BOOK XXXIV. xLviii. 161-XLIX. 164 



whereas that of black lead is entirely moist. Conse- 

 quently white lead cannot be iised for anything 

 without an admixture of another metal, nor can 

 it be employed for soldering silver, because the silver 

 melts before the white lead." And it is asserted 

 that if a smaller quantity of black lead than is 

 necessary is mixed with the white, it corrodes the 

 silver. A method discovered in the Gallic provinces 

 is to plate bronze articles with white lead so as to make 

 them almost indistinguishable from silver ; articles 

 thus treated are called ' incoctilia.' Later they also 

 proceeded in the town Alesia ^ to plate with silver in 

 a similar manner, particularly ornaments for horses 

 and pack animals and yokes of oxen ; the distinction 

 of developing this method belongs to Bordeaux. 

 Then they proceeded to decorate two-wheeled war- 

 chariots, chaises and four-wheeled carriages in a 

 similar manner, a kixurious practice that has now 

 got to using not only silver but even gold statuettes, 

 and it is now called good taste to subject to wear 

 and tear on carriages ornaments that it was once 

 thought extravagant to see on a goblet ! 



It is a test of white lead when melted and poured 

 on papyrus to seem to have burst the paper by its 

 weight and not by its heat. India possesses neither 

 copper nor lead, and procures them in exchange for 

 her precious stones and pearls. 



XLIX. Black lead which we use to make pipes 

 and sheets is excavated with considerable labour 

 in Spain and through the whole of the Gallic 

 provinces, but in Britain it is found in the surface- 

 stratum of the earth in such abundance that there 

 is a law prohibiting the production of more than a 

 certain amount. The various kinds of black lead 



245 



