SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
105 
original instruments. At the same time, Mr. Donald Napier lent for the 
occasion two rare books from his valuable collection — one an illustrated 
Bible, date 1587, which contains a representation of the lying-in chamber, 
and the other li Ye Happy Delivery of Women,” by Guillemeau, 1612, black 
letter English. 
METALLURGY, MINERALOGY, AND MINING. 
Prizes offeredin Connection with Steel. — We learn from Mr. D. Forbes’s report 
on the Progress of the Iron and Steel Industries [1874], that the French 
Societe d’Encouragement has announced a prize of 6,000 fr. (2407), to be 
awarded in 1878, for “ A theory of Steel, based on reliable experiments, and 
capable of being applied directly to the improvement in its manufacture ; ” 
also another prize of 3,000 fr. (120?.), to be awarded in 1876, for an indus- 
trial process for the manufacture of cast steel rails from common iron ores 
containing, like those from the carboniferous and oolitic formations, from 
0*5 to P5 per cent, of phosphoric acid. In Germany, also, attention is being 
directed to the same subject, and Dr. Dubois Reymond, one of the Secre- 
taries of the Academy of Science of Berlin, has announced that a prize of a 
hundred ducats (about 407) will be awarded in July, 1876, for the best 
memoir in which the question is experimentally answered as to whether the 
changes which take place in the tempering of steel are due to physical or 
chemical causes, or to a combination of both. Comparative analyses specially 
directed to the amounts of carbon in the steel, and its condition as free or 
combined carbon, are required, as well as observations relative to the phy- 
sical characters of the metal. The memoirs may be written in German, 
French, Latin, or English, and must be sent in to the Academy, accom- 
panied by a sealed note, with motto, before the 1st March, 1876. 
Wood Tin in Georgia. — Mr. William P. Blake, in a communication to 
one of the editors of “ Silliman’s American Journal ” [Nov. 1874], says that 
“ in 1860, while examining a series of specimens of the residual black sand 
from the sluices used in collecting gold in North Carolina and Georgia, 
I found several minute grains of wood tin in the sand from the Nacoochee 
Valley, W 7 hite County, Georgia. Although it occurs sparingly, the fact 
that it exists is worthy of record, as it may possibly be traced to larger de- 
posits. I have examined sand from a great number of other localities, 
southwestward from Rutherfordton in North Carolina, without finding any 
traces of tin. The usual minerals of the 1 black sand ’ about Dahlonega, 
Georgia, are specular iron, magnetite, ilmenite, rutile, cyanite, and garnet. 
At the Walton Branch, in North Carolina, corundum, zircon, and monazite 
are abundant, with the ordinary mixtures of iron minerals, and xenotime 
occurs in minute crystals, but no tin ore was found.” 
Permanent Ice in a Mine in the Rocky Mountains. — Mr. R. Weiser, of George- 
town, Colorado, states that geologists have been not a little perplexed with 
the frozen rocks found in some of our silver mines in Clear Creek Co., Colo- 
rado. There is a silver mine high up on McClellan Mountain, called the 
u Stevens Mine.” The altitude of this mine is 12,500 feet. At the depth 
of from 60 to 200 feet the crevice matter, consisting of silica, calcite, and 
ore, together with the surrounding wall-rocks, is found to be in a solid 
