1867.] 149 [Fleury. 



manipulation. No crystalline texture or perfectly white stone, sup- 

 planting marble has been produced by him. In this country, a gen- 

 tleman ot" New York, Prof". Benj. Hardinge, already, some twelve 

 years back, prepared by a peculiar process, not made public, a solu- 

 tion of silica wherein the silica was largely in excess, and alter long 

 years of trials and many experiments, has recently succeeded in 

 casing white and colored fiint-marble without heat and pressure. By 

 mixing his compound soasto introduce into the mass the exact amount 

 of water of crystallization, and not more, he Avas able to make stones 

 that crystallize and harden y/'o/?i the centre outward. 



His samples of snow-white flint-marble, as also his various other 

 stones, will shortly be exhibited in this city, and no doubt excite the 

 attention and approbation of the citizens of Boston. 



As this is not a place for advertisement, 1 omit the details of 

 my lately discovered process for the pi-oduction of a pure hydrate 

 of silica dissolved in water, with the assistance of electricity and 

 Avithout alkali. 



1 close Avith the Avish that the many uses of the liquid flint may 

 call forth an ample response for its manufacture in this city, Avhile 

 at the same time the scientific skill of our American chemists and 

 physicists be i.nited in their efforts to study ibe bidden laAvs of 

 Nature that are at work in the formation of our rocks. 



The Secretary read a j^aper by Col. Whittlesey of ClcA^e- 

 land on the weapons and military character of the Race of 

 the Mounds. The author brought to notice the curious fact 

 that while extensive fortifications built by the Mound race 

 remain scattered OA^er the plains of Ohio, no AA^eapons formed 

 exclusively for Avarfare have yet been discoA-ered, nor are 

 there any indications that the defences have e\'er been at- 

 tacked. He concluded that the weapons were probably made 

 of Avood, and that the fortifications Avere abandoned on the 

 approach of the foe. He also remarked that Avhile in Euroije 

 ethnological writers distinguish the progress of mechanical 

 arts among men as the ages of Stone, of Bronze and of Iron, 

 in the Western States the ancient inhabitants did not foUoAv 

 this order of progress, but rather retrograded. He believed 

 that the European age of Bronze corresponded to the age 

 of Copper in this country, to Avhich the age of Stone had 

 succeeded, and that to this age the Indians of the present 

 day belonged. 



