277 
ORDINARY MEETING.* 
THe PRESIDENT, Sir GeorcE G. Stoxss, Barr., M.P., P.R.S., 
IN THE CHAIR. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the 
following Elections were announced :— 
Member :—Rey. Principal A. Cave, D.D., St. Andrew’s, B.A., London, 
Hackney College. 
Assocrates :—His Excellency A. C. S. Barkly, C.M.G., Governor ot 
Heligoland ; Rev. 8. L. Dixon, London; Rev. 8S. M. Mayhew, Vice- 
Pres. Arch. Assoc., London. 
The following Paper was then read by the Author :— 
THE DAWN OF METALLURGY. 
By the Rey. J. Macuns Matto, M.A., F.G.S., Ere. 
6 es origin of Metallurgy amongst the races of mankind is 
involved in much obscurity. How was the art of smelt- 
ing the metallic ores discovered? When, by whom, and 
in what country? These are difficult questions to answer. 
The Hebrew record in the Book of Genesis contains what 
appears to be the earliest written notice of the discovery, in 
the passage Winch says that one of the descendants of Cain, 
Tubal Cain, was “a sharpener or instructor of every artificer 
in copper [or, as it may be read, bronze] and iron.” Lenor- 
mant and other writers tell us that the more recent results 
of archeological and philological study tend to show that 
metallurgy had been invented long before the dispersion of 
the sons of Noah, and that whilst they were acquainted with 
the use of metals, they had derived that knowledge from 
people who were anterior to, and even, it may be, unconnected 
directly with themselves. Tt is said that the cuneiform in- 
scriptions ‘‘ give us a glimpse of an ancient civilised Asia at 
a period when the Aryans and Semites were still living a 
pastoral life, an Asia which was in all respects non-Aryan.”’ 
* March 18, 1889. 
