JAN. — MAR. 1857.] Excavations in Assyria 8f Bal)ylonia,9^b\ 
*' No. 1. was analysed by Mr. Spiller, and No. 2. by Mr. A. Dick, 
chemists who have been incessantly engaged at the Museum dur- 
ing the last two years and a half in the analyses of the iron ores of 
this country, and whose great experience renders their results wor- 
thy of entire confidence. Cobalt and nickel were not sought for in 
either case, but the metallic iron enveloped in both specimens con- 
tained a minute quantity of cobalt and nickel. Another piece of slag- 
like matter, which was found on the ground near the tree, and which 
from its external characters I have no hesitation in pronouncing to 
be a slag, was examined for cobalt and nickel and gave unequivocal 
evidence of the former in n^nute quantity, though not satisfactorily 
of the latter. • 
The metal previously mentioned is malleable iron. That 
which was detached from the slag-like matter, found outside the 
tree, was filed and polished, and then treated with dilute sulphuric 
acid. After this treatment, the surface presented small, confused, 
irregularly-defined crystalline plates, and was identical in appear- 
ance with the surface of a piece of malleable iron similarly treated 
after fusion in a crucible." 
Colonel H. C. Rawlixson, 
On the Results of the Excamtioiis in Assyria and Bahjhnia. 
These excavations, independently of the treasures of art disclos- 
ed by them, have opened up to us a period of about 2000 years in 
the world's history, which, as far as the East is concerned, was be- 
fore almost entirely unknown. The cuneiform inscriptions of 
Babylonia and Assyria furnish a series of historical documents from 
the 22nd century B.C. to the age of Antiochus the Great. The 
speaker divided these documents into three distinct periods of 
history, the Chaldsean, the Assyrian, and the Babylonian, and he 
then proceeded briefly to describe each period in succession. Dur- 
ing the Chaldsean period the seat of empire was to the south, 
towards the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the sites 
of the ancient capitals were marked by the ruins of Mugheir, of 
Warka, of Senkereh, and of Nifl'er, At Mughier, called in the in- 
