Contr'ihition towards -the assaying of Coins. *»65 



people, the IMossinasci, who resided near the Euxine sea, 

 understood and practised this art before the Greeks or the 

 Romans. That author, in his work De Mirnbilihus Aus- 

 cultationihus, Paris I6i9) says, ^les Mossincccum (Mo(ir- 

 trivoiy.iv ya.Xy.ov) splendidiore candore eminere feniiit, non 

 cdjecto stanno sed terra quadam istic nastente simul in coc- 

 tinn. Aique ejus adtemperaturce primum inventorem celaia 

 arJe, vemincm docuisse, et proinde priorum iemporum ccra- 

 menta iis in lucis posteriorihus lorige prcestantiora deprc- 

 hensa. 



Philologists seem entirely to have overlooked this passage^ 

 from which the etymology of the German word messing, or 

 more properly, as it was formerly written, mocssiiig, which 

 signifies brass, may be clearly and simply deduced. It is 

 improper to derive it frojTi mischen or mais.chcn, to mix, for 

 the antients had no idea of mixture in the preparation of 

 this metal. They did not know that a metallic substance 

 is actually mixed with the copper, for they supposed that 

 the calamine only possessed a secret property, by which it 

 communicated to copper a golden yellow colour*. The 

 tenns latun {fa ton, laiton), deduced from the Arabs, and 

 introduced into some of the languages of the western part 

 of Lurope, are of later origin. 



It aj)pears from the above passage of Aristotle, that the 

 ari of converting copper into aurichalcuvi, by means of 

 calamine, was at first kept a secret; but it seems to have 

 become more conmion about the time of the Roman em- 

 pire. But the cause of this new alloy of copper, after it 

 was made oenerally known, being mixed with tin and lead, 

 and used in preference for coins, no doubt was its gold 

 colour, which excelled that of the pale yellow aurichukinn, 

 awd its touuhncs^ and malleability, arising from the mix- 

 ture of calamine, which rendered it fit to be struck into 

 coins, whereas the old mixtures with tin could only be 

 cast. 



When 1 placcil Corinthian brass in the same class as 

 auric/iata/m, this arrangement is in contradiction to the 

 opinion that this metal was produced from the fused metal 

 of the gold, silver, and copper statues, and other articles 

 I'ormcdlnlo one mass when the city of Corinth was takea 



' I have since fdi'nd that I am not the fust perio.i who has givcii 

 t'm ttyiiT'loL'V of ihe wjcJ w?A'/ »^-, for Mirhcbius sa)"; : The L;itiii 

 J{;Jc retains A:niihat inn, that is, mesiing (lira'ss). whiil) word is cer- 

 x.^\i,\'; ('cnvcd fioiu the name of thu people callct} yicaonocci, inintioneJ 

 by Aii'^totle. 



; and 



