3?4 ON ORICHALCUM; 



Sex(us Pompcius Fostus abridged a work of Verrius Flaccos, jf 

 grammarian of considerable note in the time of Augustus. In this 

 abridgment, he defines cadtnia to be an earth which is thrown 

 upon copper, in order to change it into orichalcum*. The age in 

 which Festus flourished is not ascertained : he was unquestion. 

 ably posterior to Martial, and some have thought that he lived un- 

 der the Christian Emperors. But leaving that point to be settled 

 by the critics, if he expressed himself in the words of the author 

 whose work he abridged, we have from him a decisive proof, that 

 cadmia was considered as a species of earth, and that the Romans 

 used it for the converting of copper into a metallic substance called, 

 in the Augustan age, orichalcum. 



In opposition to this, it ought to be remarked, that some under, 

 stand by the cadmia of Pliny, not calamine, but native arsenic. They 

 seem to have been led into this opinion, from observing that Pliny 

 says, lapis aerosus was called cadmia. For apprehending that by 

 lapis aerosus Pliny understood a kind of stone which caused ulcer* 

 and erosions in the flesh of those who were occupied in working 

 it, and knowing that arsenic produced such an effect, they have 

 concluded that cadmia was native arsenict. This, probably, is a 

 mistake arising from a misinterpretation of the word aerosus. Pliny 

 usually, if not constantly, applies that word to substances in which 

 copper is contained, without having any respect to the actions of 

 such substances on the flesh of animals. Arsenic, moreover, when 

 mixed with copper, does not give a gold, but a silver. like appear, 

 ance to copper. And lastly, Pliny + , in another place expressly 

 says, that the stone from which brass (aes) was made, was called 

 cadmia; now it is impossible to make either brass or copper from 

 arsenic. 



Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in the fourth century, says, that 

 copper, mixed with certain drugs, was kept fluxed in the furnace 

 till it acquired the colour of gold, and that it was then called auri. 

 chalcum. Primasus, bishop of Adrumetum in Africa, in the 



* Cadmia Trrra qme in cs conjicitur, ut fiat orichalcum. Fes. dc Vcr. Seq. 



+ nous snpconnons que Pline a voulu designer par lapis xrosus, une 



piorre qut mange et fait dcs ulceres ou erosions a ceur qui la ir.ivaillent, et 

 qui r*t probablcment 1'arsenic vierge. Miner, par M. Valmont de Oomare, 

 V. II. p. 04. If the wor^had been rro.u,, .th.ij criticism might have beeii 

 admitted. 



J Hist. Nat. L. XXXIV. 10. 



j jEJnarhque in rornafce,qufbusdam mrdicaminibusadmixt!*, tamdiu conflatur 

 u-que duracoloremauri accipiat, et dichur aurichalcum. Arab, in Apoc. C.I- 



