STATER OF FMILIP OF MACEDON. 31 



the fine silver, and volatilize it with the lead, or reduce it to 

 scoriae. The elastic fluids evolved from the vegetable mat- 

 ter by the action of the fire would perform the office of 

 bellows* to agitate the metal violently and incessantly for 

 several days, which would occasion all the impurities to 

 float on the surface, where they would be scummed off as is 

 done by the Lyonese. 



But, to say the truth, a fire continued for five days gives Object!©*. 

 rather an idea of the cementation of the moderns, analogous 

 to that transmitted to us by Pliny, than of a real fusion in 

 closed crucibles ; a circumstance directly opposite to the 

 purpose intended. Thus in Hungary, the better to open Hungarian 

 all the interior parts of the gold to the muriatic acid reduced P^** 55 * 

 to vapour in the process of cementation, it is customary to 

 add lead to the mass, which is afterward reduced into 

 small hollow drops, or grains as they are called. It is pos- 

 sible, that the lead mentioned by Agatharchides was The process of 

 intended for the same purpose; that tin is a mistaken ex- Agatbarcbidea 

 % • -it ^*> explained by 



pression for crude antimony, or native sulphuret Of lead ; this* 



and that the barley meal was intended merely to promote 

 the wnifof m distribution of the little salt, a stratum of which 

 was to be placed on the gold, and assisted perhaps in decom- 

 posiug it, as clay or sulphate of iron does now. 



To obtain some light on this curious subject, into a cru- Eicperire-r.t to 

 cible, covered by another inverted over it, were put 720 grs P rove lts "* 

 •f barley meal, and 576 grs of common salt. This mix- 

 ture was heated till it acquired the colour of a red hot 

 coal, and in this state it was kept for six and thirty hours. 

 More from curiosity, than to derive any important conclu- 

 sion from it, into it had been put a small slip of gold, at SI 

 carats 3 eighths, or 0*891, a third of a millimeter [about 0*13 

 of a line Eng.] thick* and weighing 24 grs; and a slip of 

 silver, at 11 dwts and half, or 0*958, half a millimeter [near 

 0*2 of a line] thick, and weighing 40 grs. The lower cru- 

 cible, in which these were placed, was half full ; and in the 

 luting of that above was left an opening of 5 mil. [near « 

 lines] for the issue of the elastic vapour. 



At the expiration of this time the apparatus, after being R««!**. 

 cooled, was opened. In it was found a very little earthy 

 rwiduum, slighly saline, whitish, weighing scarcely 1 1*5 



grs. 



