modern alphabetic capital letters, to find the most distinct ocular demonstration of the truth of what I have brought to light. Thus have I endeavoured to lay before my readers the progress of an investigation which has afforded me very high gratification; and I trust I have made myself sufficiently understood as to enable any one who may take a similar interest in such subjects to refer to the objects to which I have alluded, namely, the Babylonian, Greek and Roman antiquities in the British Museum, or in any other similar institution in which such interesting objects exist. Having given the key to their form as to the Babylonian or arrow-head origin, it becomes at once evident, and any ancient or even modern inscription, will supply the most satisfactory and substantial evidence. I have never in any of my investigations in the etymology of forms, found an instance which so perfectly embodies the principles of such interesting researches. To be thus able to trace through upwards of 4000 successive years the origin, rise, and progress of the form of such mighty yet beautifully simple agents of civilization as that of our alphabetic characters, commencing from the first impression in clay, with the corner of a stick, either by intention or through accident, and to trace their progress from year to year, from age to age, and from nation to nation, and yet to find the primitive form shining forth, and carrying the mind back to the banks of the Euphrates, where civilization had just begun to dawn on the Eastern world, and to find that such a simple origin had kept the integrity of its character through so vast a span of ages, cannot but suggest to the mind a series of reflections teeming with interest of the most striking and peculiar nature, inasmuch as we may thus retrace the progress of our alphabet from our own times backwards step by step, until we reach a period in the history of man so near to that of his own origin, that we all but arrive at the very zero of research. I shall not fatigue the attention of my readers. with any further remarks, trusting the rest to their own reflection, which will doubtless be of a gratifying and interesting nature, provided that they are satisfied with the correctness of what I have advanced; and as I have stepped from fact to fact, and have begged them to refer to the sources and objects which have supplied me with the data of my discovery, I now beg to leave the matter in the hands of those who will take the trouble to test its correctness, by all and every means in their power, and to let the discovery stand or fall as they think proper. I now bid farewell to my subject in this form, with the hope that I have not fruitlessly spent my own or their time. AN EXPERIMENTAL INQUIRY INTO THE Strength and other properties OF ANTHRACITE CAST IRON, BEING A CONTINUATION OF A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS ON BRITISH BY WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN. Read 17th November, 1840. IN March, 1837, I laid before the Society a detailed series of experiments on the strength and other properties of cast iron, collected from the different works in Great Britain. Since that time a description of iron, entitled anthracite, has been introduced into the market. The name anthracite was first applied to carboniferous formations by the French; it is derived from the Greek word anthrax, coal. The iron is made either wholly or in part from anthracite fuel, and in most cases the best qualities are obtained from the raw coal alone, excited by the hot blast. At some of the Welsh iron works, coke and anthracite coal in certain proportions have been tried, and at others a mixture of bituminous and anthracite coal; but in almost every instance, I believe, the products have been of an inferior quality, and it is only since the introduction of the hot blast that anthracite coal alone has been rendered available in the reduction of the ores. It is now, however, generally adopted in the anthracite districts, and several works have recently been erected for the manufacture of iron by this new process. Before entering upon the examination of the specimens experimented upon, I would first premise a few observations on the nature and properties of the fuel from which they were produced. Mr. W. R. Johnson, Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, of Pennsylvania College, Philadelphia, has paid great attention to this subject, and by a careful analysis of the American coal, has given the products of the anthracite formation, as found in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. The American anthracites so nearly resemble those of our own country, both as regards their properties and appearance, that I shall, before concluding this part of the subject, make a |