820 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gold as there was of silver. A second medal was prepared in 

 the same way. 



" They also took a silver medal, filed down one half of it on 

 either side, without touching the other half, till they reduced it 

 to about the thickness of a playing-card. Then, taking half of a 

 medal of gold, they split it, and reducing the two parts in the 

 required proportions, adjusted the outside parts over the silver 

 core, preserving the proper arrangement of the designer. They 

 then had a whole medal, half silver and half gold, but with the 

 gold part stuffed with silver. This, they said, was a silver medal 

 which had not lain long enough in the elixir, and had only been 

 partly transmuted. 



" Half of a third medal was superficially gilded with an amal- 

 gam of gold, and represented a piece which, having been merely 

 dipped into the elixir, had only begun to turn. 



" When this game was played, the golden parts of the three 

 pieces were whitened with mercury, so as to look as if they were 

 all silver. To make the deception more complete, the per- 

 former, who should' have a knack for conjuring, exhibited three 

 genuine silver pieces that had not been tampered with, and per- 

 mitted the audience to examine them. Taking them back, he 

 slyly substituted his prepared pieces for them ; fixed these in his 

 glasses, poured in as much of his elixir as suited him, and with- 

 drew them at the lapse of the designated intervals of time. He 

 threw them into the fire and left them there long enough to drive 

 away the mercury with which the gold was masked. Then he 

 took them out, looking as if they were half of silver and half of 

 gold ; but with the difference that, in cutting the parts that 

 seemed to be of gold, one was merely gilded on the surface, 

 another was gold filled with silver, and the third was gold all 

 through. 



" Chemistry furnished these tricksters with other most subtle 

 means of carrying out their deceptions. It was also possible to 

 introduce another, lighter metal into gold, which, while reducing 

 its weight to that of an equal volume of silver, would not change 

 its color, or separate from it in any part of the process." Trans- 

 lated for the Popular Science Monthly from La Nature. 



Mant very curious features of language are exhibited in Dr. Leitner's book 

 on the Hunzas of Dardistan. The substantive can not be used without the per- 

 sonal pronoun ; as if we could say "my heart," "thy heart," or "his heart," but 

 not "heart" by itself. The plurals of many feminine nouns are masculine, and 

 vice versa. In the verb "to be" or "to become," as well as in numerous other 

 verbs, there are different plurals for men, women, animals, etc., and the latter are 

 again subdivided according to sex. Objects also are distinguished into male and 

 female, according to their fancied stronger or weaker uses. 



