SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
211 
tive character of the instrument depends on the substitution of a two-water- 
way stop-cock for the two separate and single cocks in Dieulafoy’s apparatus ; 
but, more especially, on the insertion of a yent-piece of peculiar mechanism, 
in the stead of either Dieulafoy’s two ordinary stop-cocks, or the two-water- 
way stop-cock. The most important advantages claimed by Dr. Rasmussen 
for his instrument are briefly the following : — 1. The operation with it is 
perfectly free from danger. 2. With it the fluid can be completely drawn 
off, or nearly so, if desired, without the entrance of any air into the pleural 
cavity. 3. It is possible to remove even the smallest collections of fluid, 
whether such exist free in the pleura, or are encysted. 4. The fluid can be 
drawn off slowly or quickly, at pleasure. 5. Relapses are far less frequent 
than after the performance of the ordinary operation of thoracentesis. 6. The 
instrument is so small that it does not frighten the patient, and the method 
of using it is so simple that the operator can almost dispense with any 
assistance. 
METALLURGY, MINERALOGY, AND MINING. 
Metallurgy in Ancient India . — In Mr. Forbes’s, F.R.S., report on the pro- 
gress of the iron and steel industries (February 1872), we have given, as a 
proof of the antiquity of iron smelting in India, and also of the large 
forgings in wrought iron which could be executed by a people who now 
appear to have entirely lost the art, the fact that Mr. Mallet has directed 
attention to a wrought iron pillar situated at the Mosque of the Kutub, 
near Delhi, which must be more than one thousand, and may be as old as 
fifteen hundred years, yet is as large as the screw-shaft of some of our 
largest steamships ; that part of the column above the present level of the 
soil being 48 feet high, with a diameter of 16*4 inches at the base, and 12 
inches at the top immediately below the elaborately chiselled capital. It 
is calculated to contain about 80 cubic feet of iron, and to weigh not less 
than seventeen tons. 
Steel in New Zealand . — It seems [the 11 Times ”] that the iron-sand, as 
taken from the beach, is mixed with an equal quantity of clay and of the 
ordinary sea-sand, which contains a large admixture of shell ; these mate- 
rials are worked up into bricks, which are hardened in a kiln, broken up 
into irregular pieces, and smelted in an ordinary cupola furnace. The 
product of this simple process is cast steel of the finest possible texture, 
from which some beautiful specimens of the finest cutlery have been 
manufactured. These experiments were conducted by a mechanic in the 
government employ, who was restricted to an expenditure of 100/., and 
was, therefore, only able to erect a furnace of the most temporary descrip- 
tion; he, however, succeeded in producing, at the first and only trial, 
5 cwt. of steel in the manner described above, and his success seems likely 
to lead to further and more extensive efforts to utilise the almost inex- 
haustible deposits of this ore which exist at Taranaki and elsewhere. 
Separation of Phosphorus in Puddling . — According to the u Berggeist,” 
Nos. 92 and 94, for 1871, some trials made at Thale in the Harz, in puddling 
Ilseder pig iron along with 1| per cent, of its weight of fluorspar, have 
