The importance of the subject has claimed for the Metallurgy of Iron much careful scientific investi gation, both in this country and abroad; but being con fined, for the most part, to large and expensive works, or to the pages of scientific periodicals, it is scarcely available for the technical education of the great class to whom an accurate knowledge of the physical pro perties of the ores, and the latest and most approved means of reducing them to a condition suited for the purposes of the manufacturer, has become an imperative necessity to enable us fully to meet foreign competition.