7he BiJJjop of Landaffon Orichalcum'. 53 



cither Orichalcum, or a fubftance imitating the 

 goodnefs of Orichalcum, we cannot have' much 

 doubt in fuppofing, that cadmia was the drug 

 alluded to by Jhnhrcfe^ and of thofe who feem to 

 have borrowed, with feme inaccuracy of expref- 

 fion, his defcription of the manner of making 

 Orichalcum. 



What we call brafs was anciently in the 

 French language ca'led archal, and brafs wire 

 is ftill not unfrequently denominated fJ d'archaL 

 Now if we can infer,from the analogy of languages, 

 that archal is a corruption of aurichalcumy we 

 may reafonably conjecture, that our brafs, which 

 is the fan'ie with the French archal^ is the fame 

 alfo with the Roman aurichakmn: 



Though we may, from what has been ad- 

 vanced, conclude, without much apprehenfion 

 of error, that the Romans knew the method of 

 making brafs, by melting together calamine and 

 copper ; yet the invention was probably derived 

 to them from fome other country. 



We meet with two paffages, one in Arijlotky 

 the other in Strabo, from which we may collect, 

 that brafs was made in jlfia, much after the fame 

 manner, in which it appears to have been made 

 at Rome. 



Strabo informs us, that in the environs of 

 Andera^ a city of Phrygia, z wonderful kind of 

 ftone was met with, which being calcined 

 became iron, and being then fluxed with a 



E 3 certain 



