126 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE TRIASSIC AND 



with philosophy except as a mere enumeration. Indeed, 

 we see that in the Sankhya philosophy ether cqmes first ; 

 but of more importance is the fact that we have no proof 

 of the chemical arts being well known in India ; and there 

 is no historic indication of their existence connected with 

 a system of philosophy. This is very conclusive, because 

 Indian philosophy is well preserved : it is full of speculation 

 and subtle abstraction ; but it is not experimental ; and 

 from experiment must have arisen the great power which 

 is in the hand of the chemist, the science of chemia. 



The connexion between the " elixir of life " and aqua 

 vitce is by no means new, although the mode of approaching 

 it here may be so. 



XV. Notes on a Bore through Triassic and Permian Strata, 

 lately made at Openshaw. By E. W. Binney, V.P., 



F.H.S., &c. 



Eead February loth, 1880. 



For many years attention has been given by local geolo- 

 gists to the district lying between the Manchester coal- 

 field and that of Aston-under-Lyne and Oldham. The 

 first authors that treated on it were probably Messrs. 

 Conybeare and Phillips, in their ' Outlines,^ published in 

 1822. Mr. James Heywood, F.R.S., in a paper published 

 in vol. vi. (2nd series) of the Society's ' Memoirs,^ also 

 noticed it. In a communication of my own, published in 

 the first volume of the ' Transactions of the Manchester 

 Geological Society,' a horizontal section is given of the 



