May 30, 1912] 
Society, founded by that enthusiastic scholar, Sir 
W. Jones, in 1784, naturally complains that its 
scientific work is hampered in this way. 
The managers of an Oriental society are, again, 
confronted by the difficulty that the best scientific 
NATURE 
workers are usually hard-worked officials, and that | 
continuity of effort is impeded by the constant 
changes in the staff due to deaths, transfers, in- 
validing, and furloughs. It is, of course, true 
that at present the lack of trained workers tends 
to limit its activity ; but, as in the case of the Celtic 
movement in Ireland, nationalist aspirations are 
beginning to attract increased attention to the 
science, art, antiquities, and literature of India, 
and a body of men of science is being gradually 
created which is prepared to devote itself to un- 
remunerative investigation. The larger attend- 
ance of educated Bengalis at the meetings of the 
society is a welcome indication of progress. 
At the present time an opportunity is being 
offered to the British and native residents of Cal- 
cutta of asserting their claim that their city should 
be regarded as a centre of scientific life, even if 
the seat of the Executive Government be removed 
to Delhi. The society’s buildings, erected in 1807, 
at present, owing to the ravages of time and 
especially to the great earthquake of 1897, no 
longer provide safe accommodation for its meet- 
ings, library, and other collections. With the aid 
of a liberal grant from the Government of India— 
that of Bengal has strangely refused to cooperate 
—a scheme for the erection of new buildings is | 
under consideration. We trust that the liberality 
of the citizens of Calcutta will provide for the 
erection of a more worthy edifice than that at 
present contemplated. 
Meanwhile, under the control of a capable 
council, it exhibits a record of which any society 
may be proud—an increase of membership from 
357 to 508 in the period 1g05-1910. This result 
is largely due to the establishment of a branch 
medical society, devoted to the study of Oriental 
disease and to the examination of the material 
which Indian hospitals provide with such liberality | 
| shown by a regulation assigned to the time of 
for the use of the physiologist and the anatomist. 
This is a most effective means of keeping the 
physician and surgeon, isolated in a country 
station, in touch with recent scientific progress. 
Another promising sphere of the work of the | 
society is the examination of the extension of 
Buddhist and Hindu art and beliefs across the 
Himalaya into Tibet. This is a fitting com- 
memoration of that devoted pioneer in this branch 
of learning, Csoma de Koros, a member of the 
society. For the prosecution of these studies the 
society has lately acquired a copy of the great 
Tibetan cyclopedia, the Tangyur. 
The set of the recent issues of the society’s 
Proceedings and monographs now before us illus- 
trate the wide scope of its operations in the study 
of the natural sciences, ethnology, archzology, 
and philology. We may congratulate it on its 
present state of efficiency, which offers a promise 
of successful exploration of the various fields of | 
science which India and its borderlands present 
in such abundance and interest. 
NO. 2222, VoL. 89] 
| the recent prospectors. 
IES) 
THE MINERAL PROSPECTS IN THE 
ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDAN.} 
fee Anglo-Egyptian occupation of the Sudan 
led to the hope that the ancient mines might 
again be worked successfully. The geological 
structure of the country was known to be not 
unpropitious, for though a large proportion is 
covered by barren sheets of Nubian Sandstone, 
there are vast areas of metamorphic rocks invaded 
by igneous intrusions. The country was known 
to have yielded much gold to ancient miners, and 
some is still found and exported from the adja- 
cent parts of Abyssinia. Large concessions have 
been granted to British syndicates and carefully 
prospected. Many of these areas were taken up 
owing to the remains on them of ancient work- 
ings. The results of the prospecting expeditions 
have, however, been most disappointing; gold is 
found to be widely distributed in small quantities, 
but, so far, has not been found in quantities that 
will pay to mine under modern conditions. There 
is only one gold mine working in the Sudan, and 
its yield to December, 1910, was only 45,308I. 
Lead and copper ores are known to exist; iron 
is abundant, and there are salt deposits which will 
be of local value. Coal occurs in Abyssinia, and 
poor lignite in the Sudan. There seems, however, 
no immediate prospect of the Sudan becoming an 
important mining country, owing to the expense 
of access and the scarcity of water and fuel. 
Mr, S. C. Dunn, the director of the Geological 
Survey of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, has not, 
therefore, a hopeful story to tell as the result of 
the past ten years’ operations. He has wisely 
issued as a bulletin a statement of the historic 
evidence as to the mineral resources of the 
country, and a collection of the chief reports by 
He regards eighty-five old 
workings as certainly due either to the ancient 
Egyptians or to Arabs before the tenth century 
A.D., though none of these have proved to be 
capable of being worked at a profit under modern 
conditions. The antiquity of Sudanese mining is 
Menes in the thirty-eighth century B.c., by which 
the bimetallists of that period fixed the price of 
silver as two and a half times that of gold, and 
it was not until 2000 B.c. that the rise in the price 
of gold rendered the two metals of equal value. 
The bulletin also contains a translation of some 
passages from Russegger’s ‘‘Reisen,” which 
refer to his discoveries and reports as to the 
occurrence of gold in the eastern Sudan made 
during his expedition from 1835-1841. 
Russegger found abundant traces of gold anc 
gold mining, and described the district around 
Beni Shangul on the western side of the Blue Nile 
as a “veritable Eldorado,” but it has not proved 
so to the London and Sudan Development Syndi- 
cate, though the natives still wash gold from the 
gulleys between the rains and the harvest. Mr. 
1 “Notes on the Mineral Deposits of the Anglo-Egvptian Sudan.” By 
Stanley C. Dunn. Pp. 70+2 mans. Publishe’ by the Sudan Government. 
(Khartoum: The Sudan Press; Edinhurgh: Oliverand Boyd, 19rz.) Price 
P.T. 74, or 1s. 6@. (The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Geological Survey, 
3ulletin No. 1.) 
