246 Invention of the Mariner's Compass.» = 
~ ferrum est ad zoron, hoc est septentrionalem, et hoc utuntur naute. 
Angulus veré alius magnetis illi oppositus trahit ad aphron, id est 
meridionalem: et si approximes ferrum versus angulum zoron, 
convertit se ferrum ad zoron, et si ad oppositum angulum ap- 
proximes, convertit se directé ad aphron.” Vincent de Beauvais, 
a cotemporary of Albertus Magnus, has left a similar. passage, 
likewise quoting Aristotle, in his “ Spnitpliceetl “An. 
-gulus quidem éjus cui virtus est attra endi ferrum, est ad zaron, 
i. e. septentrionalem, angulus autem-oppositus, ad aphron, i. e. 
meridiem. Itaque proprietatem habet magnes, quod si approximes 
ei ferrum ad angulum ipsius qui zaron, i. e. septentrionem respicit, 
ad septentrionem se convertit, si verd ad angulum oppositum 
ferrum admoveris, ad aphron, i. e. meridiem se movebit.” The 
names given in these two passages to the north and south pole, 
: Ss Se Sue 
zoron or zaron, and aphron, are the Arabic jae north; and +4 = 
south. As to the work here attributed to Aristotle, under the title 
of a “treatise concerning stones,” we have no such Greek text 
of this author, and it is doubtful if ever he wrote such a book. 
There is an Arabic treatise entitled sks xNwic—the Book of 
Stones, composed by a certain Lucas, son of Serapion, but pul- 
porting to be a translation from Aristotle, which Baron De Sacy 
has shown to be the true source of citations under the name of 
Aristotle, in the writings of 'Téifachi and Béilak Kibdjaki; and 
very probably Albert and Vincent have quoted this same work 
in their account of the polarity of the magnet. However, the 
names zoron and aphron, applied by these authors to the two 
magnetic poles, are sufficient to prove that they derived their 
knowledge of the magnet’s polarity from an oriental source. 
But there is no evidence that the Arabs were the inventors.of 
the magnetic needle. It may, indeed, have been in use among 
the Arabian navigators, before it was noticed by men of science j_ 
but we have in no Arabic work any mention of it which 0° 
back beyond the year 1242. In this year, Béilak Kibdjaki made 
a voyage from Tripoli to Alexandria, and in his treatise entitled 
sisal! Kx. i ysis pt cia —the Treasure of Mer- 
chants, touching the knowledge of stones, he has recorded his ob- 
servations on that occasion, respecting the magnetic needle. “AS 
to the properties of the magnetic needle,” he writes, “ it 1s t be 
observed, that the captains who navigate the sea of Syria, when 
the night is so obscure that they can see no star by which to steer 
