82 J. A. Phillips, Esq., on the Metals and 



that flows from the furnace is tin (Stannum), and the second 

 silver. That part which remains behind is galena, the third 

 element of the vein, which being again melted, after two 

 parts of it are deducted, yields black lead." 



The above passage is very obscure : tin, lead, and silver 

 are not frequently found together in the same stone, and 

 were they thus to occur, the tin certainly would not be the 

 first to flow out of the furnace. 



Professor John Phillips, in his excellent paper on " Ancient 

 Metallurgy and Mining in Brigantia,"* seems to be of 

 opinion that the method here described might have had 

 some resemblance to that invented and patented by H. L. 

 Pattinson, Esq. This, however, appears less probable when 

 we consider that if, in Pattinson's process, the rich lead 

 were run off, instead of dipping out the poor in the form of 

 crystals, the metal thus obtained being but sparingly mixed 

 with silver, would not have been called stannum, by which 

 term an alloy of tin and lead is frequently expressed. It, 

 therefore, does not seem impossible that the operation 

 referred to was simply cupellation, in which process the 

 " abstrichs^^ and first litharge flowing from the furnace is 

 much more impure than that subsequently obtained, and 

 therefore, when reduced, would yield a harder lead, not 

 unlike pewter or Stannum. The silver thus obtained would 

 of course remain on the cupel, whilst the litharge which 

 flowed from the furnace after it got into steady action, to- 

 gether with that absorbed by the cupel itself, would, on 

 being melted with a reducing agent, yield pure, or nearly 

 pure lead. I think, therefore, the author intends to convey 

 the idea that three parts of litharge and " debris de coupelle^'' 

 yield only one part of lead. 



That cupellation has long been employed for the extrac- 

 tion of silver from lead may be inferred from the works of 

 Agricola,t who in his " De Re Metallica," describes and 

 gives drawings of the furnaces used in his time for that pur- 

 pose, and which exactly correspond in every respect with 



* Proceedings of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for March 1848. 

 t Born A.D. 1494. 



