S?S ANALYSIS OP THE CHINESE RICE-STONE. 



a rice-stone vase, preserved in the collection of natural 

 history at Brunswick, 3-768; that of another small cup, 

 and that of the pieces he made his experiments on, 



3-5; 

 3-75. 



The yu perhaps As to the yu it is known only from the memoirs of the 



artificial. Pekin Missionaries. It is surprising, that a stone so much 



vaunted on account of its beauty, hardness, and the sound 



But thi<by no to the rice-stone. 

 means certain. . . 



natural production : 



Sonorous 

 stones, 



known to the 

 aneients- 



Hager has given a description of a vase preserved at Paris, 

 which he supposes to be made of this stone : but its being 

 so is very doubtful ; and we may even presume from his de- 

 scription, that it is. merely an artificial production analogous 

 The missionaries indeed speak of it as a 

 but the sonorous property of the 

 stone leads to the conjecture, that it is nothing but a vitreous 

 composition. Though we know several sonorous stones, 

 as the klingstcin, or perphir-schiefer, and the sonorous 

 quartz crystals of Prieborn, the sounds they emit are not 

 comparable to those of the yu; nor can instruments of 

 music be made of them, as of this stone. We cannot 

 however absolutely deny, that sonorous stones are found in 

 China, of which instruments of music are made; for % 

 proof of this is found in a Chinese king, in the collection 

 of Mr. Bertin, at Paris, an analysis of which was publish- 

 ed by the duke de Chaulnes, who found it to be a black 

 bituminous marble. 



Pliny, lib. 37, cap. 10, mentions a black stone, as 

 sonorous as brass, by the name of chalcophonos, which was 

 given it because it sounded like brass when struck. 



VII. On 



