Ball — On Zinc and Zinc Ores. 329 



•Glossary of some Oriental and other Titles used for Zinc 



and its Alloys. 



Bidar, Bidri (Hindustani). — This is described by Forbes (Diet.) 

 as the metal of which kukkas are made (at Beder). It has been 

 shown by Dr. Flight's analysis, quoted on p. 325, to consist prin- 

 cipally of zinc. Curiously enough, Forbes gives no name directly 

 for zinc in his dictionary. Kaskat he names as a variety of 

 " bidar." An article on "bidri" will be found in Colonel Yule's 

 Glossary, as stated on p. 325. 



Birinj, or Pital (Hindustani). — According to the Ain-i-Akbari, 

 this metal (brass) is of three (? two) kinds : one kind is malleable 

 without being heated in the fire, and it is made of two seers of 

 ■copper to one seer and a-half of rotutia. The other kind is not 

 malleable, and it is used in casting ; this is compounded of two 

 seers of copper and one seer and a-half of rotutia. The propor- 

 tions being identical in each case, the translator has probably made 

 a mistake (see Grlad win's ed., vol. i. p. 41.) 



Cadmia (Latin). — The name " cadmia" seems to have been ap- 

 plied by Pliny to several ores containing zinc, from which brass was 

 made, and also to the furnace products, whether of calcination or 

 sublimation, found when ores containing zinc were roasted. In 

 some measure it therefore bore the same signification as calamine, 

 but it covered a wider range, being applied to ores which contained 

 no calamine, but which, when roasted, produced the furnace cala- 

 mine (see Beckmann, Hist, of Inventions, Art. Zinc.) 



Calamine. — See for suggested origin of this name the Chinese 

 " Yu skill," p. 331. By some authors the name is still applied to 

 the carbonate (Smithsonite), but Dana advocates its being re- 

 served for the hydro-silicate. 



Calen, Calaem, Calay (Hin. KaUii, i.e. Tin). — Under one or 

 other of the above names authors have sometimes apparently re- 

 ferred to zinc ; but these titles are, strictly speaking, corruptions of 

 the proper name for tin. And in some cases it is doubtful whether 

 the writers merely applied the wrong name to a substance which 

 was either zinc or pewter, or gave the right name to the substance — 

 tin — which they thought was a different metal, as it was some little 

 time after Indian tin reached the markets that its identity with 



