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ORIGIN OF GuNrowDER.-At a late meeting Of
the Royal Asiatic Society, Mr.. II. Wilkinson
read paper on the invention Of gunpowder,
which he considered had its origin in the East;
although the time and place Of its discovery are


involved in great obscurity. The opinion Of its
oriental origin is supported, rather by number
Of concurrent probabilities and by illusions in an
cient authors, than by any direct testimony. On
this subject the writer proposed an ingenious hy-
pothesis. He observed, that although gunpoW-
der was greatly improved by an admixture OF sui
phur, it did not necessarily require that ngredi-
ent, but that it might be made by charcoal and
nitre only. The soil in many parts both Of India
and China is much impregnated with nitre, and
it was no doubt the ancient custom in those coun-
tries to dress food by wood fires kindled on the
ground; this custom is, indeed, still followed by
certain classes in India. In such cases, when the
fires have been extinguished, portion of the wood
would become charcoal; this mixing with the nox-
ious oil, might be converted into defagrating
mixture, which would probably be observed by
some one of sufficient curiosity to examine the
causes of it. Mr. Wilkinson adverted to the
Greek fire, used as weapon Of war, before the
application OF gunpowder to military purposes;
and the accounts which have been sometimes
mistaken for those Of gunpowder SO as to give
rise to the opinion Of the more early introduction
of gunpowder than was really the case.-Lyo'as
.drgns