29'-2 CJicmical llxaviination iif an eiitient S^pccutmn'r 



mer times the dowry girtna by poor generals to their daugh- 

 ters : the dowry which the senate gave tO' the daughter ot" 

 Scipio would notpurciiass at present a Kairrorfor the daugh- 

 ter of a freed -man. ■" 



Beckman, in his Hisfory of Inventions, is of opinion^ 

 that those mirrors which were so largo that people could 

 see themsehes in them at fuM length were made of plates 

 of polished silver j for he observes^, that to cast nrirrors of 

 such a size from copper and tin would require more art 

 than can be allowed to that period, " I do not know," 

 adds he, " whether our artists would succeed in such an 

 operation." But it appears more probable fron) the above 

 passage that the miirors in (jucstion were not of silver but. 

 of iron,, as Senc.a says that they were covered with gold 

 and silver ; but the covering with silvTr would have' been 

 superfluous had the inirror itself been of that metal. 



Though it evidently appears from Pliny and otTier au- 

 thors that the comf)osit,ion of mirrors in general consisted 

 of a mixture of copper and tin, my late colleague M. Mt)h- 

 seuy in his Description of a Cabinet of Coins*, asserts that 

 the union of these two metaks was unknown to the antients ', 

 for he says, '" It is found by the examination of antient 

 coins, made with the severest tests, that before the time of 

 Septimius Severus none of the coins were mixed with lead 

 or with tin." That this assertion is unfoimded has been fully 

 proved by my chemical experiments on this subject, which 

 1 had the honour of laying before the Academy of Sciences, 



Hitherto, hov, ever, it has not yet been determined by 

 certain analvsis \\ hctbcr the component parts mentioned l)y 

 Pliny are contained in the antient mirrors j and, if this be 

 the case, in what proportion. A fragment of I'li antient 

 mirror found with other antient vessels ia a grave, af- 

 forded liie an opportunity of examining i.t chemically, aiisd 

 of comparing my expcrinicnts w ith those of Houx, the only 

 ones of the kind ever before made. Roux'^s Gxpcrimtnt' 

 were made on an antient mirror found also at Naples, and 

 may be seen in the Hcciieil d'ylnti(]Uiti's of count Caylusf. 

 The autlujr describes the nw^tallic mass as exceedingly brittle 

 and tender, and of a w bite colour inclining to grav : wlaen' 

 put into the lire it continued a eonsideral>le time in a state 

 of ignition before it fused. It did not infomC, and neither 

 emitted an arsenical odour nor vapours of zinc. So far tins- 

 description corresponds willi that of the nuiss which I exa- 



* Beschreibung seiner Berlinischen Mtd.iiUeii-Samnilung, part i» 

 p. 280. 



t Pan V. p. 174. 



mined j;, 



