38 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO \7q6. 



parts were not in a state to bear examination. The articulation of the lower jaw 

 admits of no motion forwards or laterally ; it is a simple hinge an inch long, and 

 very narrow. The condyle of the jaw is so much inclosed in the socket as to be 

 with difficulty disengaged. The ribs are 14 in number, 9 true, and 5 spurious. 



JLJ^IIL Observations on some Ancient Metallic Arms and Utensils ; with Experi- 

 ments to determine their Composition. By George Pearson, M. D. } F. R. S. p. 395. 



Most of these articles, communicated by the president, Sir Joseph Banks, Bart, 

 were found in Lincolnshire, in the bed of the river Witham, between Kirksted and 

 Lincoln. Several of them were discovered when that river was scoured out in 1787 

 and 1788. The instruments were evidently made of what are commonly called 

 brass, and iron. The brass instruments were allays of copper by tin ; and the 

 supposed iron implements were found to be steel. It may be proper here to ob- 

 serve, that brass is a term commonly used to denote any metallic composition the 

 principal ingredient of which is copper ; but the most accurate writers in chemistry 

 use the term brass, with more precision, to denote only the compound of copper and 

 zinc ; and therefore (says Dr. P.) I shall employ it in this latter sense. 



SECTION I. OF THE COPPER INSTRUMENTS. 



§ 1. Miscellaneous historical observations. — The articles belonging to this head 

 were 7 in number ; namely, a lituus, a spear-head, a sauce-pan, a scabbard, and 3 

 celts. 



1. The lituus. — This is represented, pi. 1, fig. 1. It is well known to have been 

 a military musical instrument of the Romans. Several classical writers mention it, 

 as Horace, ode i. Virg. JEn. 1. vi. v. l()2. Georg. 1. iii. v. 182. It is supposed 

 by judicious antiquaries to have been adopted from the barbarous nations ; and 

 that the figure of it was intended by them to resemble a snake, the principal object 

 of their religious worship, and of the most sacred mysteries of the Druidical reli- 

 gion. If these remarks be true, they throw new light on the crooked staff of the 

 augurs, which the lituus much resembles. It is accurately represented among the 

 trophies which ornament the base of Trajan's column at Rome, erected in memory 

 of his conquest of the Dacians and Sarmatians, and covered with bas-reliefs, de- 

 scribing the events of that war. The lituus is also found on the reverses of some 

 Roman coins : see fig. 2. 



The present specimen is imperfect, a little of both ends being broken off: it is 

 however a very valuable relic, as there is little doubt that it is the only one known 

 to be in any cabinet at this time in Europe. It has been neatly made. The parts 

 which appear like joints are pieces which slide over the tube for ornament, or per- 

 haps for holding the instrument more conveniently. It had the appearance of a 

 brazen tube, from which a great part of a blackish coating has been rubbed off. 

 It was evidently made of a plate of hammered metal of about -^th of an inch thick. 

 The juncture of the edges of the metal, the whole length of the tube, was pre- 

 served by means of a solder clumsily applied, by melting it withinside the tube. 



