Mining Academies of Saxony and Hungary. 319 



The mode of partially obviating this evil, would be to sepa- 

 rate more decidedly the departments of the mine and the 

 smelting-fumace ; for although a portion of the earlier 

 studies is necessary as a preparatory course for both, most 

 of what follows cannot be obtained but at a great expendi- 

 ture of time and labour ; and in the ordinary routine it is as 

 foreign to the business of the metallurgist to construct the 

 timbering of a shaft, as to that of a miner to build a blast- 

 furnace. There are some cases, it is true, where works are to 

 be conducted in an uncivilized country, when such an ex- 

 tended knowledge must he highly desirable ; but for these a 

 fuller course of preparation is clearly necessary. 



To Freiberg this remark is not so applicable as to Schem- 

 nitz, since in the former the two classes are kept more distinct; 

 and it is probably to this source that we may trace the im- 

 provements, — more particularly in metallurgy, which emanate 

 from the Saxon Academy. In Austria it has been too com- 

 mon to pass men from one department to the other, as if skill 

 in the one point must necessarily indicate a good acquaint- 

 ance with another ; upon the same principle which, ere now, 

 has elevated a good oarsman on the Golden Horn from his 

 humble cayeek to the command of an army. On the other 

 hand, I cannot but bear witness that the pupils of the Hun- 

 garian Academy, when full scope is given to them in the 

 department which they have chiefly pursued, yield to none in 

 the science and practical skill which they bring to bear on 

 their object, as evinced particularly in some of their silver 

 furnaces, in the water-pressure engines of Mr Adriany, and 

 the improved dressing works lately erected on a large scale 

 by Mr Rittengen, under the direction of the Oberstkammer- 

 graf von Svaiczer. 



The nature of the metalliferous deposits in the two mining 

 districts is so different, that it becomes difficult to institute a 

 comparison between operations carried on necessarily in a 

 very different manner to suit the character of the ground ; 

 and only so much is certain, that the system of each place 

 is that best calculated to work to advantage its own lodes 

 under their peculiar circumstances. At Freiberg we have a 



