Tue question as to whether the Chis nese wore the first to employ gui powder and whether they were the i venters of firearms may supposed to have boon definitely settled in the negative by Mr. Mayers in his very elaborate research on those subjects. Dr. Macgowan, however, in a recent commanication to our local branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, reaffirms the claims of the Chinese us originators of those implements of warfare, He admits that ganpowdor as now used is a foreign discovery, Antenor to its granulation by Schwartz, it was a crude compound, and of little use in propelling missiles. It is that article which Dr.
Macgowan states was first used in China, the same that the Chinese wore the first. to employ, Essentially it was the same as that described in & manosoript discovered by Sir Palgrave in the Bodleian Library, from which it appears that Bacon did not first make known the ingredients of gunpowder; they were communicated to him by a fellow friar, a Spaniard, It appears to have been nothing more than "Greek fire," the invention of which is ascribed to Callinious of Helio-polis about 688 A.D., or say four hun. dred yonrsafter its first use in China, Dr. Maogownn discusses the claim ndvauced in behalf of the Hindus to the in tion, which is based on Sanskrit wi ings, as summarised in Chambers' El vyclopoadia, In recording the wars of the Egyptian Hercules in India, a Hinda writer states that " the sages remained anconcorned spectators of the attnek upon, their stronghold, till an assault was attempted, when they repolled it with whirlwinds and than do: hurling destruction on the invaders, A Greek historian of Alexander's campaign testifies that the Hindus had the means of " discharging flumes and missiles on their enemies from a distances." The incendiary materials thus employed were according to Dr. Macgowan merely the naphthous or petroleum mixtures of the ancient Coreans, and in carly times used by the Chinese, The " stink-pot " so much used by pirates is, it appears, a Cam. badian invention, The Doctor shows also that as carly as the twelfth or thirteenth ce: tury the Chinese attempted sub-marine warfare, contriving rade torpedoes for that purpose. Finally, he says that unless the " fire-tube" of the Byzantine Emperor Leo, introduced between 890 and 911, was a gun, the Chinese claim priority in the contrivance of that implement, an inventor having submitted in the year 1000 to the Emperor Helen-ping a "fire-gun, and a fire-bomb." In conclusion Dr. Macgowan says that while the Chinese discovered the explosive nature of nitro, sulphur, and charcoal in combination, they were laggards in its application, from me ability to perfect its mauofaclure; so in the use of firearms, failing to pri senate experiment, they are found in the rear in the matter of scientific gunnery. The recent fiasco in their attempt to use torpedoes during the siege of Pagoda Anchorage affords a very apt illustration of the Doctor's remarks,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.