in Brigantia and other parts of Britain. 253 



album and nigrum ; the former twenty, the latter seven de- 

 narii for 100 lbs. 



Plumbum album, he says, is rather of an arid nature; the 

 nigrum is entirely humid ; " therefore the white is of no use 

 unless it be mixed with another metal. Silver cannot be leaded 

 (lined) with it, it will be melted first."...." It is affirmed that if 

 there be too little nigrum mixed with the album, the silver 

 will be corroded by it. Album is melted into brass-work 

 (inlaid, an invention of Gaul), so that it can hardly be known 

 from silver — these works are called Incoctilia " (silvered). He 

 then speaks of the application of this invention to the trap- 

 pings of horses and carriages, and other curious productions 

 of Alesia and the Bituriges, a subject which our esteemed 

 Kenrick has lately handled with his usual felicity. One of 

 Pliny's sentences is remarkable as narrating a class experiment 

 fit for a chemical school : "Plumbi albi experimentum in charta 

 est, ut liquefactum pondere videatur, non calore, rupisse." 



The meaning seems to be, that the metal is fluid at so mo- 

 derate a heat as when fused to break by its weight, not burn 

 by its heat, the charta on which it is poured. Tin melts at 

 440° to 442°; lead at 612°. 



What follows is a very important passage: "India neque aes 

 neque plumbum habet, gemmisque suis ac margaritis hoc per- 

 mutat." 



May we be justified by this sentence in refusing to credit 

 the supposition that tin (plumbum album) was brought over- 

 land or by other routes from the Asiatic Isles and shores 

 towards Western Europe ? If so, Cornwall chiefly, if not 

 wholly, supplied the tin which entered so many ways into the 

 comforts and necessities during peace and war of all the na- 

 tions surrounding the Mediterranean and Euxine, Baltic and 

 German Ocean ; in fact, the world, as distinctly known to the 

 Roman geographers. 



Let us now inquire into the means whereby the ancient 

 people reduced the metals which they were so earnest in seek- 

 ing across mountains and oceans at the point of the sword. 

 To confine the inquiry within reasonable limits, we shall 

 speak chiefly of tin and lead, the only metallic products, as it 

 appears, which were regarded by the ancients as abundant in 

 Britain. [Iron is mentioned by Caesar as of limited occur- 

 rence.] 



Gold, the most widely if not most abundantly distributed 

 metal — found near the surface of the earth, in a pure and mal- 

 leable state, easily fused, uninjured by fusion — was probably 

 the metallic substance on which the earliest processes of fire 

 were tried, and they could not be tried unsuccessfully. 



