much gilded copper in its ftead ;* in this fpecies of facrilege, he was followed by Vitellius, who defpoiled the temples of their gifts and ornaments, replacing the gold and filver by tin and Orichalcum. From this circumftance also, we may collect, that the Roman Orichalcum refembled gold in colour, though it was far inferior to it in value.

It is probable, that the Orichalcum here spoken of was a metallic fubftance, greatly analogous to our brass, if not wholly the fame with it. The value of our brafs, is much less than that of gold, and the refemblance of brafs to gold in colour, is obvious at first fight. Both brass and gold, indeed, are fufceptible of a variety of fhades of yellow; and, if very pale brafs be compared with gold, mixed with much copper, fuch as the foreign goldsmiths, especially, use in their toys, a difparity may be feen; but the nearness of the resemblance is fufficiently afcertained in general, from obferving that fubftances gilded with brafs, or, as it is commonly called, Dutch leaf, are not eafily diftinguished from fuch as are gilded with, gold leaf.

The Romans were not only in poffeffion of a metallic fubftance, called by them Orichalcum, and refembling gold in colour, but they knew

*Suet. in Jul. Cæf. C. LIV.

+ Id. in Vitel. C. VI.

alfo

alfo the manner of making it, and the materials from which they made it, were the very fame from which we make brafs. I am fenfible, that in advancing this opinion, I differ from authors of great credit, who efteem the art of making brafs to be wholly a modern invention. Thus M. Cronstadt does not think it just to conclude from old coins and other antiquities, that it is evidently proved, that the making of brafs was known in the most ancient times;* and the authors of the French Encyclopedie affure us, that our brass is a very recent invention. †

Pliny, fpeaking of fome copper which had been discovered near Corduba in the province of Andalufia in Spain, fays, "this of all the kinds of copper, the Livian excepted, abforbs most cadmia, and imitates the goodness of Aurichalcum." The expreffion, absorbs most cadmia,' feems to indicate, that the copper was increafed in bulk, or in weight, or in both, by means of the cadmia. Now it is well known, that any definite quantity of copper is greatly increased, both in bulk and in weight, when it is made into brass by being

* Miner. p. 218.

Art. Orichalque-" The veffels here called brazen, after ancient authors, cannot have been of the materials our prefent brafs is compofed of, the art of making it is a modern difcovery." See Laughton's Hift. of Ancient Egypt. p. 58.

VOL. II.

Hift. Nat. L. XXXIV. S. 2.

E

fluxed

fluxed in conjunction with calamine. The other attribute of the copper when mixed with cadmia, was, its resembling Aurichalcum. We have seen from Cicero, that the term Orichalcum was applied to a fubftance far lefs valuable than gold, but fimilar to it in colour; and it is likely enough, that the Romans commonly called the mixture of copper and cadmia Orichalcum, though Pliny fays, that it only refembled it; he, as a naturalift, fpeaking with precifion, and diftinguishing the real Orichalcum, which in his time, he fays, was no where produced, from the factitious one, which, from its refemblance to it, had ufurped its name.

Sextus Pompeius Feftus abridged a work of Verrius Flaccus, a grammarian of confiderable note in the time of Auguftus. In this abridgement, he defines cadmia, to be an earth which is thrown upon copper, in order to change it into Orichalcum.* The age in which Feftus flourished is not ascertained: he was unquestionably pofterior to Martial, and fome have thought that he lived under the Chriftian Emperors. But leaving that point to be fettled by the critics, if he expreffed himself in the words of the author, whofe work he abridged, we have from him a decifive proof, that cadmia was confidered as a fpecies of earth,

Cadmia-Terra quæ in æs conjicitur, ut fiat Orichalcum. Fef. de Ver. Seq.

and

and that the Romans ufed it for the converting of copper into a metallic fubftance called, in the Augustan age, Orichalcum.

*

In oppofition to this, it ought to be remarked, that fome understand by the cadmia of Pliny, not calamine, but native arfenic. They feem to have been led into this opinion, from obferving that Pliny fays, lapis arofus was called cadmia. For, apprehending that by lapis arofus Pliny understood a kind of ftone which caufed ulcers and erofions in the flesh of thofe who were occupied in working it, and knowing that arfenic produced fuch an effect, they have concluded that cadmia was native arfenic. This, probably, is a mistake, arifing from a misinterpretation of the word, arofus. Pliny ufually, if not conftantly, applies that word to fubftances in which copper is contained, without having any respect to the actions of fuch fubftances on the flesh of animals. Arfenic, moreover, when mixed with copper, does not give a gold, but a filver-like appearance to copper. And lastly, Pliny in another place exprefly fays, that the ftone from which brass was made was called cadmia; now it is impoffible to make either brafs or copper from arfenic.

- nous foupconnons que Pline a voulu defigner par Lapis ærofus, une pierre qui mange et fait des ulceres ou èrofions a ceux qui la travaillent, et qui eft probablement l'arfenie vierge. Miner. par M. Valmont de Bomare, V. II. p. 64.

*

Ambrofe, bishop of Milan in the fourth century fays, that copper, mixed with certain drugs, was kept fluxed in the furnace till it acquired the colour of gold, and that it was then called Aurichalcum. Primafius, bishop of Adrumetum in Africa, in the fixth century, obferves, that Aurichalcum was made from copper, brought to a golden colour by a long continued heat, and the admixture of a drug. Ifidoras, bishop of Seville in Spain, in the feventh century, defcribes. Aurichalcum as poffeffing the fplendour of gold, and the hardness of copper, and he uses the very words of Primafius refpecting the manner of its being made. The drug fpoken of by the fe three bishops was probably cadmia. Prepared cadmia is highly commended by Pliny as ufeful in diforders of the eyes, and it is ftill with us, under the more common appellation of calamine, in fome repute for the fame purpose. Hence, confidering the teftimonies of Feftus and Pliny to the application of cadmia in making

Es namq; in fournace, quibufdam medicaminibus admixtis, tamdiu conflatur, ufq; dum colorem auri accipiat, et dicitur aurichalcum. Amb. in Apoc. C. I.

† Aurichalcum ex ære fit, cum igne multo; et medicamine adhibito, perducitur ad aureum colorem.

Prima. in Apo. C. I.

Aurichalcum dictum, quod et fplendorem auri, et duri tiam æris poffideat, fit autem ex ære et igne multo, ac medicaminibus perducitur ad aureum colorem. Ind. Orig.

Hift. Nat. L. XXXIV. C. 10.

either