280 CHEV. W. P. JERVIS, F.G.S., ON THE MINERALS AND 



God commanded His chosen people purity in everything : 

 purity of food, unmixed woven clothes, washing from unclean- 

 ness, and purity in the metals they employed, as symbolical of 

 purity of heart. The refining of metals is frequently 

 mentioned and applied spiritually, while other nations, such as 

 the Phoenicians and Midianites, employed alloys. The smelting 

 of these when obtained from pagan nations is always enforced ; 

 for alloys, like whatsoever mixture, symbolized sin. Pagan 

 nations employed the precious metals, principally on account 

 of their superior value, for their idols ; not for the sake of 

 purity, for they likewise had idols of less value of brass, iron, 

 stone and wood. On their leaving Egypt, the Jews were 

 commanded : " Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, 

 neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold." (Ex. xx, 23.) 

 See also Ps. cxv, 4 ; Is. ii, 20 ; xl, 19 ; Zech. xiii, 9. 



The weights of the metals offered to Moses for the making of 

 the tabernacle were: gold 1,750 shekels; silver 100 talents 

 1,775 shekels ; brass (copper) 70 talents 2,400 shekels, after the 

 shekel of the sanctuary, double the ordinary one. 



Mention is made of gold in 383 verses of the Old Testament ; 

 of silver, in 263 verses ; of iron in 82 ; of lead in 7 ; of tin 

 in 4. 



The thanks of the meeting having been passed to the author, the 

 Chairman invited discussion. 



Discussion. 



The Secretary (Professor Hull, F.R.S.) said he would have 

 great pleasure in conveying the thanks of the meeting to the 

 distinguished author of the paper. He had himself, at the request 

 of Mr. Spottiswoode, some years ago, tried to determine the 

 representatives at the present day of the precious stones of Aaron's 

 breastplate j but without much success. Of one stone, "the 

 diamond," he felt confident that the translation ought to have been 

 rock crystal or quartz, as the diamond (adamant) being the hardest of 

 all stones, it must have been used for engraving the names of the 

 tribes on the other stones. Then again it was remarkable that the 

 turquoise was not mentioned, although the turquoise mines were 



