on 



By H. J. MOULE, M.A. 



(Read Feb. 26th, 1900.) 



II LMOST all things made in ancient times of copper 

 alloy are called bronze. Is this always right, 

 however ? Speaking broadly, of course, 

 bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, brass of 

 copper and zinc. Zinc was not smelted, or 

 distilled, till last century. Therefore no 

 ancient copper alloy can be brass. This 

 sounds logical, and yet it is not. It seems 

 absurd to say that a metal was used before it 

 was discovered, much less smelted. This, 

 however, was what happened. Two ancient writers, a Greek 

 and a Roman, are * quoted as showing this. Aristotle says that 

 the Mossinecians made a bright and light-coloured x x x, not 

 by adding tin, but by fusing copper with a certain earth. Almost 

 without doubt this was an ore of zinc, f Pliny, again, speaks of 



* Encyc : Brit : ' Zinc.' 



t Pliny is not very clear apparently. He says (xxxiv. 2) [sesj "tit et ex 

 lapide ajroso quern vocaut cadmiam," and (xxxiv. 22), he speaks of cadmia as 

 "lapis, ex quo fit CDS." But again [ics] " Mariamtm cadmiam maxime sorbet," 

 as if cadmia and aes were not so related as ore and metal are. 



