practised in the earliest ages and the casting of bronze images or statues dates from many centuries before the Christian era. Ancient coins as far back as the time of Alexander the Great were made of bronze, and, from an analysis which has been made of them, they have been found to contain from 17 to 6 parts of copper to one part of tin with some other ingredients which it is not necessary to mention. Ornamental bronzes brought from Assyria have been found to contain 8 parts of copper to one part of tin. And the bronzes made in Europe of the present day consist generally of about the same proportion, viz., 8 parts of copper to one part of tin, and zinc or lead is sometimes added in quantities according to the purpose for which the alloy is to be used.
The Japanese Bronzes differ in an extraordinary way from all these. From what I can gather the mixture generally consists of the following parts.
To one part of gold there are added 3-9 parts of mercury, 33-65 parts of tin, and 1272 parts of copper.
There is therefore only 1 part of tin to 58-6 parts of copper, while the large quantities of gold and mercury, as far as I can discover, seem not to have been used by other people at all, and must add very much to the cost of the bronze.
The largest bronze image in Japan is at Nara some distance to the eastward of Kioto. This idol was first cast in the 18th year of Tempae in the year 743. It was twice destroyed during the time of wars in its neighbourhood, and the idol which at present exists was erected about 700 years ago. The casting of this idol was tried seven successive times before it was successful accomplished, and about 3,000 tons of charcoal were used in the operation. The total weight of metal is about 450 tons and it consists of the following ingredients:—
