Note 201 — PRIMITIVE WARFARE III ON THE RESEMBLANCES OF THE WEAPONS OF EARLY RACES; THEIR VARIATIONS, CONTINUITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF FORM: METAL PERIOD.[184]

Since the above was written, Sir John Lubbock has published in an Appendix to his second edition of Prehistoric Times (1869), p. 595, letters from Dr. Percy, and from Messrs. Jenkin and Lefeaux, highly experienced assayers, expressing their opinions upon the theory of M. Wibel, that the ancient bronze was obtained, not by the fusion of copper and tin, but directly from ore containing the two metals. They are unanimously of opinion that this could not have been the case, none of the ores containing naturally a mixture of the metals in proper proportions. Although the opinions of these gentlemen appear decisively to negative the possibility of ancient bronze having been habitually produced for commercial purposes in this manner, they do not appear to me to discredit the supposition that the first imperfect knowledge of the mixture may have been brought about accidentally in the manner I have described.