[ 166 r 
its imaginary coat, is no other than platina flill : 
and, which is of more extenlive utility, to diltinguifh 
all the abufes, that may be made with this metal, 
and reftore the gold, fo debafed, to its original purity 
and value. 
XXI. An Account of the Temple of Serapis 
at Pozzuoli in the Kingdom of Naples : 
In a Letter to John Ward, LL . D. and 
R. S. Vice-Preef by the Rev . John Nixon, 
M.A. F.R.S . 
S I R, 
Read Mar. 1 7 
* 757 - 
B 
EFORE we enter upon a more 
particular confideration of this no- 
ble piece of antiquity, it may not be improper to 
premife the general account (and indeed the only 
one I have met with yet publifhed), which is given 
of it by Meff. Cochin and Bellicard, in a little ( 1 ) 
treatife printed at Paris in 17^5. Thefe gentlemen 
acquaint us, that in 174.9 there were only three 
pillars of this building vifible, and that they were 
buried half way within the ground : but that foon 
after, workmen being employed by order of the 
King of the Two Sicilies to dig at the place, they 
came to the pedeftals of thofe pillars ; and at length 
difcovered the building to have been a temple, which 
(i) Obfervations fur les Antiquites d’Herculaneum, tfc. p. 82. 
(as 
