tin. 269 



the gullet.* He found that albumen, or the white of eggs, given 

 in large quantities of water, is the most effectual counter-poison 

 for all the preparations of copper. The ferro-prussiate of potash 

 has likewise been found an equally powerful antidote. f 



Genus VI.— TIN. 



Etain.Vr.; Stagno y lt.; Estano,Sp.; Zinn y Ger.; Tin, Sax. Hut. Dan.; Teun, 

 Swed.; Oloivo, Ituss .; Resass, Arab ; Runga, Hind.; Yang.seih, Chin. 



Tin appears to have been known from the most remote antiquity, 

 for we find it mentioned in the works of Moses,t and both the 

 coins and the weapons of the ancients were made of an alloy of 

 tin and copper. According to Pliny, the Phoenicians and Cartha- 

 ginians procured it from Spain and Britain, with which nations 

 they carried on a lucrative commerce. |j Tin has never been 

 discovered pure in nature, but exists either in the state of a perox- 

 ide, or of a double sulphuret of tin and copper. The ores of this 

 metal are by no means universally diffused ; they have been found 

 and worked chiefly in England, in Germany, and in many parts of 

 the East Indies ; and they occur only in that description of rocks 

 which geologists call primitive, from supposing them to constitute 

 the most ancient parts of the earth's surface. The ores of tin 

 are distinguished by their great hardness and specific gravity. 

 Nearly all the tin of commerce is obtained from the ore denomi- 

 nated tin-stone, or the peroxide of tin and iron. 



Sp. 1. Tinstone, or Oxide of Tin. Pl. XXXVII. fig. 1, 2.— 

 Zinnstein, Werner ; Etain oxide, Hauy ; Tinstone, Jameson, 

 iii. p. 439. — The prevailing colours are yellowish-brown, dark- 

 brown, or reddish-brown, hair-brown, and velvet-black. It occurs 

 in rounded masses, which are in general more or less crystaline ; 

 but commonly in regular crystals. The most common form of the 



* Toxicologic Generate, vol. i. p. 535. f Ibid, vol. i. p. 541. 



J Nutnbers xxxi. cap. 22. 

 || Hist. Nat. lib. iv. cap. 34, and lib, xxiv. cnp. 47. 



2a 



