O R'l C II A L C U M. 72.0 
■flunk it is compofed of the Latin word durum, gold, and 
the Greek yaXaot;, brafs or copper. The moll: general 
opinion is, however, that it is compofed of o^o;, a moun¬ 
tain, and ya.Xyo ;; alluding perhaps to its,being found in 
mountains or mountainous countries. Dr. Watfon, the 
lqte bifliop of Landa'fF, obferves, that the Hebrew word 
or, aur, ilgnifies light, fire, flame; and that the Latin 
terms uro, to burn, and durum, gold, are derived from 
it, ihafmuch as geld refembles the colour of flame ; and 
lienee it is not improbable, that orichalcum may be com¬ 
pofed of an Hebrew and a Greek term, and that it is 
rightly rendered “ flame-coloured copper.” 
This metal, or compofition, was well known to the old 
Romans, who often took advantage of its refemblance to 
gold ; and fome facrilegious characters, who could not 
refill the temptation of removing gold from temples and 
other public places, chofe to conceal their guilt by re¬ 
placing it with orichalcum. It was thus that Julius 
Caefar adled, when he robbed the capitol of 3000 pounds 
weight of gold ; in which he was followed by Vitellius, 
who defpoiled the temples of their gifts and ornaments, 
and replaced them with this inferior metal. 
It has been a matter of difpute with philofophers and 
others, what this metal could be, or how it was procured 
or made. It is probable that it was analogous to our 
brafs, if not wholly the fame with it. The value of brafs 
is-much lefs than that of gold; and the refemblance of 
brafs to gold, in colour, is obvious at firft fight. Both 
brafs and gold, indeed, are fufceptible of a variety of 
fhades of yellow; and, if very pale brafs be compared 
with gold mixed with much copper, fuch as the foreign 
goldfmiths efpecially ufe in their toys, a difparity may be 
leen; but the nearnefs of the refemblance is fufficiently 
afeertained in general, from obferving that fubllances 
gilded with brafs, or, as it is commonly called, Dutch leaf, 
are not eafily diftinguilhed from fuch as are gilded with 
gold leaf. 
The Romans were not only in poflefiion of a metallic 
fubftance called by them orichalcum, and refembling gold 
in colour, but they knew alfo the manner of making it; 
and the materials from which they made it were the very 
fame from which we make brafs. There are indeed au¬ 
thors of great repute who think very differently, and 
who confider the art of making brafs as an invention 
.wholly modern. Thus M. Croniledt does not think it 
juft to conclude, from old coins and other antiquities, that 
it is evidently proved that the making of brafs was known 
in the moll ancient times; and the authors of the French 
Encyclopedic allure us, that our brafs is a very recent in¬ 
vention. It appears, however, from Pliny’s Nat. Hill, 
lib. xxxiv. §. 2. and from the concurring tellimony of 
other writers, that orichalcum was nota.pureor original 
metal ; but that its balls was copper, which the Romans 
changed into orichalcum by means of cadmia, a fpecies of 
earth which they threw upon the copper, and which it 
abforbed. It has indeed been contended, that the cadmia 
of Pliny was native arfenic ; an opinion which fcarcely 
merits confutation, but which mull appear extremely 
groundlefs, when we refleft that'it is impoflible to make 
either brafs or copper from arfenic, and that Pliny ex- 
prefsly calls it a Jione from which brafs was made. The 
tellimony of Ambrofe, bifliop of Milan in the 4th Cen¬ 
tury, and of Primafius, bifliop of Adrumetum in Africa 
in the 6th, and of Ifidorus, bilhop of Seville in the 7th, 
all leem to confirm Pliny’s account. We may therefore 
fafely conclude, that the Romans knew the method of 
making brafs by mixing cadmia, or calamine, with copper; 
yet it is probable they were not the inventors of this art, 
but that they borrowed it from fome other country. It 
appears, from a variety of teftimonies, that brafs was made 
in Afia in a manner very fimilar to that at Rome; and a 
variety of places are mentioned in that extenfive country 
where it was commonly made ; and it is fuppofed by fome, 
that in India, as well as in other parts of Afia, it was 
made in the remoteft ages. 
VOL. XVII. NO. I2U. 
With refpefl to orichalcum, it is generally fuppofed 
that there were two forts of it; one factitious, the other 
natural. The factitious, whether we confider its quali¬ 
ties or compofition, appears to have been the fame with 
our brafs. As to the natural orichalcum, the pc is no 
improbability in fnppofing, that copper-ore may be fo in¬ 
timately blended with fin ore of zinc, or of ioihe other 
metallic fubftance, that the compound, when line!ted; 
may yield a mixed metal of a paler hue than copper, and 
refembling the colour of either gold or lilver. ' In Du 
Halde’s Hiftory of China, we meet with the following 
account of the Qhinefe white copper: “ The tnoft extra¬ 
ordinary copper is called de-tong-, or white copper; it is 
white when dug out of the mine, and llill more white 
within than without. It appears by. a vaft number of ex¬ 
periments made at Pekin, that its colour is owing to no 
mixture; on the contrary, ail mixtures diminilh its beauty ; 
for, when it is rightly managed, it looks exaCtly like fi! Ver; 
and, were there not a necellity of mixing a little tutenag, 
or fome fuch metal, with it, to foften it, and prevent its 
brittlenefs, it would be lo much the more extraordinary, 
as this fort of copper is perhaps to be met with no-vvhere 
but in China, and that only in the province of Yun -nan.” 
Notwithllanding what is here faid, of the colour of this 
copper being owing to no mixture, it is certain that the 
Chinefe white copper, as brought to us, is a mixed metal; 
fo that the ore from which it is extradled mull conlift of 
various metallic fubllances ; and from fome fuch ore it is 
polfible that the natural orichalcum, if ever it exifted, 
may have been made. But, notwithllanding that the ex- 
iftence of natural orichalcum cannot be Ihown to be irn- 
poflible, yet there is fome realon to doubt whether it ever 
had a real exiftence or not. 
We know of no country in w hich it is found at pre- 
fent; nor was it any-where found in the age of Piiny ; 
nor does he feem to have known the country where it ever 
had been found. He admits, indeed, its having been 
formerly dug out of the earth : but it is remarkable, that, 
ill the very paflage where he is mentioning by name the 
countries moll celebrated for the production of different 
kinds of copper, he only fays in general concerning ori- 
chalcum, that it had been found in other countries, with¬ 
out fpecifying any particular country. Plato acknow¬ 
ledges, that orichalcum was a thing only talked of even 
in his time ; it was no-where then to be met with, though 
in the illand of Atlantis it had been formerly extracted 
from the earth. The Greeks were in pofleflion of a me¬ 
tallic fubftance called orichalcum before the foundation 
of Rome, for it is mentioned by Homer and by Heliod ; 
and by both of them in fuch a manner as fhows that it 
was then held in great elleem. Other ancient writers 
have exprefled themfelves in fimilar terms of commenda¬ 
tion ; and it is principally from the circumftance of the 
high reputed value of orichalcum that authors are induced 
to fuppofe the ancient.orichalcum to have been a natural 
fubftance, and very different from the faflitious one in 
tile at Rome, and probably in Afia, and which, it has been 
Ihowm, was nothing different from our brafs. But this 
conclufion cannot be validly drawn from their enco¬ 
miums upon it; for, at whatever time the method of 
making it was firft difeovered, both its novelty and 
fcarcenefs, joined to its utility, would enhance its value ; 
at leaft there can be no abfurdity in fnppofing, that, When 
firft introduced, it was greatly prized, even though it be 
granted that it poffeifed no other properties than .fuch as 
appertain to brafs. Tran)’, of the manchejler Soc. vol. ii. 
OR'ICUM, or Oricus, a town of Epirus, on the 
Ionian Sea; founded by a colony from Colchis, according 
to Pliny. It was called Dardania, becaufe Helenus and 
Andromache, natives of Troy, or Dardania, reigned over 
the country after the Trojan war. It had a celebrated 
harbour, and was greatly elleemed by the Romans on ac¬ 
count of its fituation, but it was not well defended. The 
tree vtliich produces the turpentine grew there in abun¬ 
dance. 
8 Z O'RIEL, 
