace of Sargon at Khorsabad, by examining different Assyrian objects from ancient others from the mounds of Tello excavated by M. de Sarzec, now in the museum of the Louvre. M. Place had found in the palace of Sargon a stone coffer contain ing votive tablets, covered with cuneiform inscriptions giving the date of foundation of the palace as B.C. 70% Of the four now in the museum of the Louvre, one is of gold, another of silver, a third of bronze and the fourth of the rare mineral crystallised carbonate of magnesia. Judging from the inscriptions two of the other tablets are believed to have been of lead and tin. The discoveries at Tello consisted of a vase of antimony, a metal which had subsequently been lost sight of for many centuries: a tablet of metallic copper, much corroded, but free from tin; and a little figure of pure copper, bearing the name

of King Gudea, which fixes its date somewhere about 4000 years before the Christian era. This led Berthelot to speculate why these specimens were made of copper instead of the harder bronze, which, so far as his experience had then gone, was used by all the ancients. He applied to Maspero for some specimens of the oldest copper of which the date could be identified. Maspero recommended to him the so-called sceptre of Pepi I., an Egyptian king of the sixth dynasty, 3500-4000 B.C. This was in the British Museum, but, through the good offices of M. Waddington, it was placed in the hands of M. Berthelot with permission to analyse a small portion from the interior. It proved to be of pure copper. It was a natural supposition that tin was unknown in that remote age; and this was confirmed by the discovery in Chaldæa of some little figures serving to support votive tablets, associated with bricks that bore the name of King Ourmina, who is supposed to have reigned 4000 years B. C. They were also of copper, without either tin or zinc.

In the meantime Prof. Flinders Petrie had been carrying on his excavations in Egypt and had asked me to analyse some copper tools and utensils from early tombs and other ruins. They proved to contain little or no tin, though many of them contained arsenic. Evidence of the gradual transition from the use of pure copper to that of copper alloyed with tin was accumulating from various quarters, but the most striking, perhaps, was that furnished by Tell el Hesy, the Lachish of scripture. It was explored by Mr. F. J. Bliss, and is described in his book entitled "A Mound of Many Cities." The lower portion of this mound represents the Amorite city, dating about 1700 B.C.; it contained large weapons of war made of copper without admixture of tin. Above this are the remains of the Israelitish city, where the copper is replaced by 'bronze, till in the upper layers of the mound the bronze is gradually replaced by iron. Greece has also furnished its contributions. The analyses of Roberts-Austen, Damour and others had shown that the implements first used at Tyryns, Mikenai and other towns were of copper with little, if any, admixture of tin; and similar evidence is coming forward from Cyprus, Crete and other quarters. At Hissarlik, the reputed Troy, the analysis of the objects found in the first and second cities showed that they were made of copper with mere traces of tin, while in the third and more recent cities the copper was mixed with varying amounts of tin, from 4 to 8 per cent. or thereabouts.

These researches were followed by an important paper in the Annales of 1895, in which Berthelot discussed the nature and origin of the metals employed by the ancient Egyptians of various epochs, especially copper, tin, gold and silver. The general result was that up to the sixth dynasty the copper used was practically what they obtained from the ores; after this the copper was mixed with small quantities of tin, rarely exceeding 6 per cent. At about the twelfth dynasty 10 per cent. became the usual proportion, forming a very serviceable bronze, but Occasionally as inuch as 16 per cent. was used.

In the same paper he investigates the cause of the "sickness" of copper objects in our museums. They often fall to pieces through the formation of atacamite, a cupric oxychloride. This is started by the presence of chloride of sodium in the soil and the carbonic acid and oxygen of the air, and is a curious and complicated case of continuous chemical action.

It became a matter of interest to explore the ancient workings for copper, turquoise and hematite in Wady Maghara in the Sinaitic peninsula, which is known to have been a source of supply in the time of the third Egyptian dynasty. M. de Morgan made a careful search, at M. Berthelot's instigation, and found not only specimens of the ores, but also remains of the tools that had been used. The mines are believed to have been abandoned about the time of the eighteenth dynasty, in

The tools were

consequence of the poverty of the ores. of copper, hardened sometimes by a little tin and at other times by arsenic.

More recently Berthelot has examined some copper objects found at Tello, believed to be of very high antiquity. One was a huge lance of very red metal, the others were adzes and hatchets. They were almost pure copper. It may be an open question whether any attempt was made at this period to harden copper by the introduction of other metals.

From the palace of Sargon there were also obtained objects of gold foil, which was not adulterated with copper or lead, but contained a considerable amount of silver; this, however, may simply indicate that as native gold commonly contains more or less silver, it had been used in the state in which it was found without any intentional admixture. Berthelot also tested some gold objects from Egypt, the one dating from the sixth and the other from the twelfth dynasty, and found the amount of silver varied from 32 to 45 per cent., while the gold of the Persian period was practically pure.

But a more ancient chapter of Egyptian archæology was opened by the recent researches of M. de Morgan, late Director-General of Antiquities in Egypt. He explored an enormous tomb of a very ancient king, which he supposes to be that of Menes, of the first dynasty, approximately 4400 B.C. Among the objects found here were a long bead and two or three other morsels of metal, which M. Berthelot certifies to be of gold, together with some articles in copper. Further explorations at or near Abydos, by M. Amélineau, have shown the existence of tombs of kings about the same period containing many copper utensils, which M. Berthelot found to be of almost pure metal, but sometimes containing a little arsenic. These tombs are now being very carefully explored by Prof. Flinders Petrie, and the results are published by the "Egyptian Exploration Fund" in three large volumes, "Diospolis Parva," and "The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties," parts i. and ii. It would appear that in these prehistoric times the metals mostly used were gold and copper; objects made of silver and lead are found, but they are rare.

As gold occurs native and is of a striking colour, we need not wonder that it attracted the attention of men in the very earliest periods. It is astonishing the large amount of exquisite gold jewellery, inlaid with gems, that has been found, not only in the tombs of Queen Ahhotpu and of the four princesses buried at Dahshur about 2350 B.C., but in these far more ancient royal tombs. In one of them Flinders Petrie found four gold bracelets encircling the arm bone of a royal personage, presumably the wife of King Zer. These are made of gold, set with turquoises and amethysts, and so beautifully wrought that the soldering cannot be detected by the eye. My analysis of the gold foil found in three of these tombs showed that it contained about 13 per cent. of silver, and was evidently the pale gold commonly known in the Levant. The gold worked in the Nubian mines appears to have been of a purer quality.

The last paper that has been communicated by Berthelot contains a description of a very curious case, or shrine, found at Thebes. It is of the time of Queen Shapenapit, daughter of King Piankhi, who lived in the latter part of the seventh century B.C. This inlaid case is remarkable as containing, in addition to the ordinary metals of the time, a small piece of crude platinum, weighing between five and six milligrammes. It had evidently been worked with the hammer, and had probably been mistaken by the artificer for silver.

Though not himself one of the explorers in the field, Berthelot must ever be remembered for the important part he has taken in drawing attention to, and interpreting the results of their wonderful discoveries.

J. H. GLADSTONE.

is fed continuously with sand and water, the sharp particles of sand gradually cutting a groove. As the groove is deepened the cord must necessarily be kept applied to the rock. This is effected by guiding-pulleys mounted in pits sunk at the ends of the proposed cut. These pulleys must be at least 20 inches in diameter, and the pits somewhat larger. For sinking these pits there are employed in some Belgian quarries a rotative borer composed of a steel tube cutting an annular groove. The wire saw was applied at Carrara for subdividing blocks of marble, but the impracticability of using the revolving cylinder or hand labour for sinking inclined pits was an obstacle to its further use. The difficulty was, however, overcome by Mr. A. Monticolo, who invented an ingenious appliance which he termed a penetrating pulley, with which it is possible to replace the somewhat costly pit by a bore-hole 3 inches in diameter. The penetrating pulley consists of a disc 20 inches in diameter and inch thick, with a semicircular groove round its periphery deep enough to take half the thickness of the wire, the other half projecting. The disc is mounted on a pivot and is supported by a hollow steel shaft of slightly smaller diameter than the bore-hole. To the shaft is attached a series of tubes of equal diameter forming a column that may be lengthened at will, in the interior of

SIR WILLIAM ROBERTS-AUSTEN, K.C.B., F.R.S., will deliver the tenth "James Forrest " lecture at the Institution of Civil Engineers on April 17, 1902, the subject being "Metallurgy in Relation to Engineering."

THE governing committee of the Allegheny Observatory has decided to erect a 30-in. reflector at that institution as a memorial to the late Prof. Keeler. As it is expected that the funds subscribed will exceed the estimated cost of the instru ment (20007.), the balance will be used either to found a general fellowship for the study of astrophysics, or the award of a Keeler medal for work in the same field.

THE Royal Society of Public Medicine of Belgium has awarded Prof. Corfield, of University College, London, its bronze medal in recognition of his devotion to public health work.

A SUCCESSFUL kinematograph of the Severn bore was exhibited by Dr. Vaughan Cornish at the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday. This is, we believe, the first time that the impressive movement of a tidal bore has been recorded by photography and the phenomenon reproduced before an audience by a series of moving pictures.

which is a fine tube serving for the lubrication of the pivots. As the cut deepens the pulley is fed down autonatically by means of an eccentric. For cutting a groove, Iwo bore-holes, to receive the shafts carrying the axes of the pulleys, are first made by hand or by the diamond drill. The pulley was first applied in March 1898 at the Campanile quarry, Carrara, where cuts have been made 50 feet long and 16 feet deep, inclined at an angle of five degrees from the horizontal. The highly satisfactory results obtained with the penetrating pulley serve to show that there is a great saving of expense by the substitution of bore-holes for pits, far less waste of valuable marble, and increased rapidity of quarrying and consequently increased output.

Almost simultaneously with the publication of Mr. Williams' report, the Revue Générale des Sciences pubished an exhaustive article by Mr. J. Boyer on the present condition of the French marble industry. This article is profusely illustrated and contains a large amount of information relating to the use of the wire From this article the two illustrations accompanying this note have been borrowed.

saw

NOTES.

DK. F. MCCLEAN and Sir John Murray, whose names were eladed in the list of the new Council of the Royal Society Oven in NATURE of November 14, are unable to serve; and the two Fellows recommended for election in their places are the Right Hon. Sir John Gorst and Prof. H. H. Turner.

A NEW Highland meteorological station has been established at Achariach in Glen Nevis, 44 miles S. E. of the Low Level Observatory at Fort William, and 24 miles S. W. of the observatory on Ben Nevis. The station is about 150 feet above sea-level, and the observations in the valley will be especially interesting in connection with the study of descending currents of cold air from the glens in the vicinity.

THE Council of the Royal Meteorological Society has designated Dr. Alexander Buchan, F.R.S., as the first recipient of the Symons gold medal in recognition of the valuable work which he has done in connection with meteorological science. This medal, which is to be awarded biennially, was founded in memory of the late Mr. G. J. Symons, F. R.S., the distinguished meteorologist and originator of the British Rainfall Organisation. The medal will be presented at the annual meeting of the Society on January 15, 1902.

A REUTER telegram announces that the Gauss, with the German Antarctic Expedition on board, arrived at Cape Town on Saturday morning, after being six weeks overdue. After leaving Hamburg on August II the Gauss touched at Las Palmas, and St. Vincent Islands. Deep-sea soundings were taken towards the west, but the ship did not go so far as the American coast. The Gauss was under sail the whole time, and the scientific observations made are said to be most satisfactory. The vessel will remain at Cape Town for ten days, and will then proceed to Kerguelen Island.