234 



greatest quantities, is found in the old Binders melted 

 over again. 



However, it has long b;-en disputed, whether me- 

 tals are generated, or were all originally produced at 

 the creation, and whether there be any general seeds 

 of metals, as some suppose antimony to be. This 

 is indeed a fossil of a very peculiar nature. It is a 

 kind of undetermined, metallic substance, mixed with 

 stony and sulphureous particles, so that it is hard to 

 reduce it to any class. It is found in mines of all 

 metals, but chiefly in silver or lead mines. That 

 in gold mines is counted the best. It has also its own 

 peculiar mines. It lies in clods of several sizes, 

 nearly resembling black lead, but is full of small 

 shining threads like needles, brittle as glass. It melts 

 in the fire with some difficulty, lis uses are very 

 numerous*. It is a medicine of sovereign use in many 

 cases, when warily and properly administered. It 

 is a common ingredient in burning concaves, serving 

 to give the composition a finer texture. It makes a 

 part in bell metal, in order to render the sound more 

 clear. It is mingled with tin, to make it more hard, 

 as well as of a brighter colour, and with lead, in 

 casting of printers letters, to render them more 

 smooth or firm. It is also a general help in casting 

 of metals, and especially in casting cannon balls. 



4. Gold is either found in small grains in the sand 

 of rivers, (formerly in several of the rivers of Eu- 

 rope) or is dug out of the earth, in small pieces of 

 a tolerable purity. Sometimes it is also found like 

 the ore of other metals, in a mass of earth, stone, 

 or sulphur. In this state it is of all colours, red, 

 white, blackish, making 110 ostentation of its real 

 value. 



The chief properties of gold are, I. It is the 

 heaviest, though not the hardest of bodies. 2. It 

 is the most ductile and malleable of all metals, of 

 which gold beaters and wire drawers, give us an abun, 

 dant proof. But this depends altogether (incon^re- 



