30 
Jan. 8 , 1860. — Mr. Procter read a paper On the Ancient 
Metallurgy of Lead among the Romans, especially in Britain.” Not¬ 
withstanding the silence of Caesar, it seems probable that the lead- 
mines of this country were worked by the natives before the Roman 
conquest. Leland mentions a plate of lead, found in Somersetshire, 
inscribed with the name of the Emperor Claudius in the ninth year 
of his tribunitial power, i. e. A. D. 49, and as this was only five years 
after his arrival in Britain, it is not probable that the Romans should, 
in so short an interval, have begun to work lead-mines, if the art had 
been previously unknown in the island. Pigs of lead have also been 
found in difi’erent parts of Britain, bearing the names of other Roman 
Emperors. 
Pliny notices the abundance of lead in this country, and the facility 
of working it from its coming to the surface; in this respect, he con¬ 
trasts the British lead-mines with those of Spain and Gaul. He 
observes that there are two difl’erent sources of lead, — its own native 
ore from which it is produced without admixture, and an ore which 
contains it in combination with silver. Lead is rarely quite free from 
silver, but the ancients, from their imperfect knowledge, probably 
regarded those ores as non-argentiferous, in which silver exists only in 
minute proportions. From Pliny’s account, which, however, contains 
some obscurities, it is clear that the Romans were in the habit of 
extracting silver from lead by a process of cupellation; and on several 
of the pigs found in Britain, we read the words ex. arg. or ex. argn., 
which can hardly be explained otherwise than as Ex Argento or Ex . 
Argentifodina, Yet it seems extraordinary that the lead should be 
described as extracted from silver ore or a silver mine, when the silver 
is really quite an insignificant admixture with the lead. 
Mr. Procter has analysed several specimens of Roman lead from 
the collection of the Society, with the following results : 
SILVER. 
A lead coffin 
0*0066 per cent. 
Do. 0*0094 
Do. 0*0054 
A leaden lamp stand . 0*0182 
A lead pipe... 0*0087 
Another lead pipe exhibited merely a trace of silver. 
The quantity analysed in each case was 500 gr. 
