ON ORICHALCUM. 



dropped out a silver-looking metal, which, being mixed with cop. 

 per, formed a composition which some called orichalcum*. It is 

 not improbable, I think, that this stone resembled black jack, or 

 some other ore of zinc. Black jack may, in a common way of 

 speaking, be called a stone. It abounds in iron ; and, when cal. 

 cined, looks like an iron earth ; it yields ziuc by distillation, some- 

 times mixed with silver and lead : and both the metallic substance 

 which may be extracted from blackjack, and the sublimate which 

 arises from it whilst it is smelted, will, when mixed with copper, 

 make brass. 



The Mossynaeci inhabited a country not far from the Euxine Sea ; 

 and their copper, according to Aristotle, was said to have become 

 splendid and white, not from the addition of tin, but from it's 

 being mixed and cemented with an earth found in that country. t 

 This cementing of copper with an earth, is what is done, when 

 brass is made, by uniting copper with calamine, which is often 

 called, and indeed has the external appearance of, an earth ; and 

 that Asia was celebrated for its cadmia or calamine, we have the 

 testimony of Pliny J. The copper of the Mossynaeci is said to hare 

 become white by this operation. Whiteness appertains to brass, 

 either absolutely or relatively ; for brass is not only much whiter 

 than copper, but when it is made with a certain quantity of a par. 

 ticular sort of calamine, for there are very various sorts of it, its 

 ordinary yellow colour is changed into a white. Cicero, we have 

 seen, supposes that orichalcum might have been mistaken for gold, 

 and as such it must have been yellow ; yet Virgil applies the epi. 

 thet white to orichalcum : 



Ipse debinc auro squalentem alboquc orichalco 

 Circumdat loricam humeris . 



Aristotle also speaks of having heard of an Indian copper, which 

 was shining, and pure, and free from rust, and not distinguishable 

 in colour from gold|| ; and he informs us, that amongst the vessels 

 of Darius there were some, of which, but for the peculiarity of 

 their smell, it would have been impossible to say whether they 

 were made of gold or copper. This account seems very descrip- 

 tive of common brass, which may be made to resemble gold per- 



* Slntl). On. L. XI 11. f Aris. de Mirab. Op. Tom. II. p. 781. 



f Hist. Nat. L. XXXI V. C. II. \ Virg. Ma. L, XII. 87. 

 | Ari3.de Mi rab. T. II. y. 719. 



