334 Mr. J. W. Mallet's Rq>ort on the Chemical Examination 0/ Antiquities 



made to be used for a similar purpose, — a supposition in some degree counte- 

 nanced by the presence of a little antimony, — or that the proportion of tin was 

 accidentally large, and the specimen was about to be remelted, and perhaps cop- 

 per added, is not easy to decide. The pulverulent substance found in the same 

 vessel was neither an ore of any kind, nor a furnace product, but appeared on 

 examination to have been merely dust of an earthy character mixed with the 

 results of bronze corrosion (probably the sweepings of a workshop or some such 

 place). The vessel and its contents constitute an interesting relic of early 

 metallurgy. 



Although Zinc in the metallic state was unknown, at least until the twelfth 

 centuiy, it seems certain that some of its ores were worked and used for making 

 Aurichalcum or brass at an extremely early period, the valuable properties of 

 that alloy being well known and appreciated in Aristotle's time, although he 

 speaks of it under the title x"^*'Of MoaavvotKo^ as a 'rare variety of bronze. 

 This Pliny also considered it, and it seems never to have come into common 

 use amongst either the Greeks or Romans. Hence it is not surprising that no 

 example of a brazen article of decidedly Celtic manufacture has yet been 

 discovered. I analyzed a fragment of a shallow basin from the district of Castle- 

 bernard. County of Cork, recently presented to the Academy Museum, and 

 found it to contain : — 



Copper, 72-58 



Zinc 25-29 



Iron, 1-16 



Lead, -02 



Tin, Trace. 



9905 



The specimen was soft, of a bright brass-yellow colour, and specific gravity, 

 7-717. From its form, however, and composition, which is quite that of ordi- 

 nary modern brass, it is probably of very little antiquity, and does not at all 

 belong to the same class with the really Celtic articles in the Museum ; an 

 alloy therefore of copper and zinc of equal age with the latter is still to be 

 sought for. Amongst German antiquities Gobel (Schweig. 60. 407.) found 



