AAugSst'  ^8rm*}    Romance  of  Chemical  Elements.  567 
by  fusing  a  natural  copper-zinc  ore  aurichalcite,  and  Pliny  mentions 
that  the  mineral  kadmia  (calamine)  is  used  for  making  brass.  The 
German  word  for  brass  =  messing  is  derived  from  the  ancient  tribe 
name,  but  the  origin  of  zinc  is  somewhat  obscure.  Paracelsus 
mentions  it  for  the  first  time  in  1520,  and  as  he  was  deeply  inter- 
ested in  medicine  may  have  probably  derived  it  from  the  old  high 
German  "  zinco,"  which  means  "  a  white  spot  in  the  eye,"  in  allu- 
sion to  the  white  color  of  the  metal.  It  may,  however,  come  from 
the  German  zinke  =  prongu,  tine,  on  account  of  the  pronged,  crys- 
talline structure. 
Phosphorus. 
An  important  discovery  was  made  in  1669  by  Brandt,  of  Ham- 
burg, who,  in  his  alchemistical  experiments,  distilled  evaporated 
urine  with  sand,  and  found  a  substance  which  was  glowing.  This 
mysterious  substance  he  called  phosphorus,  in  allusion  to  the  morn- 
ing star  Venus,  which  was  often  termed  Lucifer  or  Phosphorus, 
the  first  name  from  the  Latin  lux  =  light  and  ferre  — carry,  the 
latter  from  the  Greek  <£os,  phos,  =  light,  and  <£opos,  phoros,  =  bring, 
both  indicating  the  light-bringing  medium.  Brandt  sold  his  secret 
of  making  phosphorus  in  1677  to  Krafft,  who  exhibited  specimens 
of  the  mysterious  substance,  but  one  year  later  Kunkel,  and  in  1680 
Boyle  also  found  out  how  phosphorus  could  be  prepared.  In  1775 
Scheele  made  it  from  bones  and  studied  phosphoric  acid.  Schroet- 
ter  in  1845  discovered  a  modification  of  phosphorus — red  phos- 
phorus, and  Schenck  in  1902  made  orange-colored  phosphorus. 
Cobalt. 
Ghosts  and  goblins  played  always  an  important  role  in  the  minds 
of  the  medieval  man.  They  were  not  only  in  fairy  tales,  but  actual 
beings,  and  inhabited  different  places.  One  of  these  goblins  was 
the  German  "  kobold,"  which  was  a  spirit  of  the  earth  and  inhabited 
underground  places.  So  it  was  natural  that  the  miners  came  some- 
times in  touch  with  him.  One  of  his  deeds  was  to  cause  the  miners 
to  find  heavy  ores  which  looked  like  silver  ores,  but  which  produced 
no  silver  and  were  useless.  These  ores  they  termed  then  kobolt, 
and  we  find  them  mentioned  in  the  writings  of  the  alchemists,  Basil 
Valentin  and  Georgus  Agricola.  Then  G.  Brandt  examined  these 
ores  and  isolated  in  1733  a  new  metal  which  he  called  cobalt  after 
the  mineral. 
