Page images
PDF
EPUB

excited the attention of mankind, been eagerly fought after, and highly extolled by them. The Romans, no doubt, when it had been ftipulated in the league which Porfenna made with them, after the expulfion of the Tarquins, that they fhould not use iron, except in agriculture, must have esteemed a metallic mixture fuch as brass, at a rate not eafily to be credited.* It is not here attempted to prove, that there never was a metallic fubftance called Orichalcum, fuperior in value and different in quality from brafs; but merely to fhew, that the common reafon affigned for its existence, is not fo cogent as is generally supposed.

Confidering the few ancient writers we have remaining, whose particular business it was to fpeak with precifion concerning fubjects of art, or of natural history, we ought not to be furprized at the uncertainty in which they have left us with respect to Orichalcum. Men have been ever much the fame in all ages; or, if any general fuperiority in underftanding is to be allowed,

In fædere quod, expulfis regibus, populo Romano dedit Porfenna, nominatim comprehenfum invenimus, ne ferro nifi in agricultura uterentur Plin. Hift. Nat. Vol. II. p. 666. Was Porfenna induced to prohibit the Romans the use of iron arms, from the opinion, which feems to have prevailed in Greece two hundred years afterwardsthat wounds, made with copper weapons, were more eafily healed, than thofe made with iron? Arift. Op. L. IV.

P. 43.

it

and

it may feem to be more properly afcribed, to those who live in the manhood or old age of the world, than to thofe who exifted in its infancy or childhood: especially as the means of acquiring and communicating knowledge are, with us, far more attainable than they were in the times of either Greece or Rome. The Compafs enables us to extend our refearches to every quarter of the globe with the greatest ease an hiftorical narration of what is feen in diftant countries, is now infinitely more diffufed than it could have been, before the invention of printing; yet, even with these advantages, we are, in a great measure, ftrangers to the natural history of the earth, and the civil history of the nations which inhabit it. He who imports Tutenag from the Eaft Indies, or white copper from China or Japan, is fure of meeting with a ready market for his merchandize in Europe, without being asked any questions concerning the manner how, or the place where, they are prepared in Afia. An ingenious manufacturer of these metallic fubftances might wish, probably, to acquire fome information about them, in order to attempt a domeftic imitation of them; but the merchant who imports them, feems to be too little interested in the fuccefs of his endeavours, to take much pains in procuring for him the requifite information. Imitations, however, have been made of them, and we have an European Tute

nag,

nag, and an European white copper, differing, in fome qualities, from thofe which are brought from Afia, but refembling them in fo many others, that they have acquired their names. Something of this kind may have been the cafe with respect to Orichalcum, and the most ancient Greeks may have known no more of the manner in which it was made, than we do of that in which the Chinese prepare their white copper they may have had too, an imitation of the original, and their authors may have often mistaken the one for the other, and thus have introduced an uncertainty and confufion into their accounts of it.

There is as little agreement amongst the learned concerning the etymology of Orichalcum, as concerning its origin. Those who write it Aurichalcum, fuppofe that it is an hybridous word, compofed of a Greek term fignifying copper, and a Latin one fignifying gold. The most general opinion is, that it ought to be written Orichalcum, and that it is compounded of two Greek words, one fignifying copper, and the other a mountain, and that we rightly render it by, Mountain Copper. I have always looked upon this as a very forced derivation, inafmuch as we do not thereby diftinguish Orichalcum from any other kind of copper; moft copper mines, in every part of the world, being found in mountainous counVOL. II.

F

tries.

tries. If it fhould be thought, that fome one particular mountain, either in Greece or Afia, formerly produced an ore, which being fmelted. yielded a copper of the colour of gold, and that this copper was called Orichalcum, or the mountain copper, it is much to be wondered at, that neither the poets nor the philofophers of antiquity have beftowed a fingle line in its commendation; for as to the Atlantis of Plato, before mentioned, no one, it is conceived, will build an argument for the existence of natural Orichalcum, on fuch an uncertain foundation and, if there had been any fuch mountain, it is probable, that the copper it produced would have retained its name, just as at this time of day we speak of Ecton copper in Staffordshire, and of Paris-mountain copper in Anglesea.

Some men are fond of etymological inquiries, and to them I would fuggeft a very different derivation of Orichalcum. The Hebrew word Or, Aur, fignifies light, fire, flame; the Latin terms uro to burn, and aurum gold, are derived from it, inafmuch as gold refembles the colour of flame; and hence, it is not improbable, that Orichalcum may be compofed of an Hebrew, and a Greek term, and that it is rightly rendered, flame-coloured copper. In confirmation of this it may be observed, that the Latin epithet lucidum, and the Greek one pavov, are both

[ocr errors]

both applied to Orichalcum by the ancients; but I would be understood to fubmit this conjecture, with great deference, to those who are much better skilled, than I am, in etymological researches.

REMARKS on the ORIGIN of the VEGETABLE FIXED ALKALI, with fome collateral OBSERVATIONS on NITRE. By M. WALL, M. D. Prælector in Chemistry, in the University of Oxford. Communicated in a Letter to Dr. Percival.

November 19, 1783.

Read

OXON, OCTOBER 1, 1783.

HE extenfive employment of the Vegeta

THE

ble Alkali and Nitre in many of the principal operations of Chemistry, render every inquiry into their origin and properties, not fimply amufing, but interefting in a very high degree to every lover of this fcience, and to every one engaged in the arts dependent upon it. It is not, however, with the pretenfion of advancing any thing perfectly new, that I have prefumed to offer the following remarks to the confideration of the Society. My hopes will be fully anfwered, if I fhould turn the thoughts of any of those ingenious Gentlemen, who have done

« PreviousContinue »