378 
Tin . 
has been used ; because its pores, which the eye cannot 
distinguish, get filled up with the substances which are 
boiled in it, and all the sharp edges of the prominent parts 
become blunted ; and are thereby rendered less liable to 
be abraded. 
M. cle la Lande , in describing the cabinet at Portia , ob- 
serves, that the kitchen utensils, which have been dug up 
at Herculaneum , are almost all of them made of a com- 
pound metal like our bronze, and that many of the vessels 
are covered with silver, but none of them with tin : and 
hence he concludes, that the useful art of applying tin 
upon copper, was unknown to the Romans ; cet art utile 
dl appliquer V etain sur le cuivre manquoit aux Remains 
By the same mode of arguing, it might be inferred, that 
whatever is not met with in one house or town, is not to 
be found in a whole country : yet, should a town in 
England, in which there happened to be plenty of tinned, 
but no plated or silvered copper, be swallowed up by an 
earthquake, a future antiquary, employed in digging up 
its ruins, would make a bad conclusion, if he should 
thence infer, that the English understood, indeed, at that 
time the art of applying a covering of tin, but not one of 
silver upon copper. If the ingenious author had recob 
lected what is said in the 3 1th book of Plim/s Natural 
History, he would have $een reason to believe, that the 
Romans, at least when Pliny wrote that book, did under- 
stand the method of tinning copper which is now in use ; 
for this great naturalist assures us in express terms, that 
tin smeared upon copper vessels, rendered the taste more 
agreeable, and restrained the virulence of the copper rust. 
It is to no purpose to object, that the tin (stannum) of 
Pliny, was a substance different from our tin ; for though 
it should be in some measure granted, that it was a mix 
* Voyage d* un Francois en Italie, vof VII. p* 120 
