BOOK IX. 409 



Then the stannum runs out of the furnace into the forehearth ; this is an alloy 

 of lead and silver. From the silver-lead alloy they first skim off the slags, 

 not rarely white, as some pyrites*® are, and afterward they skim off the 

 cakes of pyrites, if there are any. In these cakes there is usually some copper ; 

 but since there is usually but a very small quantity, and as the forest 



lines — first, that of the metal, and second, that of zinc ore, for the latter was known and used to 

 make brass by cementation with copper and to yield oxides by sublimation for medicinal 

 purposes, nearly 2,000 years before the metal became generally known and used in Europe. 



There is some reason to believe that metallic zinc was known to the Ancients, for 

 bracelets made of it, found in the ruins of Cameros (prior to 500 B.C.), may have been of that 

 age (Raoul Jagnaux, Traiti de Chimie GSnerale, 1887, 11, 385) ; and further, a passage in 

 Strabo (63 B.C. — 24 a.d.) is of much interest. He states : (xiii, i, 56) "There is found at 

 " Andeira a stone which when burnt becomes iron. It is then put into a furnace, together 

 " with some kind of earth, when it distils a mock silver (pseudargyrum), or with the addition 

 " of copper it becomes the compound called orichalcum. There is found a mock silver near 

 " Tismolu also." (Hamilton's Trans., 11, p. 381). About the Christian era the terms 

 orichalcum or aurichalcutn undoubtedly refer to brass, but whether these terms as used by 

 earlier Greek writers do not refer to bronze only, is a matter of considerable doubt. Beyond 

 these slight references we are without information until the i6th Century. If the metal was 

 known to the Ancients it must have been locally, for by its greater adaptability to brass- 

 making it would probably have supplanted the crude melting of copper with zinc minerals. 



It appears that the metal may have been known in the Far East prior to such knowledge 

 in Europe ; metallic zinc was imported in considerable quantities from the East as early as 

 the i6th and 17th centuries under such terms as tuteneqtie, tutianego, calaem, and spiauter — the 

 latter, of course, being the progenitor of our term spelter. The localities of Eastern 

 production have never been adequately investigated. W. Hommel (Engineering and Mining 

 Journal, June 15, 1912) gives a very satisfactory review of the Eastern literature upon the 

 subject, and considers that the origin of manufacture was in India, although the most of the 

 i6th and 17th Century product came from China. The earliest certain description seems to 

 be some recipes for manufacture quoted by Praphulla Chandra Ray (A History of Hindu 

 Chemistry, London, 1902, p. 39) dating from the nth to the 14th Centuries. There does 

 not appear to be any satisfactory description of the Chinese method until that of Sir 

 George Staunton (Journal Asiatique Paris, 1835, p. 141.) We may add that spelter 

 was produced in India by crude distillation of calamine in clay pots in the early part of the 

 19th Century (Brooke, Jour. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, vol. xix, 1850, p. 212), and the remains 

 of such smelting in Rajputana are supposed to be very ancient. 



The discovery of zinc in Europe seems to have been quite independent of the East, 

 but precisely where and when is clouded with much uncertainty. The marchasita 

 aurea of Albertus Magnus has been called upon to serve as metallic zinc, but such belief 

 requires a hypothesis based upon a great deal of assumption. Further, the statement is 

 frequently made that zinc is mentioned in Basil Valentine's Triumphant Chariot of Antimony 

 (the only one of the works attributed to this author which may date prior to the 17th Century), 

 but we have been unable to find any such reference. The first certain mention of metallic zinc 

 is generally accredited to Paracelsus (1493-1541), who states (Liber Mineralium 11.) : " More- 

 " over there is another metal generally unknown called zinken. It is of peculiar nature and 

 " origin ; many other metals adulterate it. It can be melted, for it is generated from three 

 " fluid principles ; it is not malleable. Its colour is different from other metals and does not 

 " resemble others in its growth. Its ultimate matter (ullima materia) is not to me yet fully 

 " known. It admits of no mixture and does not permit of the fabricationes of other metals. 

 " It stands alone entirely to itself." We do not believe that this book was published until 

 after Agricola's works. Agricola introduced the following statements into his revised edition 

 of Bermannus (p. 431), published in 1558 : " It (a variety of pyrites) is almost the colour 

 " of galena, but of entirely different components. From it there is made gold and silver, and 

 " a great quantity is dug in Reichenstein, which is in Silesia, as was recently reported to me. 

 " Much more is found at Raurici, which they call zincum, which species differs from pyrites, 

 " for the latter contains more silver than gold, the former only gold or hardly any silver." 

 In De Natura Fossilium (p. 368) : " For this cadmia is put, in the same way as quicksilver, 

 " in a suitable vessel so that the heat of the fire will cause it to sublime, and from it is made 

 " a black or brown or grey body which the Alchemists call cadmia suhlimata. This 

 " possesses corrosive properties to the highest degree. Cognate with this cadmia and pyrites 

 " is a compound which the Noricans and Rhetians call zincum." We leave it to readers to 

 decide how near this comes to metallic zinc ; in any event, he apparently did not 



*' " . • . non raro, ut nonnulU pyritae sunt, Candida . . . ." This is 

 apparently the unknown substance mentioned above. 



