Consequently south Palestine has been continuously " Arabized "; and indeed the whole of Syria has been characterized by racial and religious fusions, and by civilization of a singularly syncretic and derived kind, of which the ancient Phoenician is a sufficient example.
Artificially formed crystals of the various species of mica have been observed in furnace-slags and in silicate fusions.
In chemical laboratories fusions with caustic alkalis are always effected in vessels made of gold or silver, these metals holding out fairly well even in the presence of air.
Blowpipes in which oxygen is used as the blast have been manufactured by Fletcher, Russell && Co., and have proved of great service in conducting fusions which require a temperature above that yielded by the air-blowpipe.
A tendency to form a distinct deity by combining the attributes of two produced such curious fusions as Milk-`ashtart, Milk-ba'al, Milk-'osir, Eshmunmelqarth, Melqarth-resef, &c. As in the case of art and industries, so in religion the Phoenicians readily assimilated foreign ideas.
