ii 6 Mr. Hatchett's Experiments on the various Alloys, 
is called, takes place before the Lord Chancellor, the Lords 
Commissioners of the Treasury, &c. &c. &c. the Master of the 
Mint is held excusable, if the imperfection or deficiency of the 
coin, in the aggregate, is less than the sixth part of a carat, 
equal to 40 grains of fine gold, in the pound of standard, or the 
133d part of the value. 
When it is considered, that the extreme accuracy of philoso- 
phical experiments cannot easily be introduced into such esta- 
blishments as mints, where the work is carried on upon a large 
scale, some latitude may with reason be expected, and granted, 
especially as a perfectly exact mixture of the alloy is attended 
with difficulty. 
In Hellot’s French translation of Schlutter's work, en- 
titled Essais des Mines et des Metaux , p. 276, the following 
experiment is mentioned, in order to prove the frequent unequal 
mixture of gold with another metal, such as silver. 
“ A quantity of silver, amounting to upwards of twenty 
“ pounds, and containing about a 56th part of gold, was melted 
“ in a crucible, and poured into cold water, in order that it might 
“ be granulated : by dipping, at different times, an iron ladle 
“ into the water under the stream of metal, parts of the first, 
“ second, and third running were separately received ; and, 
“ being assayed, were all found to differ in their content of gold." 
Dr. Lewis, who has noticed this experiment, also describes 
another made by Mr. Homberg, which is related in the Me- 
moirs of the Academy of Paris, for the year 1713. 
“ Equal parts of gold and silver, melted together, and reduced 
“ into fine grains, were put into a crucible, with a mixture of 
“ about equal parts of decrepitated sea salt and rough nitre 
“ under them : the crucible being kept in a small fire in a wind 
