54 '^l^s Eijhop of Landaffon Orkhalcim. 



certain earth, dropped out a filver-looking me- 

 tal, which, being mixed with copper, formed 

 a compofition, which fome called Orichalcum.* 

 It is not improbable, I think, that this (lone 

 refembkd black Jack, or fome other ore of 

 zinc. Black jack may, in a common way of 

 fpeaking, be called a (lone. It abounds in ironj 

 and, when calcined, looks like an iron earth: 

 it yields zinc by diftillation, fometimes mixed 

 with filver and lead ; and both the metallic 

 fubftance which may be extraded from black 

 jack, and, the fublimate which arifes from it 

 whilft it is fmelted, will, when m.ixed with cop- 

 per, make brafs. 



The Mcjjyn^ci inhabited a country not far from 

 the Euxine 6ea, and their copper, according to 

 Arijiotle, was faid to have become fplendid 

 and white, not from the addition of tin, but 

 from its being mixed and cemented with an 

 earth found in that country. f This cement- 

 ing copper with an earth, is what is done, whet^ 

 brafs is made, by cementing copper with cala-^ 

 mine, which is often called, and, indeed, has the 

 external appearance of, an earth: and that Afia was 

 celebrated for its cadmia or calamine, we have 

 the teftimony of Pliny .+ The copper of the 

 Moflynxci is faid to have become zvhite by 



* Stra. Geo L. XIII. 



-)■ Arif. de Mirab. Op. Tom II. p- 721. 



t Hift. Nat. L. XXXIV. C. 2. 



tlii§ 



