Chemical Examination of an antient Speculum. 291 



towards the Roman consul, who certainly would not have 

 extolled at the same time the person who first bound up 

 wounds, and the inventor of that appendage of the toilet 

 called a mirror. 



In the earliest periods a mixture of copper and tin wss 

 employed for the composition of mirrors. We are told by 

 Plinv that those manufactured at Btundusium were consi- 

 dered as the best, but In the course of time a prefcreince was 

 given to silver mirrors which Vvcre made by an artist named 

 Prasiteles, who lived in the time of Pompey the Great. 

 That these consisted of hammered plates of pure silver ap- 

 pears from the following words : Lamina duel et specula 

 jieri von 7iisi ex Optimo {argento) posse creditum fuerat . 

 The silver, however, was sometimes mixed with other me- 

 tals : Id qrioquejamfraude corrumpitur . These silver mir- 

 rors were afterwards plated with gold, in order to render 

 the image more distinct. This, at least, seems to appear 

 from the following passage, which, however is involved in 

 some obscurity : Nupcr crcdi coopium^ certiorem imagincm 

 reddi auro opposite ai'erso. 



Mirrors in general formed part of th(i housel;old furni- 

 ture of the Roman ladies of the first rank. This is con- 

 firmed in particular by Seneca, who satyrizes the great ex- 

 tent to which the luxury of the apparatus of the toilet had 

 been carried among the female part of his fellow citizens. 



What this excellent moral philosopher says in another 

 place * respecting the wise purpose for which mirrers might 

 be employed is so beautiful that I cannot forbear quoting 

 it : Inventa sunt specula ut homo ipse se nosceret. Multo 

 ex hoc consecuta, primo sui notitiay deinde et ad qucedam 

 consilium. Formosiis, nf vitaret infamiam: deformis, ut 

 sciret redimendum, esse virtutilms quidquid corpori deesset : 

 juvenis, ut fiore ceiatis admoueretuvy illud tempiis esse dis~ 

 ccndi : senex, ut indecora canus deponeref) et de morte ali-t 

 quid cogitaret. Ad hoc reruni natura facultatem nobis de- 

 ait, nosmct-ipsos videndi. But for this purpose artificial 

 mirrors of great price were not necessary j as, Jons cuiquc 

 pellucidus, aut Iceve sarum, imuginejn Teddit. After ob- 

 irerving that mirrors, in consequence of the increasing lux- 

 ury of mankind, had been applied to the worst purposes, to 

 gratify pride and voluptuousness, he adds, that they were 

 made of the full Icngtli of a man, covered with gold and 

 silver atid set round with precious stones : — " One mirror 

 •f this kind,'* says he, " costs more to a lady than in for- 



* Natural. Qiiaast. lib. i. 17. 



T 2 mer 



