!6 4 NATURAL HISTORY 
their tin into the purity and toughnefs of the prefent age. Thefe 
nodules I look upon alio as fragments of melted tin fcattered from 
the Jewifh melting-houfes. 
sect. vi. Tin is alfo found among the dime and fands of rivers and of the 
infold and p ea _|p LOrej ( as i n feme creeks of Falmouth harbour feveral lords of 
the foil have lately experienced to their advantage) wafhed down 
probably from the hills, and refting in fuch fheltered dtuations 
that the fea has not power to carry it oft'. This was probably the 
ftrft pofttion in which tin was difcovered ; for i n the Chaldee 
fignifies dime, mud, or dirt ; and when the Phenicians came here, 
and faw this metal in its dimy bed, they called it the Mud, by way 
of eminence, and thence has the name Tin (in Cornubritifh Stean, 
in Latin Stannum) proceeded, and is ftill continued. 
Not only creeks and rivers, but fometimes the open fea, (as I 
have feen in Mount’s Bay) throws in the fame metal to us in a pul- 
verized date. In fuch open bays the tin comes probaoly nom fome 
lodes, which, lying bare to the fea, have their upper-parts fretted 
off, and by ftorms thrown in among the fands. 
sect. vir. That tin grows, or is formed anew where there was none be- 
In what fenfe £ any ot h er f en f e than by approximation of like particles 
tin or other 7 ' - y . VU1 „ 
metals grow, moved from one place to another, is, m my numDle opinion, a 
miftake. That by fortuitous concourfe (for what agency is it that 
conduces them) fulphur, quickfilver, or any other principles in dif- 
ferent proportions, compreffed by cold, or evaporated and fuppled 
by heat, can be fo exadly forted as to form a metal, leems to me 
altogether as impoftible as that the types oi a printer fhould become 
words and fentences by being cafually thrown together. The parts of 
metals are indeed varioufly involved, pafs into different nidus’s or ce- 
ments, from malleable and metallic become lapideous, from lapideous 
again metallic. The ore is tranflated from one part of the mine to 
another, and is renewed where it has been exhaufted ; the metal is by 
fire or ufe wafted, diffipated, and loft ; yet, if it could be recollect- 
ed, might again become metallic ; but tin is no where formed 
but by the peculiar metallic principles of tin concurring, nor iron 
but by thofe of iron. The formation of metals was not left to the 
accidental occafional combinations of diftinCf ingredients : their 
principles and criterions were all created in their proper kind ; one 
metal or mineral may mix with another, and remain dilguifed for 
a time, but never changed. Sulphur and quickfilver, and other 
minerals as well as metals, may have tin in their lubftances, and by 
proper magnets and folvents, will doubtlefs difmifs that tin, and 
remain as much fulphur and quickfilver as they were before ; but 
