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Jan. 3, 1860. — Mr. Procter read a paper "On the Ancient 

 Metallurgy of Lead among the Romans, especially in Britain." Not- 

 withstanding the silence of Caesar, it seems probable that the lead- 

 mines of this country were worked by the natives before the Roman 

 conquest. Leland mentions a plate of lead, found in Somersetshire, 

 inscribed with the name of the Emperor Claudius in the ninth year 

 of his tribunitial power, i. e. A. D. 49, and as this was only five years 

 after his arrival in Britain, it is not probable that the Romans should, 

 in so short an interval, have begun to work lead-mines, if the art had 

 been previously unknown in the island. Pigs of lead have also been 

 found in difierent parts of Britain, bearing the names of other Roman 

 Emperors. 



Pliny notices the abundance of lead in this country, and the facility 

 of working it from its coming to the surface ; in this respect, he con- 

 trasts the British lead-mines with those of Spain and Gaul. He 

 observes that there are two different sources of lead, — its own native 

 ore from which it is produced without admixture, and an ore which 

 contains it in combination with silver. Lead is rarely quite free from 

 silver, but the ancients, from their imperfect knowledge, probably 

 regarded those ores as non-argentiferous, in which silver exists only in 

 minute proportions. From Pliny's account, which, however, contains 

 some obscurities, it is clear that the Romans were in the habit of 

 extracting silver from lead by a process of cupellation ; and on several 

 of the pigs found in Britain, we read the words ex. arg. or ex. argn., 

 which can hardly be explained otherwise than as JEJa; Argento or Ex 

 Argentifodina. Yet it seems extraordinary that the lead should be 

 described as extracted from silver ore or a silver mine, when the silver 

 is really quite an insignificant admixture with the lead. 



Mr. Procter has analysed several specimens of Roman lead from 

 the collection of the Society, with the following results : 



SILVER. 



Aleadcoffin ... 0-0066 per cent. 



Do 0-0094 



Do 0-0054 „ 



A leaden lamp stand 0-0182 „ 



A lead pipe 0-0087 „ 



Another lead pipe exhibited merely a trace of silver. 

 The quantity analysed in each case was 500 gr. 



