128 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The next step of prehistoric progress 

 consisted in entering upon the use of metal 

 instead of stone for the construction of 

 weapons and implements of industry. It 

 is probable that gold, which commonly oc- 

 curs native and brilliant, was the first metal 

 that attracted the attention of mankind ; 

 and it is likely that the next metal discov- 

 ered was copper, which also occurs native, 

 and has many points of resemblance to gold. 

 It was found in sufficient abundance to be 

 available for working, and was probably 

 the material out of which the first metallic 

 utensils were manufactured. The State of 

 Wisconsin alone has furnished upward of 

 one hundred axes, spear-heads, and knives 

 formed of copper. On the shores of Lake 

 Superior native copper occurs in great 

 abundance, and no doubt attracted the at- 

 tention of the early occupants of the coun- 

 try. Dr. Evans remarks that, " accustomed 

 to the use of stone, they would at first regard 

 the metal as a stone of peculiarly heavy 

 nature, and on attempting to chip it or work 

 it into shape would at once discover that 

 it yielded to a blow instead of breaking, 

 and that in fact it was a malleable stone." 

 The great majority of these copper instru- 

 ments hitherto found, if not all, have been 

 hammered and not cast, so that the working 

 of metal into shape by melting it was prob- 

 ably a later acquisition. There is reason to 

 believe that there was what may be called a 

 " Copper Age," in parts of North America, 

 but in Europe the traces of it are feeble, if 

 not totally wanting. 



Bronze is formed by the admixture or 

 alloy of tin with copper in the molten state, 

 and the effect of this mixture results in 

 hardening the product, so that the resulting 

 bronze becomes much more useful for many 

 mechanical purposes than copper. There 

 is overwhelming evidence that bronze greatly 

 predominated for these purposes before iron 

 was employed ; the passage to iron and steel 

 constituting a further step of advancement, 

 and leading to a subsequent " Iron Age." 

 Bronze abounded in ancient Egypt, while 

 iron was but little used, and there are only 

 thirteen references to iron in the Pentateuch, 

 while bronze is mentioned forty-four times. 



Dr. Evans's volume contains 540 illustra- 

 tions of hatchets, chisels, gouges, hammers, 

 sickles, knives, razors, daggers, halberds, 



maces, swords, scabbards, spear-heads, 

 shields, trumpets, bells, pins, bracelets, 

 rings, clasps, buttons, buckles, and vessels 

 of all kinds, that are formed of bronze, and 

 that have been collected and classified with 

 the view of throwing light upon the history 

 of the " Bronze Period." And in regard to 

 their scientific significance the author re- 

 marks : " It may by some be thought that a 

 vast amount of useless trouble has been 

 bestowed in figuring and describing so 

 many varieties of what were, after all, in 

 most cases, the ordinary tools of the artifi- 

 cer, or the common arms of the warrior or 

 huntsman, which differed from each other 

 only in apparently unimportant particulars. 

 But as in biological studies minute anatomy 

 often affords the most trustworthy evidence 

 as to the descent of any given organism 

 from some earlier form of life, so these 

 minor details in the form and character of 

 ordinary implements, which to the cursory 

 observer appear devoid of meaning, may, to 

 a skillful archa3ologist, afford valuable clews 

 by which the march of the bronze civiliza- 

 tion over Europe can be traced to its origi- 

 nal starting-place. I am far from saying 

 that this has as yet been satisfactorily ac- 

 complished, and to my mind it will only be 

 by accumulating a far larger mass of facts 

 than we at present possess that comparative 

 archaeology will be able to triumph over the 

 difficulties with which its path is still beset." 



The Journal of Physiology. Edited by 

 Gamgee, Rutherfurd, Burdon-Sanderson, 

 Bowditch, Martin, Wood, and Michael 

 Foster. 



We have received numbers I and II of 

 Volume III of this important periodical, to- 

 gether with the supplement of Volume III, 

 and we again call attention to it as having 

 high claims upon the medical profession 

 and all interested in the progress of physio- 

 logical science. It is conducted by the very 

 ablest men in England and this country, 

 and, by their labors and the contributions 

 of other investigators, it thoroughly repre- 

 sents the advance of research in this fruitful 

 field of inquiry. The papers in number I, 

 "On the Antagonism of Poisons," "The 

 Influence of Quinine upon the Reflex Ex- 

 citability of the Spinal Cord," " The Rate 

 of Propagation of the Arterial Pulse-Wave," 



