'The Bijhop of landaffon Orichalcum. 49 



alfo the manner of making it, and the materials 

 from which they made it, were the very fame 

 from which we make brafs. I am fenfible, that 

 in advancing this opinion, I differ from authors 

 of great credit, who efteem the art of making 

 brafs to be wholly a modern invention. Thus 

 M. Cronftadt does not think it juft to conclude 

 from old coins and other antiquities, that it is 

 evidently proved, that the making of brafs was 

 known in the moft ancient times;* and the 



authors of the French £«o-,/,;„^,a(rure us, that 

 our brafs is a very recent invention, f 



Pliny, fpeaking of fome copper which had been 

 difcovered near Corduha in the province of Anda- 

 lufta in Spain, fays, « this of all the kinds of copper, 

 the Livian excepted, abforbs moft cadmia, and 

 imitates the goodnefs of Aurichalcumr X The 

 expremon, 'abforbs moft f^^;«/,,,' feems to indi- 

 cate, that the copper was increafcd in bulk, or 

 in weight, or in both, by means of the cadmia. 

 Now It IS well known, that any definite Quantity 

 of copper is greatly increafed, both in bulk and 

 in weight, when it is made into brafs by being 



• Miner, p. 218. 

 t Art. Orichrlque-- The veffels here called brazen, 

 after ancient authors, cannot have been of the materials 

 our prefent br.fs is compofed of, the art of making it 

 IS a modern difcovery." See Laughton's Hift. of Ancient 

 Egypt, p. 58. 



: Hift. Nat. L. XXXIV. S. 2. 



Vol. II. p fl 1 



^ fluxed 



