4 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
Asia and Africa. 
‘‘Asia and Africa are so intimately connected in biblical 
and other early history that they are best considered together. 
‘‘LEAD.—Pliny attributes the discovery of lead to Midas, 
king of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, a somewhat legendary per- 
sonage who reigned over a thousand years before Christ. 
Lenormant,” however, declares that the Chinese were ac- 
quainted with all metals as early as 2000 B.c. Lead and 
iron mines were exploited in the desert near the Red sea in 
the time of the ancient Eyptians, and the metal, as well as 
litharge, was known to these people. Solder containing the 
former is found in ruins ascribed to the time of the Pharaohs. 
The Israelites were commanded by Moses (about 1500 B. c.) 
to purify lead (called ‘opheret’) by fire; but they made no 
exact distinction between this metal and tin. 
‘In Assyria, Phoenicia, Arabia, Armenia, Chaldea, Persia, 
India and China are deposits of silver-lead ores which were 
worked by the ancients, and in Tunis and Algeria also. 
The Pheenicians (1550-55 B. c.) also worked lead mines in 
Cyprus and Thasos. The separation of silver from lead, by 
simple melting and oxidation, was prosecuted before 600 B. c. 
in the East. In Japan, lead mining was prosecuted as early 
as the eighth century. The uses to which lead and its com- 
pounds were put by the ancients were numerous and often 
peculiar. The Chinese are credited with having used flat- 
tened lead as money probably as early as 2000 B. c., and it 
was also used there for debasing more valuable coinage. In 
India it was used as weaver’s weights and also as a charm ; 
red lead was used as a cosmetic, and the medicinal applications 
of this and other compounds were various. The Egyptians 
glazed pottery and made solder for wares from lead; they 
also made amulets and other objects. Wooden anchors of 
the Phcenicians were filled with lead. They also used leaden 
coffins. Lead was used in glass as early as 800 B.c. The 
masonry of ancient Babylon was strengthened by iron clamps 
held in sockets by lead, and the hanging gardens were 
2. L’Orfeverie d’ Etain, Revue Archeologique, quoted by Pulsifer in his “Notes for a History 
of Lead.”’ To this painstaking and exhaustive work of Mr. Pulsifer, the writer wishes to make 
acknowledgments for many of the facts for the following historical sketch. 
