273 ON ORICHALCITM. 



from whose works Pliny compiled his Natural History, can be 

 supposed to have 1) i<l any intercourse with that country. Strabo, 

 moreover, contradicts both Pliny's observation, and his own. In 

 describing the grrat pomp with which some of the Indians were 

 accustomed to celebrate their festivals, he speaks of huge gilt ket- 

 tles, cups, and tables, made of Indian copper*; from which it ap, 

 pears, not only that (he Indians were not destitute of copper, but 

 that they were skilful metallurgists, since they knew how to flux 

 it to form it into vessels of various kinds, and to gild it. FIT. 

 haps, this Indian copper of which the vessels were made, instead 

 of being gilt, only resembled gold in colour, and was really a sort 

 of brass. It is -ranted that this is but a conjecture, but it is not 

 devoid of probability ; for, not to mention that the author, who- 

 ever he was, from whom Strabo extracted this account, might in a 

 public exhibition have easily mistaken polished brass for gilt cop. 

 per; nor the little probability that cauldrons, and kettles, and 

 such vessels as were in constant use, would be gilded in any coun- 

 try ; we have reason to believe, from what has been observed be- 

 fore, that a peculiar kind of vessels, probably resembling some of 

 those exhibited in the Indian festivals, had been long in use in 

 Persia, and that they were made of Indian copper without any 

 gilding. We know that there is found in India, not only copper 

 Strictly so called, but zinc also, which being mixed with copper 

 constitutes brass, pinchbeck, tombac, similor, and all the other 

 metallic mixtures which resemble gold in colour. On the whole, 

 it appears probable to me, that brass was made in the most remote 

 ages in India, and in other parts of Asia, of copper and calamine, 

 as it is at present. If the celt be allowed to be a British instru. 

 jnent, then may we be certain, from what was observed concern, 

 ing it in the last Essay, that our ancestors knew the method of 

 mixing together calamine and copper; for though tin and copper, 

 jvhen melted together in certain proportions, will give a blueish 

 green flame, yet the flame is not accompanied with a thick white 

 smoke, and there are few proportions in which any flame at all is 

 to be seen. 



With respect to orichalcum, it is generally supposed that there 

 were two sorts of ii, on 1 ' factitious, the other natural ; the facti. 

 tiou 1 -, win ther we consider Its qualities or composition, appears to 

 have been the same with our bras". As to the natural orichalcum, 



M. LXXVI. 



