28S ON OniCHALCUM. 



tory of the earth, and the civil history of the nations w hich inhabit 

 it. He who imports tut. nag from the East Indies, or white cop- 

 per from China or Japan, is sure of meeting with a ready market 

 for his merchandize in Europe, without being asked any questions 

 concerning the manner how, or the place where, they are pre. 

 parrd. An ingenious manufacturer of these metallic substances 

 might wish, probably, to acquire some information about them, 

 in order to attempt a domestic imitation of them ; but the merchant 

 who imports them, seems (o be too little interested in the success 

 of his endeavours, to take much pains in procuring for him the 

 requisite information. Imitations, however, have been made of 

 them, and we have an European tutenag, and an European white 

 copper*, differing, in some qualities, from those which are brought 

 from Asia, but resembling them in so many other, that they have 

 acquired their names. Something of this kind may have been the 

 case with respect to orichalcura, and tiie most ancient Greeks may 

 have known no more of the manner in which it was made, than 

 we do of that in which the Chinese prepare their white copper: 

 they may have had too an imitation of the original, and their 

 authors may have often mistaken the one for the other, and thus 

 have introduced an uncertainty and confusion into their accounts 

 of it. 



There is as little agreement amongst the learned concerning the 

 etymology of orichalcum, as concerning its origin. Those who 

 write it aurichalcum, suppose that it is an hybridous word, com. 

 posed of a Greek term signifying copper, and a Latin one signi. 

 fying gold. The most general opinion is, that it ought to be writ, 

 ten orichalcum, and that it is compounded of two Greek words, 

 one signifying copper, and the other a mountain, and that we 

 rightly render it by, mountain copper. 1 have always looked upon 

 this as a very forced derivation, inasmuch as we do not thereby 

 distinguish orichalcum from any other kind of copper; most cop- 

 per mines, in every part of the world, being found in mountainous 

 countries. If it should be thought, that some one particular 

 mountain, either in Greece or Asia, formerly produced an ore, 



The ingenious Dr. Higgiiis has been honoured by tlie Society for the En- 

 couragement of Art% &c. with a gold medal for white copper, made with 

 J'.nglish materials, in imitation of that brought from the l.-i-i Indies. His pro- 

 cess has nwt, I believe, been vet made public. Mem, of Agricul. Vol. Hit 

 p. 459. 



