3t OF THE ORIGIN OF CHEMISTRY. 



tiis*, and Diodoms Siculusf, relate, that thd 

 Ethiopians formerly inclofed their dead bodies? 

 ing/afs; but which Gefner contends is to be un- 

 derftood as amber \. As to what we arc told of 

 their perpetual lamps, from Arabian authority, 

 if they are not wholly fabulous, they can have 

 been nothing clfe than threads of amianthus (or 

 earth flax,) and finall dreams of bitumen, with 

 which thole regions abound. 



Diodorus mentions a place in which were fe- 

 veral large golden mines, that were wrought by 

 many thoufanc! men in chains; and he fpeak 

 :tlfo of the working of gold and bra is at Thebes ; 

 It is worth while to attend to the defcription he 

 gives of their operations, and of the minerals 

 on the confines of Arabia, with which, he fays, 

 the kings were acquainted in the earlieft ages. 

 The foil is black, and produces \vhite veins of 

 marble. The mineral, rendered brittle by cal- 

 cination, is firft broken and then divided int? 

 imaller pieces, and pulveriied in mills ; the cftr- 

 thy part is fepu rated by wafhing on an inclined 

 plane; and then certain proportions of IcaJ, of 

 lult, tin, and a flux being added to the reliduum, 

 the whole was put into covered crucibles, and 

 expofedto the lire for rive iiycbtbemera;u.ivl thus 

 pure gold without any fcori^ was obtained. Here 



w*? 



* Thalia. 



f L. xv. 



$ Aa GovltiMg, 1. 2. i 



L ill 



