220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Much more might be remarked in refutation of Professor Miiller's 

 thesis, but I have probably ah'eady tired the reader's patience. I hope 

 enough has been said to show that this learned author has not even 

 brought out a clear and consistent statement of bis own position, 

 much less to have effected any "revolution in philosophy." I have 

 not discussed his theory of the formation of roots in language, for 

 such a discussion seems unnecessary after the examination thus far 

 made into the nature of thought. Nor do I sto]) to consider his lament 

 over the neglect of Kant among later English thinkers, I can see no 

 evidence that Kant has been neglected or failed to receive the atten- 

 tion that is his due ; but all this is quite irrelevant to Professor Miil- 

 ler's argument. As for the latter it is self -contradicted in his own 

 book, and any thorough analysis of mental operations would, as seems 

 to me, independently demonstrate its fallaciousness. Altogether, the 

 impression made upon the reader of " The Science of Thought " is that 

 of a work written by a man, who, possessed by his favorite science, en- 

 deavors to use it for the exjjlanation of all other sciences without much 

 reference to the results which an unbiased and dispassionate study of 

 those sciences would yield. 



Professor Muller informs us that his book was written for himself 

 and for a few friends, with whom he has been traveling for many 

 years on the same road. We are grateful for the permission to join 

 this band of peripatetics for the while, and, if pressing duties elsewhere 

 oblige us to part from them, we can cordially thank Professor Muller 

 for a charming entertainment, reserving, of course, to ourselves that 

 liberty, which all good society allows, of afterward abusing the com- 

 pany. 



THE METALS OF ANCIENT CHALDEA. 



By M. p. E. BEETHELOT. 



IN the pursuit of my studies of the origins of alchemy and the 

 metals of antiquity, I have had occasion to examine substances re- 

 covered from the Palace of Sargon at Khorsabad, and from the exca- 

 vations made by M. de Sarzec at Tello, as they are preserved in the 

 Museum of the Louvre. I intend to describe the results of my analy- 

 ses, and then to examine a number of new or little-known documents 

 relative to the origin of the tin used by the ancients in the manufact- 

 ure of bronze. 



In the course of his excavations, in 1854, M. Place discovered, under 

 one of the angular stones of the Palace of Sargon, at Khorsabad, a 

 stone chest containing votive tablets, covered with very clear cunei- 

 form inscriptions commemorating the foundation of the building, 

 B. c. 706. According to M. Place, there were five of these tablets ; 

 but the form of the inscriptions indicates that there were seven of 



