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Title: A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume 2 (of
2)

Author: Johann Beckmann

Editor: William Francis
J. W. Griffith

Translator: William Johnston

Release date: February 4, 2015 [eBook #48152]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF
INVENTIONS, DISCOVERIES, AND ORIGINS, VOLUME 2 (OF 2) ***

Sir W. Beechy. I. J. Hinchliff.
James Watt.

A

HISTORY
OF

INVENTIONS, DISCOVERIES,
AND ORIGINS.

By JOHN BECKMANN,
PROFESSOR OF ŒCONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGEN.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN,

By WILLIAM JOHNSTON.

Fourth Edition,
CAREFULLY REVISED AND ENLARGED BY

WILLIAM FRANCIS, Ph.D., F.L.S.,
EDITOR OF THE CHEMICAL GAZETTE;

AND

J. W. GRIFFITH, M.D., F.L.S.,
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

VOL. II.

LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1846.

PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

CONTENTS.
Page
The Steam-Engine, and Discoveries of James Watt v
Lending and Pawnbroking 1
Chemical Names of Metals 23
Zinc 32
Carp 46
Camp-mills 55
Mirrors 56
Glass-cutting. Etching on Glass 84
Soap 92
Madder 108
Jugglers, Rope-dancers, Automata, etc. 115
Artificial Ice. Cooling Liquors 142
Hydrometer 161
Lighting of Streets 172
Night-watch 185
Plant-skeletons 195
Bills of Exchange 203
Tin. Tinning 206
Sowing-machines 230
Manganese 235
Prince Rupert’s Drops. Lacrymæ Vitreæ 241
Fire-engines 245
Indigo 258
Vanes. Weathercocks 281
Gilding 290
Fur Dresses 296
Steel 324

Stamping-works 333
Kitchen Vegetables 336
Knitting Nets and Stockings. Stocking-Loom 355
Hops 376
Black Lead 388
Sal-Ammoniac 396
Forks 407
Lottery. Tontine 414
Bologna Stone 429
Foundling Hospitals 434
Orphan Houses 449
Infirmaries. Hospitals for Invalids. Field Lazarettos 454
Cock-fighting 473
Saltpetre. Gunpowder. Aquafortis 482
Book-censors 512
Exclusive Privilege for Printing Books 518
Catalogues of Books 522
Ribbon-Loom 527
Guns. Gun-Locks 533

THE STEAM-ENGINE,

AND THE DISCOVERIES OF JAMES WATT.

Although the plan of this new edition of Beckmann’s ‘History of
Inventions and Discoveries’ was to confine it to the subjects treated of in
the original work, yet we feel it imperative to make an exception in favour
of the Steam-Engine, the most important of all modern inventions.
The power of steam was not entirely unknown to the ancients, but
before the æra rendered memorable by the discoveries of James Watt, the
steam-engine, which has since become the object of such universal interest,
was a machine of extremely limited power, inferior in importance and
usefulness to most other mechanical agents used as prime movers. Hero of
Alexandria, who lived about 120 years before the birth of Christ, has left us
the description of a machine, in which a continued rotatory motion was
imparted to an axis by a blast of steam issuing from lateral orifices in arms
placed at right angles to it. About the beginning of the seventeenth century,
a French engineer, De Caus, invented a machine by which a column of
water might be raised by the pressure of steam confined in the vessel, above
the water to be elevated; and in 1629, Branca, an Italian philosopher,
contrived a plan of working several mills by a blast of steam against the
vanes; from the descriptions, however, which have been left us of these
contrivances, it does not appear that their projectors were acquainted with
those physical properties of elasticity and condensation on which the power
of steam as a mechanical agent depends.
In 1663, the celebrated Marquis of Worcester described in his Century
of Inventions, an apparatus for raising water by the expansive force of
steam only. From this work we extract the following short account of the
first steam-engine. “68. An admirable and most forcible way to drive up
water by fire; not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be as the
philosopher calleth it, intra sphæram activitatis, which is but at such a

distance. But this way hath no bounder, if the vessel be strong enough: for I
have taken a piece of whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it
three-quarters full of water, stopping and screwing up the broken end as
also the touch-hole; and making a constant fire under it, within twenty-four
hours it burst and made a great crack; so that having a way to make my
vessels so that they are strengthened by the force within them, and the one
to fill after the other, I have seen the water run like a constant stream, forty
feet high: one vessel of water rarefied by fire, driveth up forty of cold
water; and a man that tends the work is but to turn two cocks, that one
vessel of water being consumed, another begins to force and refill with cold
water, and so successively; the fire being tended and kept constant, which
the self-same person may likewise abundantly perform in the interim,
between the necessity of turning the said cocks.”
The next name to be mentioned in connection with the progressive
history of the invention of the steam-engine, is that of Denis Papin, a native
of France, who, being banished from his country, was established Professor
of Mathematics at the University of Marburg, by the Landgrave of Hesse.
He first conceived the important idea of obtaining a moving power by
means of a piston working in a cylinder (1688), and subsequently (1690)
that of producing a vacuum in the cylinder by the sudden condensation of
steam by cold. In accordance with these ideas he constructed a model
consisting of a small cylinder, in which was inserted a solid piston, and
beneath this a small quantity of water; on applying heat to the bottom of the
cylinder, steam was generated, the elastic force of which raised the piston;
the cylinder was then cooled by removing the fire, when the steam
condensed and became again converted into water, thus creating a vacuum
in the cylinder, into which the piston was forced by the pressure of the
atmosphere; there is, however, no evidence of his having carried that or any
other machine into practical use, before machines worked by steam had
been constructed elsewhere.
The first actual working steam-engine of which there is any record, was
invented by Captain Savery an Englishman, to whom a patent was granted
in 1698 for a steam-engine to be applied to the raising of water, &c. This
gentleman produced a working-model before the Royal Society, as appears
from the following extract from their Transactions:—“June 14th, 1699. Mr.
Savery entertained the Royal Society with showing a small model of his

engine for raising water by help of fire, which he set to work before them:
the experiment succeeded according to expectation, and to their
satisfaction.” This engine, which was used for some time to a considerable
extent for raising water from mines, consisted of a strong iron vessel shaped
like an egg, with a tube or pipe at the bottom, which descended to the place
from which the water was to be drawn, and another at the top, which
ascended to the place to which it was to be elevated. This oval vessel was
filled with steam supplied from a boiler, by which the atmospheric air was
first blown out of it. When the air was thus expelled, and nothing but pure
steam left in the vessel, the communication with the boiler was cut off, and
cold water poured on the external surface. The steam within was thus
condensed and a vacuum produced, and the water drawn up from below in
the usual way by suction. The oval steam-vessel was thus filled with water;
a cock placed at the bottom of the lower pipe was then closed, and steam
was introduced from the boiler into the oval vessel above the surface of the
water. This steam being of high pressure, forced the water up the ascending
tube, from the top of which it was discharged; and the oval vessel being
thus refilled with steam, the vacuum was again produced by condensation,
and the same process was repeated by using two oval steam-vessels, which
would act alternately; one drawing water from below, while the other was
forcing it upwards, by which an uninterrupted discharge of water was
produced. Owing to the danger of explosion, from the high pressure of the
steam which was used, and from the enormous waste of heat by
unnecessary condensation, these engines soon fell into disuse.
Several ingenious men now turned their attention to the improvement
of the steam-engine, with a view to reduce the consumption of fuel, which
was found to be so immense as to preclude its use except under very
favourable circumstances; and in 1705, Thomas Newcomen, a blacksmith
or ironmonger, and John Cawley, a plumber and glazier, patented their
atmospheric engine, in which at first condensation was effected by the
affusion of cold water upon the external surface of the cylinder, which was
introduced into a hollow casing by which it was surrounded. Having
accidentally observed that an engine worked several strokes with unusual
rapidity without the supply of condensing water, Newcomen found, on
examining the piston, a hole in it through which the water poured on to
keep it air-tight issued in the form of a little jet, and instantly condensed the
steam under it; this led him to abandon the casing and to introduce a pipe

furnished with a cock, into the bottom of the cylinder, by which water was
supplied from a reservoir. Newcomen’s engine required the constant
attendance of some person to open and shut the regulating and condensing
valves, a duty which was usually entrusted to boys, called cock-boys. It is
said that one of these boys, named Humphrey Potter, wishing to join his
comrades at play, without exposing himself to the consequences of
suspending the performance of the engine, contrived by attaching strings of
proper length to the levers which governed the two cocks, to connect them
with the beam, so that it should open and close the cocks as it moved up and
down, with the most perfect regularity. By this simple contrivance the
steam-engine for the first time became an automaton.
It was in repairing a working model of a steam-engine on Newcomen’s
principle for the lectures of the professor of natural philosophy at the
University of Glasgow, that James Watt directed his mind to the prosecution
of those inventions and beautiful contrivances, by which he gave to
senseless matter an almost instinctive power of self-adjustment, with
precision of action more than belongs to any animated being, and which
have rendered his name celebrated over the world.
At the time of which we speak, Newcomen’s engine was of the last and
most approved construction. The moving power was the weight of the air
pressing on the upper surface of a piston working in a cylinder; steam being
employed at the termination of each downward stroke to raise the piston
with its load of air up again, and then to form a vacuum by its condensation
when cooled by a jet of cold water, which was thrown into the cylinder
when the admission of steam was stopped. Upon repairing the model, Watt
was struck by the incapability of the boiler to produce a sufficient supply of
steam, though it was larger in proportion to the cylinder than was usual in
working engines. This arose from the nature of the cylinder, which being
made of brass, a better conductor of heat than cast-iron, and presenting, in
consequence of its small size, a much larger surface in proportion to its
solid content than the cylinders of working engines, necessarily cooled
faster between the strokes, and therefore at every fresh admission consumed
a greater proportionate quantity of steam. But being made aware of a much
greater consumption of steam than he had imagined, he was not satisfied
without a thorough inquiry into the cause. With this view he made
experiments upon the merits of boilers of different constructions; on the

effect of substituting a less perfect conductor, as wood, for the material of
the cylinder; on the quantity of coal required to evaporate a given quantity
of water; on the degree of expansion of water in the form of steam: and he
constructed a boiler which showed the quantity of water evaporated in a
given time, and thus enabled him to calculate the quantity of steam
consumed at each stroke of the engine. This proved to be several times the
content of the cylinder. He soon discovered that, whatever the size and
construction of the cylinder, an admission of hot steam into it must
necessarily be attended with very great waste, if in condensing the steam
previously admitted, that vessel had been cooled down sufficiently to
produce a vacuum at all approaching to a perfect one. If, on the other hand,
to prevent this waste, he cooled it less thoroughly, a considerable quantity
of steam remained uncondensed within, and by its resistance weakened the
power of the descending stroke. These considerations pointed out a vital
defect in Newcomen’s engine; involving either a loss of steam, and
consequent waste of fuel; or a loss of power from the piston’s descending at
every stroke through a very imperfect vacuum.
It soon occurred to Watt, that if the condensation were performed in a
separate vessel, one great evil, the cooling of the cylinder, and the
consequent waste of steam, would be avoided. The idea once started, he
soon verified it by experiment. By means of an arrangement of cocks, a
communication was opened between the cylinder, and a distinct vessel
exhausted of its air, at the moment when the former was filled with steam.
The vapour of course rushed to fill up the vacuum, and was there condensed
by the application of external cold, or by a jet of water; so that fresh steam
being continually drawn off from the cylinder to supply the vacuum
continually created, the density of that which remained might be reduced
within any assignable limits. This was the great and fundamental
improvement.
Still, however, there was a radical defect in the atmospheric engine,
inasmuch as the air being admitted into the cylinder at every stroke, a great
deal of heat was abstracted, and a proportionate quantity of steam wasted.
To remedy this, Watt excluded the air from the cylinder altogether; and
recurred to the original plan of making steam the moving power of the
engine, not a mere agent to produce a vacuum. In removing the difficulties
of construction which beset this new plan, he displayed great ingenuity and

powers of resource. On the old plan, if the cylinder was not bored quite
true, or the piston not accurately fitted, a little water poured upon the top
rendered it perfectly air-tight, and the leakage into the cylinder was of little
consequence, so long as the injection water was thrown into that vessel. But
on the new plan, no water could possibly be admitted within the cylinder;
and it was necessary, not merely that the piston should be air-tight, but that
it should work through an air-tight collar, that no portion of the steam
admitted above it might escape. This he accomplished by packing the piston
and the stuffing-box, as it is called, through which the piston-rod works,
with hemp. A further improvement consisted in equalising the motion of the
engine by admitting the steam alternately above and below the piston, by
which the power is doubled in the same space, and with the same strength
of material. The vacuum of the condenser was perfected by adding a
powerful pump, which at once drew off the condensed and injected water,
and with it any portion of air which might find admission; as this would
interfere with the action of the engine if allowed to accumulate. His last
great change was to cut off the communication between the cylinder and the
boiler, when a portion only, as one-third or one-half, of the stroke was
performed; leaving it to the expansive power of the steam to complete it. By
this, œconomy of steam was obtained, together with the power of varying
the effort of the engine according to the work which it has to do, by
admitting the steam through a greater or smaller portion of the stroke.
These are the chief improvements which Watt effected at different
periods of his life. He was born June 19, 1736, at Greenock, where he
received the rudiments of his education. Having at an early age manifested
a partiality for the practical part of mechanics, he went in his eighteenth
year to London to obtain instruction in the profession of a mathematical
instrument-maker, but remained there little more than a year, being
compelled to return home on account of his health. In 1757, shortly after his
return home, he was appointed instrument-maker to the University of
Glasgow, and accommodated with premises within the precincts of that
learned body. In 1763 he removed into the town of Glasgow, intending to
practise as a civil engineer. His first patent is dated June 5, 1769, which
parliament extended in 1775 for twenty-five years in consideration of the
national importance of the inventions, and the difficulty and expense of
introducing them to public notice. He died at his house at Heathfield in the
county of Stafford, on the 25th of August, 1819, at the advanced age of

eighty-four, after having realized an ample fortune, the well-earned reward
of his industry and ability.
To enter into the history of the various applications of the steam-engine
to the different branches of industry would carry us beyond the bounds of
this work. “To enumerate its present effects,” says a well-known writer on
1
the steam-engine , “would be to count almost every comfort and every
luxury of life. It has increased the sum of human happiness, not only by
calling new pleasures into existence, but by so cheapening former
enjoyments as to render them attainable by those who before could never
have hoped to share them: the surface of the land, and the face of the waters
are traversed with equal facility by its power; and by thus stimulating and
facilitating the intercourse of nation with nation, and the commerce of
people with people, it has knit together remote countries by bonds of amity
not likely to be broken. Streams of knowledge and information are kept
flowing between distant centres of population, those more advanced
diffusing civilization and improvement among those that are more
backward. The press itself, to which mankind owes in so large a degree the
rapidity of their improvement in modern times, has had its power and
influence increased in a manifold ratio by its union with the steam-engine.
It is thus that literature is cheapened, and by being cheapened, diffused; it is
thus that reason has taken the place of force, and the pen has superseded the
sword; it is thus that war has almost ceased upon the earth, and that the
differences which inevitably arise between people and people are for the
most part adjusted by peaceful negotiation.”

FOOTNOTES
1
Dr. Lardner.

HISTORY OF INVENTIONS

AND

DISCOVERIES.

LENDING AND PAWNBROKING.
It appears singular to us at present that it should have been once
considered unlawful to receive interest for lent money; but this
circumstance will excite no wonder when the reason of it is fully explained.
The different occupations by which one can maintain a family without
robbery and without war, were at early periods neither so numerous nor so
productive as in modern times; those who borrowed money required it only
for immediate use, to relieve their necessities or to procure the
conveniences of life; and those who advanced it to such indigent persons
did so either through benevolence or friendship. The case now is widely
different. With the assistance of borrowed money people enter into
business, and carry on trades, from which by their abilities, diligence, or
good fortune, so much profit arises that they soon acquire more than is
requisite for their daily support; and under these circumstances the lender
may undoubtedly receive for the beneficial use of his money a certain
remuneration, especially as he himself might have employed it to
advantage; and as by lending it he runs the risk of losing either the whole or
a part of his capital, or at least of not receiving it again so soon as he may
have occasion for it.
Lending on interest, therefore, must have become more usual in
proportion as trade, manufactures, and the arts were extended; or as the art
of acquiring money by money became more common: but it long continued
to be detested, because the ancient abhorrence against it was by an improper
2
construction of the Mosaic law converted into a religious prejudice , which,
like many other prejudices more pernicious, was strengthened and
confirmed by severe papal laws. The people, however, who often devise
means to render the faults of their legislators less hurtful, concealed this
practice by various inventions, so that neither the borrower nor lender could
be punished, nor the giving and receiving of interest be prevented. As it was
of more benefit than prejudice to trade, the impolicy of the prohibition

became always more apparent; it was known that the new-invented usurious
arts under which it was privately followed would occasion greater evils than
those which had been apprehended from lending on interest publicly; it was
perceived also that the Jews, who were not affected by papal maledictions,
foreigners, and a few natives who had neither religion nor conscience, and
whom the church wished least of all to favour, were those principally
enriched by it.
In no place was this inconvenience more felt than at the Romish court,
even at a time when it boasted of divine infallibility; and nowhere was more
care employed to remove it. A plan, therefore, was at length devised, by
which the evil, as was supposed, would be banished. A capital was collected
from which money was to be lent to the poor for a certain period on pledges
without interest. This idea was indeed not new; for such establishments had
long before been formed and supported by humane princes. The emperor
Augustus, we are told, converted into a fund the surplus of the money
which arose to the State from the confiscated property of criminals, and lent
sums from it, without interest, to those who could pledge effects equal to
3
double the amount . Tiberius also advanced a large capital, from which
those were supplied with money for three years, who could give security on
4
lands equivalent to twice the value . Alexander Severus reduced the interest
of money by lending it at a low rate, and advancing sums to the poor
without interest to purchase lands, and agreeing to receive payment from
5
the produce of them .
These examples of the ancients were followed in modern Italy. In order
to collect money, the popes conferred upon those who would contribute
towards that object a great many fictitious advantages, which at any rate
cost them nothing. By bulls and holy water they dispensed indulgences and
eternal salvation; they permitted burthensome vows to be converted into
donations to lending-houses; and authorised the rich who advanced them
considerable sums to legitimate such of their children as were not born in
wedlock. As an establishment of this kind required a great many servants,
they endeavoured to procure these also on the same conditions; and they
offered, besides the above-mentioned benefits, a great many others not
worth notice, to those who would engage to discharge gratis the business of
their new undertaking; but in cases of necessity they were to receive a

moderate salary from the funds. This money was lent without interest for a
certain time to the poor only, provided they could deposit proper pledges of
sufficient value.
It was, however, soon observed that an establishment of this kind could
neither be of extensive use nor of long duration. In order to prevent the
secret lending of money, by the usurious arts which had begun to be
practised, it was necessary that it should advance sums not only to those
who were poor in the strictest sense of the word, but to those also who, to
secure themselves from poverty, wished to undertake and carry on useful
employments, and who for that purpose had need of capitals. However
powerful the attractions might be, which, on account of the religious folly
that then prevailed, induced people to make large contributions, they
gradually lost their force, and the latter were lessened in proportion,
especially as a spirit of reformation began soon after to break out in
Germany, and to spread more and more into other countries. Even if a
lending-house should not be exhausted by the maintenance of its servants,
and various accidents that could not be guarded against, it was still
necessary, at any rate, to borrow as much money at interest as might be
sufficient to support the establishment. As it was impossible that it could
relieve all the poor, the only method to be pursued was to prevent their
increase, by encouraging trade, and by supplying those with money who
wanted only a little to enable them to gain more, and who were in a
condition and willing to pay a moderate interest. The pontiffs, therefore, at
length resolved to allow the lending-houses to receive interest, not for the
whole capitals which they lent, but only for a part, merely that they might
raise as much money as might be sufficient to defray their expenses; and
they now, for the first time, adopted the long-established maxim, that those
who enjoy the benefits should assist to bear the burthen—a maxim which
very clearly proves the legality of interest. When this opening was once
made, one step more only was necessary to place the lending-houses on that
judicious footing on which they would in all probability have been put by
the inventor himself, had he not been under the influence of prejudice. In
order that they might have sufficient stock in hand, it was thought proper to
give to those who should advance them money a moderate interest, which
they prudently concealed by blending it with the unavoidable expenses of
the establishment, to which it indeed belonged, and which their debtors, by
the practice a little before introduced, were obliged to make good. The

lending-houses, therefore, gave and received interest. But that the odious
name might be avoided, whatever interest was received, was said to be pro
indemnitate; and this is the expression made use of in the papal bull.
All this, it must be confessed, was devised with much ingenuity: but
persons of acuteness still discovered the concealed interest; and a violent
contest soon arose respecting the legality of lending-houses, in which the
greatest divines and jurists of the age took a part; and by which the old
question, whether one might do anything wicked, or establish interest, in
order to effect good, was again revived and examined. Fortunately for the
pontifical court, the folly of mankind was still so great that a bull was
sufficient to suppress, or at least to silence, the spirit of inquiry. The pope
declared the holy mountains of piety, “sacri monti de pietà,” to be legal; and
threatened those with his vengeance who dared to entertain any further
doubts on the subject. All the cities now hastened to establish lending-
houses; and their example was at length followed in other countries. Such,
in a general view, is the history of these establishments: I shall now confirm
it by the necessary proofs.
When under the appellation of lending-house we understand a public
establishment where any person can borrow money upon pledges, either for
or without interest, we must not compare it to the tabernæ argentariæ or
mensæ nummulariæ of the Romans. These were banking-houses, at which
the state and rich people caused their revenues to be paid, and on which
they gave their creditors orders either to receive their debts in money, or to
have the sums transferred in their own name, and to receive security for
them. To assign over money and to pay money by a bill were called
perscribere and rescribere; and an assignment or draft was called attributio.
These argentarii, mensarii, nummularii, collybistæ and trapezitæ followed
the same employment, therefore, as our cashiers or bankers. The former,
like the latter, dealt in exchanges and discount; and in the same manner also
they lent from their capital on interest, and gave interest themselves, in
order that they might receive a greater. Those who among the ancients were
enemies to the lending of money on interest brought these people into some
disrepute; and the contempt entertained for them was probably increased by
prejudice, though those nummarii who were established by government as
public cashiers held so exalted a rank that some of them became consuls.
Such banking-houses existed in the Italian States in the middle ages, about

6
the year 1377. They were called apothecæ seu casanæ feneris , and in
Germany Wechselbanke, banks of exchange; but they were not lending-
houses in the sense in which I here understand them.
Equally distinct also from lending-houses were those banks established
in the fourteenth century, in many cities of Italy, such, for example, as
Florence, in order to raise public loans. Those who advanced money on that
account received an obligation and monthly interest, which on no pretext
could be refused, even if the creditor had been guilty of any crime. These
obligations were soon sold with advantage, but oftener with loss; and the
price of them rose and fell like that of the English stocks, but not so rapidly;
and theologists disputed whether one could with a safe conscience purchase
an obligation at less than the stated value, from a proprietor who was
obliged to dispose of it for ready specie. If the State was desirous or under
the necessity of repaying the money, it availed itself of that regale called by
Leyser regale falsæ monetæ, and returned the capital in money of an
inferior value. This establishment was confirmed, at least at Florence, by
the pontiff, who subjected those who should commit any fraud in it to
ecclesiastical punishment and a fine, which was to be carried to the papal
treasury: but long before that period the republic of Genoa had raised a loan
by mortgaging the public revenues. I have been more particular on this
7
subject, because Le Bret calls these banks, very improperly, lending-
houses; and in order to show to what a degree of perfection the princely art
of contracting and paying debts was brought so early as the fourteenth
century.
Those who have as yet determined the origin of lending-houses with
the greatest exactness, place it, as Dorotheus Ascanius, that is Matthias
8
Zimmermann , does, in the time of Pope Pius II. or Paul II., who filled the
papal chair from 1464 to 1471; and the reason for supposing it to have been
under the pontificate of the latter is, because Leo X. in his bull, which I
shall quote hereafter, mentions that pope as the first who confirmed an
establishment of this kind. As the above account did not appear to me
satisfactory, and as I knew before that the oldest lending-houses in Italy
were under the inspection of the Franciscans, I consulted the Annals of the
Seraphic Order, with full expectation that this service would not be omitted
in that work; and I indeed found in it more materials towards the history of

lending-houses than has ever been collected, as far as I know, by any other
person.
As complaints against usury, which was practised by many Christians,
but particularly by the Jews, became louder and more public in Italy in the
fifteenth century, Barnabas Interamnensis, probably of Terni, first conceived
the idea of establishing a lending-house. This man was originally a
physician; had been admitted to the degree of doctor; was held in great
respect on account of his learning; became a Minorite, or Franciscan;
acquired in that situation every rank of honour, and died, in the first
9
monastery of this order at Assisi (in monte Subasio ), in the year 1474.
While he was employed in preaching under Pope Pius II. at Perugia, in the
territories of the Church, and observed how much the poor were oppressed
by the usurious dealings of the Jews, he made a proposal for raising a
capital by collections, in order to lend from it on pledges to the indigent,
who should give monthly, for the use of the money borrowed, as much
interest as might be necessary to pay the servants employed in this
establishment, and to support it. Fortunatus de Copolis, an able jurist of
Perugia, who after the death of his wife became also a Franciscan, approved
of this plan, and offered to assist in putting it into execution. To be assured
in regard to an undertaking which seemed to approach so near to the
lending on interest, both these persons laid their plan before the university
of that place, and requested to know whether such an establishment could
be allowed; and an answer being given in the affirmative, a considerable
sum was soon collected by preaching, so that there was a sufficiency to
open a lending-house. Notwithstanding this sanction, many were displeased
with the design, and considered the receiving of interest, however small it
might be, as a species of usury. Those who exclaimed most against it were
the Dominicans (ex ordine Prædicatorum): and they seem to have
continued to preach in opposition to it, till they were compelled by Leo X.
to be silent; while the Franciscans, on the other hand, defended it, and
endeavoured to make it be generally adopted. The dispute became more
violent when, at the end of a year, after all expenses were paid, a
considerable surplus was found remaining; and as the managers did not
know how to dispose of it, they at length thought proper to divide it
amongst the servants, because no fixed salaries had been appointed for
them. Such was the method first pursued at Perugia; but in other places the

annual overplus was employed in a different manner. The particular year
when this establishment began to be formed I have nowhere found marked;
but as it was in the time of Pius II., it must have been in 1464, or before that
10
period . It is very remarkable that this pontiff confirmed the lending-house
at Orvieto (Urbs Vetus) so early as the above year; whereas that at Perugia
was sanctioned, for the first time, by Pope Paul II. in 1467. It is singular
also that Leo X., in his confirmation of this establishment, mentions Paul
II., Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII., Alexander VI. and Julius II.; but not Pius II.
Pope Sixtus IV., as Wadding says, confirmed in 1472 the lending-house at
Viterbo, which had, however, been begun so early as 1469, by Franciscus
11
de Viterbo, a Minorite .
In the year 1479 Sixtus IV. confirmed the lending-house which had
been established at Savona, the place of his birth, upon the same plan as
that at Perugia. The bull issued for this purpose is the first pontifical
12
confirmation ever printed ; for that obtained for Perugia was not, as we are
told by the editor, to be found in the archives there in 1618, the time when
the other was printed. I have never found the confirmation of those at
Orvieto and Viterbo. Ascianus sought for them, but without success, in
Bullarium Magnum Cherubini, and they are not mentioned by Sixtus. This
pontiff, in his bull, laments that the great expenses to which he was
subjected did not permit him to relieve his countrymen with money, but that
he would grant to the lending-house so many spiritual advantages, as should
induce the faithful to contribute towards its support; and that it was his
desire that money should be lent from it to those who would assist gratis
during a year in the business which it required. If none could be found to
serve on these conditions, a moderate salary was to be given. He added a
clause also respecting pledges; but passed over in silence that the debtors
were to contribute anything for the support of the institution by paying
interest, which Barnabas, whose name does not occur in the bull, introduced
however at Perugia, and which the pope tacitly approved.
The greater part of the lending-houses in Italy were established in the
fifteenth and following centuries by the Minorites Marcus Bononiensis,
13
Michael a Carcano , Cherubinus Spoletanus, Jacobus de Marchia,
Antonius Vercellensis, Angelus a Clavasio, and above all, Bernardinus

Tomitano, named also Feltrensis and Parvulus. This man was born at Feltri,
in the country of Treviso, in the year 1439. His father was called Donato
Tomitano, and his mother Corona Rambaldoni; they were both of
distinguished families, though some assert that he was of low extraction,
and a native of Tomi, a small place near Feltri, on which account he got the
name of Tomitano. The name of Parvulus arose from his diminutive stature,
14
which he sometimes made a subject of pleasantry . This much at any rate
is certain, that he had received a good education. In 1456, when seventeen
years of age, he suffered his instructors, contrary to the inclination of his
father, to carry him to Padua, to be entered in the order of the Minorites;
and on this occasion he changed his christian-name Martin into
Bernardinus. As he was a good speaker, he was employed by his order in
travelling through Italy and preaching. He was heard with applause, and in
many parts the people almost paid him divine honours. The chief object of
his sermons was to banish gaming, intemperance, and extravagance of
dress; but he above all attacked the Jews, and excited such a hatred against
them, that the governments in many places were obliged to entreat or to
compel him either to quit their territories or not to preach in opposition to
these unfortunate people, whom the crowds he collected threatened to
massacre; and sometimes when he visited cities where there were rich Jews
and persons who were connected with them in trade, he was in danger of
losing even his own life. Taking advantage of this general antipathy to the
Jews, he exerted himself, after the example of Barnabas, his brother
Minorite, to get lending-houses established, and died at Pavia in the year
1494. The Minorites played a number of juggling tricks with his body,
pretending that it performed miracles, by which means they procured him a
place in the catalogue of the saints; and to render his name still more
lasting, some of his sermons have been printed among the works of the
15
writers of the Franciscan order .
The lending-houses in Italy, with the origin of which I am acquainted,
are as follows:—The lending-house at Perugia was inspected in 1485 by
Bernardinus, who enlarged its capital.
The same year he established one at Assisi, which was confirmed by
Pope Innocent, and which was visited and improved by its founder in
16
1487 .

In the year 1486, after much opposition, he established a lending-house
17
at Mantua, and procured for it also the pope’s sanction . Four years after,
however, it had declined so much, that he was obliged to preach in order to
obtain new donations to support it.
At Florence he met with still more opposition; for the rich Jews bribed
the members of the government, who wished in appearance to favour the
establishment of the lending-house, to which they had consented eighteen
years before, while they secretly thwarted it; and some boys having once
proceeded, after hearing a sermon, to attack the houses of the Jews, the
18
Minorites were ordered to abstain from preaching and to quit the city . It
was however completely established; but by the Dominican Hieronymus
19
Savonarola .
In the year 1488 Bernardinus established a lending-house at Parma, and
procured for it the pope’s sanction, as well as for one at Cesena, where the
interest was defined to be “pro salariis officialium et aliis montis oneribus
perferendis.” About the conclusion of this year he was at the other end of
Italy, where he re-established the lending-house at Aquila in the kingdom of
20
Naples .
In the year following he established one at Chieti (Theate) in the same
kingdom, another at Rieti (Reate) in the territories of the Church, a third at
21
Narni (Narnia) ; and a fourth at Lucca, which was confirmed by the
bishop, notwithstanding the opposition of the Jews, who did every thing in
their power to prevent it.
In the year 1490 a lending-house was established at Piacenza
(Placentia) by Bernardinus, who at the same time found one at Genoa
22
which had been established by the before-mentioned Angelus a Clavasio .
23
At this period also a lending-house was established at Verona , and another
at Milan by the Minorite Michael de Aquis.
In 1491 a lending-house was established at Padua, which was
24
confirmed by Pope Alexander VI. in 1493 ; and another was established at
25
Ravenna .

In 1492 Bernardinus reformed the lending-house at Vicenza, where, in
order to avoid the reproach of usury, the artifice was employed of not
demanding any interest, but admonishing the borrowers that they should
give a remuneration according to their piety and ability. As people were by
these means induced to pay more interest than what was legally required at
26
other lending-houses, Bernardinus caused this method to be abolished . He
established a lending-house also the same year in the small town of Campo
S. Pietro, not far from Padua, and expelled the Jews who had lent upon
pledges. At this period there were lending-houses at Bassano, a village in
27
the county of Trevisi, and also at Feltri, which he inspected and improved .
In the year 1493 Bernardinus caused a lending-house to be established
at Crema, in the Venetian dominions; another at Pavia, where he requested
the opinion of the jurists, whom he was happy to find favourable to his
design; and likewise a third at Gubbio, in the territories of the Church. At
the same time another Franciscan established at Cremona a mons frumenti
pietatis, from which corn was lent out on interest to necessitous persons;
and it appears that there had been an institution of the like kind before at
28
Parma .
In the year 1494, Bernardinus, a short time before his death, assisted to
29
establish a lending-house at Montagnana, in the Venetian territories , and
to improve that at Brescia, which was likely to decay, because the servants
30
had not fixed salaries . The same year another Franciscan established the
lending-house at Modena.
In the year 1506 Pope Julius II. confirmed the lending-house at
Bologna. That of Trivigi was established in 1509; and in 1512, Elizabeth of
the family of Gonzaga, as widow of duke Guido Ubaldus, established the
first lending-house in the duchy of Urbino at Gubbio, and procured
31
permission for it to coin money .
The historical account I have here given, displays in the strongest light
the great force of prejudice, and particularly of the prejudice of
ecclesiastics. Notwithstanding the manifest advantages with which lending-
houses were attended, and though a great part of them had been already
sanctioned by the infallible court of Rome, many, but chiefly Dominicans,

exclaimed against these institutions, which they did not call montes pietatis,
but impietatis. No opposition gave the Minorites so much uneasiness as that
of the Dominican Thomas de Vio, who afterwards became celebrated as a
cardinal under the name of Cajetanus. This monk, while he taught at Pavia
32
in 1498, wrote a treatise De Monte Pietatis , in which he inveighed bitterly
against taking pledges and interest, even though the latter was destined for
the maintenance of the servants. The popes, he said, had confirmed lending-
houses in general, but not every regulation that might be introduced into
them, and had only given their express approbation of them so far as they
were consistent with the laws of the church. These words, he added, had
been wickedly left out in the bulls which had been printed; but he had heard
them, and read them, in the confirmation of the lending-house at Mantua. I
indeed find that these words are not in the copy of that bull given in
Wadding, which is said to have been taken from the original; nor in the still
older confirmation of the lending-house at Savona. But even were they to
be found there, this would not justify Cajetan’s opposition, as the pope in
both these bulls recommended the plan of the lending-house at Perugia to
be adopted, of which receiving interest formed a part. Bernardinus de
33
Bustis , a Minorite, took up the cause in opposition to Cajetan, and,
according to Wadding’s account, with rather too much vehemence. Among
34
his antagonists were Barrianus and Franc. Papafava, a jurist of Padua . As
this dispute was revived with a great deal of warmth in the beginning of the
sixteenth century, it was at length terminated by Pope Leo X., who in the
tenth sitting of the council of the Lateran declared by a particular bull that
lending-houses were legal and useful; that all doubts to the contrary were
sinful, and that those who wrote against them should be placed in a state of
35
excommunication . The whole assembly, except one archbishop, voted in
favour of this determination; and it appears from a decree of the council of
36
Trent, that it also acknowledged their legality, and confirmed them .
Notwithstanding this decision, there were still writers who sometimes
condemned them; and who did not consider all the decrees, at least the
above one of the Lateran council, as agreeable to justice. Among these was
Dominicus de Soto, a Dominican. All opposition, however, in the course of
time subsided, and in the year 1565, Charles Borromeo, the pope’s legate at

the council of Milan, ordered all governments and ecclesiastics to assist in
37
establishing lending-houses .
Of the lending-houses established after this period in Italy, I shall
mention those only of Rome and Naples. It is very remarkable that the
pope’s capital should have been without an institution of this kind till the
year 1539, and that it should have been formed by the exertions of Giovanni
Calvo, a Franciscan. Paul III., in his bull of confirmation, ordered that
Calvo’s successors in rank and employment should always have the
inspection of it, because the Franciscans had taken the greatest pains to
38
endeavour to root out usury .
The lending-house at Naples was first established in 1539 or 1540. Two
rich citizens, Aurelio Paparo, and Leonardo or Nardo di Palma, redeemed
all the pledges which were at that time in the hands of the Jews, and offered
to deliver them to the owners without interest, provided they would return
the money which had been advanced on them. More opulent persons soon
followed their example; many bequeathed large sums for this benevolent
purpose; and Toledo, the viceroy, who drove the Jews from the kingdom,
supported it by every method possible. This lending-house, which has
indeed undergone many variations, is the largest in Europe; and it contains
such an immense number of different articles, many of them exceedingly
valuable, that it may be considered as a repository of the most important
part of the moveables of the whole nation. About the year 1563, another
establishment of the like kind was formed under the title of banco de’
poveri. At first this bank advanced money without interest, only to relieve
confined debtors; afterwards, as its capital increased, it lent upon pledges,
but not above the sum of five ducats without interest. For larger sums the
39
usual interest was demanded .
At what time the first lending-house was established at Venice I have
40
not been able to learn . This State seems to have long tolerated the Jews; it
endeavoured to moderate the hatred conceived against these people, and
41
gave orders to Bernardinus to forbear preaching against them . It appears
to me in general, that the principal commercial cities of Italy were the latest
to avail themselves of this invention; because they knew that to regulate

interest by law, where trade was flourishing, would be ineffectual or
useless; or because the rich Jew merchants found means to prevent it.
The name mons pietatis, of which no satisfactory explanation has been
as yet given, came with the invention from Italy, and is equally old, if not
older. Funds of money formed by the contributions of different persons, for
some end specified, were long before called montes. In the first centuries of
the Christian æra, free gifts were collected and preserved in churches by
ecclesiastics, partly for the purpose of defraying the expense of divine
service, and partly to relieve the poor. Such capitals, which were considered
as ecclesiastical funds, were by Prudentius, in the beginning of the fifth
42
century, called montes annonæ and arca numinis . Tertullian calls them
43
deposita pietatis ; and hence has been formed montes pietatis. At any rate I
am of opinion that the inventor chose and adopted this name in order to
give his institution a sacred or religious appearance, and to procure it more
approbation and support.
I find however that those banks employed in Italy, during the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, to borrow money in the name of States, for which
the public revenues were mortgaged and interest paid, were also called
44
montes . In this sense the word is used by Italian historians of much later
times; and those are greatly mistaken, who, with Ascian and many others,
consider all these montes as real lending-houses. These loan-banks or
montes received various names, sometimes from the princes who
established them, sometimes from the use to which the money borrowed
was applied, and sometimes from the objects which were mortgaged. Of
this kind were the mons fidei, or loan opened by Pope Clement VII. in the
45
year 1526, for defending his capital ; the mons aluminarius, under Pope
Pius IV., for which the pontifical alum-works were pledged; the mons
religionis, under Pius V., for carrying on the war against the Turks; and the
montes farinæ, carnium, vini, &c., when the duties upon these articles were
pledged as a security. To facilitate these loans, every condition that could
induce people to advance money was thought of. Sometimes high interest
was given, if the subscribers agreed that it should cease, and the capital fall
to the bank after their death; and sometimes low interest was given, but the
security was heritable and could be transferred at pleasure. The former were

called montes vacabiles, and the latter montes non vacabiles. Sometimes the
State engaged to pay back the capital at the end of a certain period, such for
example as nine years, as was the case in regard to the mons novennalis,
under Paul IV.; or it reserved to itself the option of returning the money at
such a period as it might think proper, and sometimes the capital was sunk
and the interest made perpetual. The first kind were called montes
46
redimibiles, and the second irredimibiles . One can here clearly discover
the origin of life-rents, annuities, tontines, and government securities; but
the further illustration of this subject I shall leave to those who may wish to
employ their talents on a history of national debts. I have introduced these
remarks, merely to rectify a mistake which has become almost general, and
which occasioned some difficulties to me in this research; and I shall only
observe further, that the popes gave to their loans, in order to raise their
sinking credit, many of those spiritual advantages which they conferred on
the montes pietatis. This error therefore was more easily propagated, as
both were called montes; and hence it has happened that Ascianus and
others assert that many lending-houses were misapplied by the popes in
order to raise public loans.
From the instances here adduced, one may see that the first lending-
houses were sanctioned by the pontiffs, because they only could determine
to the Catholics in what cases it was lawful for them to receive interest.
This circumstance seems to have rendered the establishment of them out of
Italy difficult. At any rate the Protestants were at first averse to imitate an
institution which originated at the court of Rome, and which, according to
the prevailing prejudice of the times, it alone could approve; and from the
same consideration they would not adopt the reformation which had been
made in the calendar.
The first mention of a lending-house in Germany, which I have as yet
met with, is to be found in the permission granted by the emperor
Maximilian I. to the citizens of Nuremberg, in the year 1498, to drive the
Jews from the city, and to establish an exchange-bank. The permission
further stated, “That they should provide for their bank proper managers,
clerks, and other persons to conduct it according to their pleasure, or as
necessity might require; that such of their fellow-citizens as were not able
to carry on their trades, callings, and occupations without borrowing and
without pledging their effects, should, on demand, according to their trade

and circumstances, receive money, for which pledges, caution and security
should be taken; that at the time of payment a certain sum should be
exacted by way of interest; that the clerks and conductors of the bank
should receive salaries for their service from the interest; and that if any
surplus remained it should be employed for the common use of the city of
Nuremberg, like any other public fund.”
It here appears that the lending-houses in Germany were first known
under the name of exchange-banks, by which was before understood any
bank where money was lent and exchanged; but it does not thence follow,
47
as Professor Fischer thinks , that they were an Italian invention. The
citizens of Nuremberg had not then a lending-house, nor was one
established there till the year 1618. At that period they procured from Italy
copies of the regulations drawn up for various houses of this kind, in order
to select the best. Those of the city of Augsburg however were the grounds
on which they built, and they sent thither the persons chosen to manage
their lending-house, that they might make themselves fully acquainted with
48
the nature of the establishment at that place . In the year 1591, the
magistrates of Augsburg had prohibited the Jews to lend money, or to take
pledges; at the same time they granted 30,000 florins as a fund to establish a
49
lending-house, and the regulations of it were published in 1607 .
In the Netherlands, France and England, lending-houses were first
known under the name of Lombards, the origin of which is evident. It is
well known that in the thirteenth and following centuries many opulent
merchants of Italy, which at those periods was almost the only part of
Europe that carried on an extensive trade, were invited to these countries,
where there were few mercantile people able to engage deeply in
commerce. For this reason they were favoured by governments in most of
the large cities; but in the course of time they became objects of universal
hatred, because they exercised the most oppressive usury, by lending at
interest and on pledges. They were called Longobardi or Lombardi, as
whole nations are often named after a part of their country, in the same
manner as all the Helvetians are called Swiss, and the Russians sometimes
Moscovites. They were, however, called frequently also Caorcini, Caturcini,
Caursini, Cawarsini, Cawartini, Bardi, and Amanati; names, which in all
probability arose from some of their greatest houses or banks. We know, at

any rate, that about those periods the family of the Corsini were in great
consideration at Florence. They had banks in the principal towns for lending
money; they demanded exorbitant interest; and they received pledges at a
low value, and retained them as their own property if not redeemed at the
stated time. They eluded the prohibition of the church against interest when
they found it necessary, by causing the interest to be previously paid as a
present or a premium; and it appears that some sovereigns borrowed money
from them on these conditions. In this manner did Edward III. king of
England, when travelling through France in the year 1329, receive 5000
marks from the bank of the Bardi, and give then in return, by way of
50
acknowledgement, a bond for 7000 . When complaints against the
usurious practices of these Christian Jews became too loud to be
disregarded, they were threatened with expulsion from the country, and
those who had rendered themselves most obnoxious on that account, were
often banished, so that those who remained were obliged to conduct
themselves in their business with more prudence and moderation. It is
probable that the commerce of these countries was then in too infant a state
to dispense altogether with the assistance of these foreigners. In this manner
were they treated by Louis IX. in 1268, and likewise by Philip the Bold;
and sometimes the popes, who would not authorise interest, lent their
assistance by prohibitions, as was the case in regard to Henry III. of
England in 1240.
In the fourteenth century, the Lombards in the Netherlands paid to
government rent for the houses in which they carried on their money
transactions, and something besides for a permission. Of this we have
51
instances at Delft in 1313, and at Dordrecht in 1342 . As in the course of
time the original Lombards became extinct, these houses were let, with the
52
same permission, for the like employment ; but governments at length
fixed the rate of interest which they ought to receive, and established
regulations for them, by which usurious practices were restrained. Of leases
granted on such conditions, an instance occurs at Delft in the year 1655. In
1578, William prince of Orange recommended to the magistrates of
Amsterdam Francis Masasia, one of the Lombards, as they were then
called, in order that he might obtain for him permission to establish a
53
lending-house , as many obtained permission to keep billiard-tables, and

Jews letters of protection. In the year 1611, the proprietor of such a house at
Amsterdam, who during the latter part of his lease had gained by his capital
at least thirty-three and a half per cent., offered a very large sum for a
renewal of his permission; but in 1614, the city resolved to take the lombard
or lending-house into their own hands, or to establish one of the same kind.
However odious this plan might be, a dispute arose respecting the legality
54
of it, which Marets and Claude Saumaise endeavoured to support. The
public lending-house or lombard at Brussels was established in 1619; that at
Antwerp in 1620, and that at Ghent in 1622. All these were established by
the archduke Albert, when he entered on the governorship, with the advice
of the archbishop of Mechlin; and on this occasion the architect Wenceslaus
Coberger was employed, and appointed inspector-general of all the lending-
55
houses in the Spanish Netherlands . Some Italians assert that the Flemings
were the first people who borrowed money on interest for their lending-
56
houses; and they tell us that this practice began in the year 1619 . We are
assured also, that after a long deliberation at Brussels, it was at length
resolved to receive money on interest at the lending-houses. It however
appears certain that in Italy this was never done, or at least not till a late
period, and that the capitals of the lending-houses there were amassed
without giving interest.
This beneficial institution was always opposed in France; chiefly
because the doctors of the Sorbonne could not divest themselves of the
prejudice against interest; and some in modern times who undertook there
to accommodate people with money on the like terms, were punished by
57
government . A lending-house however was established at Paris under
Louis XIII., in 1626; but the managers next year were obliged to abandon
58
it . In 1695, some persons formed a capital at Marseilles for the purpose of
59
establishing one there according to the plan of those in Italy . The present
mont de piété at Paris, which has sometimes in its possession forty casks
filled with gold watches that have been pledged, was, by royal command,
60
first established in 1777 .
[The following is the rate of profit or interest which pawnbrokers in
this country are entitled to charge per calendar month. For 2s. 6d. one

halfpenny; 5s. one penny; 7s. 6d. three halfpence; 10s. twopence; 12s. 6d.
twopence halfpenny; 15s. threepence; 17s. 6d. threepence halfpenny; £1
fourpence; and so on progressively and in proportion for any sum not
exceeding 40s. For every sum exceeding 40s. and not exceeding 42s.
eightpence; and for every sum exceeding 42s. and not exceeding £10,
threepence to every pound, and so on in proportion for any fractional sum.
Where any intermediate sum lent on a pledge exceeds 2s. 6d. and does not
exceed 40s., a sum of fourpence may be charged in proportion to each £1.
Goods pawned are forfeited on the expiration of a year, exclusive of the
date of pawning. But it has been held that the property is not transferred,
but that the pawnbroker merely has a right to sell the article; and
consequently that, on a claim after this period, with tender of principal and
interest, the property must be restored if unsold (Walker v. Smith, 5 Barn.
and Ald. 439). Pledges must not be taken from persons intoxicated or under
twelve years of age. In Great Britain pawnbrokers must take out a license,
which costs £15 within the limits of the old twopenny-post, and £7 10s. in
other parts. No license is required in Ireland. A second license, which costs
£5 15s., is required to take in pledge articles of gold and silver.
From 1833 to 1838 the number of pawnbrokers in the metropolitan
district increased from 368 to 386; in the rest of England and Wales, from
1083 to 1194; and in Scotland, from 52 to 88; making a total of 1668
establishments, paying £15,419 for their licenses, besides the licenses
which many of them take out as dealers in gold and silver. The business of a
pawnbroker was not known in Glasgow until August 1806, when an
itinerant English pawnbroker commenced business in a single room, but
decamped at the end of six months; and his place was not supplied until
June 1813, when the first regular office was established in the west of
Scotland for receiving goods in pawn. Other individuals soon entered the
business, and the practice of pawning had become so common, that in 1820,
in a season of distress, 2043 heads of families pawned 7380 articles, on
which they raised £739 5s. 6d. Of these heads of families 1375 had never
applied for or received charity of any description; 474 received occasional
aid from the relief committee, and 194 were paupers. The capital invested in
this business in 1840 was about £26,000. Nine-tenths of the articles pledged
are redeemed within the legal period. There are no means of ascertaining
the exact number of pawnbrokers’ establishments in the large towns of
England. In 1831, the number of males above the age of twenty employed

in those at Manchester was 107; at Liverpool, 91; Birmingham, 54; Bristol,
33; Sheffield, 31.
The following curious return was made by a large pawnbroking
establishment at Glasgow to Dr. Cleland, who read it before the British
Association in 1836. The list comprised the following articles:—539 men’s
coats, 355 vests, 288 pairs of trowsers, 84 pairs of stockings, 1980 women’s
gowns, 540 petticoats, 132 wrappers, 123 duffies, 90 pelisses, 240 silk
handkerchiefs, 294 shirts and shifts, 60 hats, 84 bed-ticks, 108 pillows, 262
pairs of blankets, 300 pairs of sheets, 162 bed-covers, 36 tablecloths, 48
umbrellas, 102 bibles, 204 watches, 216 rings, and 48 Waterloo medals.
There were about thirty pawnbrokers in Glasgow in 1840. In the
manufacturing districts, during the prevalence of strikes, or in seasons of
commercial embarrassment, many hundreds of families pawn the greater
part of their wearing apparel and household furniture. The practice of
having recourse to the pawnbrokers on such occasions is quite of a different
character from the habits of dependence into which many of the working
classes suffer themselves to fall, and who, “on being paid their wages on the
Saturday, are in the habit of taking their holiday clothes out of the hands of
the pawnbroker to enable them to appear respectably on the Sabbath, and on
the Monday following they are again pawned and a fresh loan obtained to
meet the exigencies of their families for the remainder of the week.” It is on
these transactions and on such as arise out of the desire of obtaining some
momentary gratification that the pawnbrokers make their large profits. It is
stated in one of the reports on the poor laws that a loan of threepence, if
redeemed the same day, pays annual interest at the rate of 5200 per cent.;
weekly, 866 per cent.;
4d., annual interest 3900 per cent., or 650 p. c. weekly;
12d., annual interest 1300 per cent., or 216 p. c. weekly.
It is stated that on a capital of sixpence thus employed (in weekly
loans), pawnbrokers make in twelve months 2s. 2d.; on five shillings they
gain 10s. 4d.; on ten shillings, 22s. 3¼d.; and on twenty shillings lent in
weekly loans of sixpence, they more than double their capital in twenty-
seven weeks, and should the goods pawned remain in their hands for the
term of twelve months (which seldom occurs), they then frequently derive
61
100 per cent. ]

FOOTNOTES
2
J. D. Michaelis, in Syntagma Commentationum, ii. p. 9; and his
Mosaisches Recht. iii. p. 86.
3
Sueton. Vita Augusti, cap. 41.
4
Taciti Annal. vi. 17.—Sueton. Vita Tiberii, cap. 48.—Dio Cassius,
lviii. 21.
5
Ælius Lamprid. Vita Alex. Severi, cap. 21.
6
M. Manni circa i sigilli antichi dei secoli bassi, vol. xxvii. p. 86.
The author here quotes from an ancient city-book the following
passage:—“Franciscus fenerator pro se et apotheca seu casana
fenoris, quam tenebat in via Quattro Pagoni,” &c.
7
Algemeine Welthistorie, xlv. p. 10.
8
This theologian, born at Eperies in Hungary in 1625, was driven
from his native country on account of his religion, and died
superintendant at Meisse in 1689. He wrote, besides other works,
Dorothei Asciani Montes Pietatis Romanenses, historice, canonice,
et theologice detecti. Lipsiæ, 1670, 4to. This book is at present
very scarce. I shall take this opportunity of mentioning also the
following, because many who have written on lending-houses have
quoted it, though they never saw it:—Montes Pietatis Romanenses,
das ist, die Berg der Fromheit oder Gottesforcht in der Stadt Rom.
Durch Elychnium Gottlieb. Strasburg, 1608, 8vo. It contains
nothing of importance that may not be found in Ascianus.
9
Of this Barnabas I know nothing more than what I have here
extracted from Waddingii Annales Minorum, tom. xiv. p. 93.
Wadding refers to Marian. lib. v. c. 40. § 17; and Marc. 3. p. lib. 5.
cap. 58. The former is Marianus Florentinus, whose Fasciculus
Chronicoram Ordinis Minorum, which consists of five books, was

used in manuscript by Wadding, in composing his large work, and
in my opinion has never been printed. Marc. is Marcus
Ulyssoponensis, whose Chronica Ordinis Minorum I have not been
able to procure, though it is translated into several languages. See
Waddingii Scriptores Ordinis Minorum. Romæ 1650, fol. pp. 248,
249.
10
This is confirmed by M. B. Salon, in t. 2. Contr. de Justit. et Jure,
in ii. 2 Thom. Aquin. qu. 88. art. 2. controv. 27: “Hujus modi mons
non erat in usu apud antiquos. Cœpit fere a 150 annis, tempore Pii
II.” In C. L. Richard’s Analysis Conciliorum Generalium et
Particularium, Venetiis, 1776, 4 vol. fol. iv. p. 98, I find that the
first lending-house at Perugia was established in the year 1450; but
Pius II., under whose pontificate it appears by various testimonies
to have been founded, was not chosen pope till the year 1458.
11
Bussi, Istoria della città di Viterbo. In Roma, 1742, fol. p. 271.
12
It may be found in Bolle et Privilegi del Sacro Monte della Pietà di
Roma. In Roma, 1618: ristampati l’anno 1658. This collection is
commonly bound up with the following work, which was printed
in the same year and again reprinted: Statuti del Sacro Monte della
Pietà di Roma. This bull is inserted entire by Ascianus, p. 719, but
in the Collection of the pontifical bulls it is omitted.
13
This Michael travelled and preached much in company with
Bernardinus, and died at Como in 1485.—Wadding, xiv. p. 396.
14
The Piccolimini, nephews of the pope, having once paid their
respects to him at Siena, he told them he was their namesake.—
Wadding, xiv. p. 447.
15
Waddingii Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, p. 58. Fabricii Biblioth.
Mediæ et Infimæ Æt. i. p. 586.
16
Wadding, xiv. pp. 398, 433.

17
It may be found entire in Wadding, xiv. p. 411. It was ordered that
the pledges should be worth double the sum lent, and that they
should be sold if not redeemed within a year.
18
Wadding, xiv. p. 446.
19
D. Manni circa i Sigilli Antichi, tom. xxvii. p. 92, where much
information respecting this subject may be found.
20
Wadding, xiv. p. 451.
21
Ibid. pp. 462, 465.
22
Ibid. xiv. pp. 480, 481.
23
Ibid. p. 517.
24
Ibid. xiv. pp. 93, 482.
25
Ibid. p. 514.
26
Ibid. xv. pp. 6, 65.
27
Wadding, xv. pp. 7, 9, 12.
28
Ibid. xv. pp. 37, 45, 46.
29
Ibid. xv. 67.
30
Ibid. xv. p. 68. Bernardinus considered the giving of wages as a
necessary evil.
31
Della Zecca di Gubbio, e delle Geste de’ Conti e Duchi di Urbino;
opera di Rinaldo Reposati. Bologna, 1772, 4to.
32
It is to be found in the well-known large collection of juridical
writings quoted commonly under the title Tractatus Tractatuum.

Venetiis, 1584, fol. p. 419, vol. vi. part 1. It has also been printed
separately.
33
His works were printed together, in folio, at Brescia in 1588.
34
The work of the former appeared in 1496. The writings of both are
printed in the work of Ascianus, or Zimmermann, which has been
often quoted already.
35
This bull, which forms an epoch in the history of lending-houses,
may be found in S. Lateranen. Concilium Novissimum. Romæ,
1521, fol. This scarce work, which I have now before me, is
inserted entire in Harduini Acta Conciliorum, tom. ix. Parisiis,
1714, fol. The bull may be found p. 1773. It may be found also in
Bullarium Magnum Cherubini, i. p. 560; Waddingii Annal. Minor.
xv. p. 470; Ascianus, p. 738; and Beyerlinck’s Theatrum Vitæ
Hum. v. p. 603.
36
This is the conclusion formed by Richard, in Analysis
Conciliorum, because in sess. 22, cap. 8, lending-houses are
reckoned among the pia loca, and the inspection of them assigned
to the bishops.
37
Waddingii Annal. Minor. xv. p. 471.
38
Ibid. xvi. p. 444; Ascianus, p. 766.
39
(Summonte) Historia de Napoli, 1749, 4to, vol. iv. p. 179.—
Giannone, vol. iv.—De’ Banchi di Napoli, da Michele Rocco.
Neap. 1785, 3 vols. 8vo, i. p. 151.
40
Vettor Sandi, in Principi di Storia civile della Republica di Venezia.
In Venezia 1771, 4to, vol. ii. p. 436. The author treats expressly of
the institution of this bank, but the year when it commenced is not
mentioned.
41
Waddingii Annal. Minor. xv. p. 67.

42
Hymnus ii. honorem Laurentii. The poet relates, that in the third
century the pagan governor of the city demanded the church
treasure from Laurentius the deacon.
43
This passage, with which Senkenberg was not acquainted, may be
found in Tertullian’s Apolog. cap. 39, edition of De la Cerda, p.
187.
44
This word however is not to be found in the Glossarium Manuale.
45
See the bull in Bullarium Magnum, n. 17.
46
See Petr. Gregorius Tholosanus de Republica. Francof. 1609, 4to,
lib. xiii. c. 16, p. 566; and Ascianus, p. 753.
47
Geschichte des Teutschen Handels, ii. p. 454.
48
Gokink’s Journal für Teutschland, 1784, i. p. 504, where may be
found the first and the newest regulations respecting the lending-
house at Nuremberg.
49
Stettens Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg. Frankf. 1742, 2 vols. 4to,
i. p. 720, 789, 833.
50
Fœdera, vol. iv. p. 387.
51
Beschryving der Stadt Delft. 1729, fol. p. 553.
52
Salmasius de Fœnore trapezitico. Lugd. 1640, 8vo, p. 744.
53
De Koophandel van Amsterdam. Rott. 1780, 8vo, i. p. 221.
54
S. de Marets Diss. de trapezitis.
55
Beyerlinck, Magnum Theatrum Vitæ, tom. v. p. 602.
56
Richard, Analysis Concilior. iv. p. 98.

57
Turgot, Mem. sur le prêt à intérest, &c. Par. 1789, 8vo.
58
Sauval, Hist. de la Ville de Paris.
59
Rufel, Hist. de la Ville de Marseille; 1696. fol. ii. p. 99.
60
Tableau de Paris. Hamb. 1781. 8vo, i. p. 78.
61
Waterston’s Cyclopædia of Commerce.

CHEMICAL NAMES OF METALS.
As those metals earliest known, viz. copper, iron, gold, silver, lead,
quicksilver and tin, received the same names as the nearest heavenly bodies,
which appear to us largest, and have been distinguished by the like
characters, two questions arise: Whether these names and characters were
given first to the planets or to the metals? When, where, and on what
account were they made choice of; and why were the metals named after
the planets, or the planets after the metals? The latter of these questions, in
my opinion, cannot be answered with any degree of certainty; but
something may be said on the subject, which will not, perhaps, be
disagreeable to those fond of such researches, and who have not had an
opportunity of examining it.
That the present usual names were first given to the heavenly bodies,
and at a later period to the metals, is beyond all doubt; and it is equally
certain that they came from the Greeks to the Romans, and from the
Romans to us. It can be proved also that older nations gave other names to
these heavenly bodies at much earlier periods. The oldest appellations, if we
may judge from some examples still preserved, seem to have originated
from certain emotions which these bodies excited in the minds of men; and
it is not improbable that the planets were by the ancient Egyptians and
Persians named after their gods, and that the Greeks only adopted or
translated into their own language the names which those nations had given
62
them . The idea that each planet was the residence of a god, or that they
were gods themselves, has arisen, according to the most probable
conjecture, from rude nations worshiping the sun, which, on account of his
beneficent and necessary influence over all terrestrial bodies, they
considered either as the deity himself, or his abode, or, at any rate, as a
symbol of him. In the course of time, when heroes and persons who by
extraordinary services had rendered their names respected and immortal,
received divine honours, particular heavenly bodies, of which the sun,

moon and planets seemed the fittest, were also assigned to these
63
divinities . By what laws this distribution was made, and why one planet
was dedicated to Saturn and not to another, Pluche did not venture to
64
determine: and on this point the ancients themselves are not all agreed .
When the planets were once dedicated to the gods, folly, which never stops
where it begins, proceeded still further, and ascribed to them the attributes
and powers for which the deities, after whom they were named, had been
celebrated in the fictions of their mythologists. This in time laid the
foundation of astrology; and hence the planet Mars, like the deity of that
name, was said to cause and to be fond of war; and Venus to preside over
love and its pleasures.
The next question is, Why were the metals divided in the like manner
among the gods, and named after them? Of all the conjectures that can be
formed in answer to this question, the following appears to me the most
probable. The number of the deified planets made the number seven so
sacred to the Egyptians, Persians and other nations, that all those things
which amounted to the same number, or which could be divided by it
without a remainder, were supposed to have an affinity or a likeness to and
65
connexion with each other . The seven metals, therefore, were considered
as having some relationship to the planets, and with them to the gods, and
were accordingly named after them. To each god was assigned a metal, the
origin and use of which was under his particular providence and
government; and to each metal were ascribed the powers and properties of
the planet and divinity of the like name; from which arose, in the course of
time, many of the ridiculous conceits of the alchemists.
The oldest trace of the division of the metals among the gods is to be
found, as far as I know, in the religious worship of the Persians. Origen, in
his Refutation of Celsus, who asserted that the seven heavens of the
Christians, as well as the ladder which Jacob saw in his dream, had been
borrowed from the mysteries of Mithras, says, “Among the Persians the
revolutions of the heavenly bodies were represented by seven stairs, which
conducted to the same number of gates. The first gate was of lead; the
second of tin; the third of copper; the fourth of iron; the fifth of a mixed
metal; the sixth of silver, and the seventh of gold. The leaden gate had the
slow tedious motion of Saturn; the tin gate the lustre and gentleness of

Venus; the third was dedicated to Jupiter; the fourth to Mercury, on account
of his strength and fitness for trade; the fifth to Mars; the sixth to the Moon,
66
and the last to the Sun .” Here then is an evident trace of metallurgic
astronomy, as Borrichius calls it, or of the astronomical or mythological
nomination of metals, though it differs from that used at present. According
to this arrangement, tin belonged to Jupiter, copper to Venus, iron to Mars,
and the mixed metal to Mercury. The conjecture of Borrichius, that the
transcribers of Origen have, either through ignorance or design, transposed
the names of the gods, is highly probable: for if we reflect that in this
nomination men at first differed as much as in the nomination of the
planets, and that the names given them were only confirmed in the course
of time, of which I shall soon produce proofs, it must be allowed that the
causes assigned by Origen for his nomination do not well agree with the
present reading, and that they appear much juster when the names are
67
disposed in the same manner as that in which we now use them .
This astrological nomination of metals appears to have been conveyed
to the Brahmans in India; for we are informed that a Brahman sent to
Apollonius seven rings, distinguished by the names of the seven stars or
planets, one of which he was to wear daily on his finger, according to the
68
day of the week . This can be no otherwise explained than by supposing
that he was to wear the gold ring on Sunday; the silver one on Monday; the
iron one on Tuesday, and so of the rest. Allusion to this nomination of the
metals after the gods occurs here and there in the ancients. Didymus, in his
Explanation of the Iliad, calls the planet Mars the iron star. Those who
dream of having had anything to do with Mars are by Artemidorus
threatened with a chirurgical operation, for this reason, he adds, because
69
Mars signifies iron . Heraclides says also in his allegories, that Mars was
very properly considered as iron; and we are told by Pindar that gold is
70
dedicated to the sun .
Plato likewise, who studied in Egypt, seems to have admitted this
nomination and meaning of the metals. We are at least assured so by
71
Marsilius Ficinus ; but I have been able to find no proof of it, except
where he says of the island Atlantis, that the exterior walls were covered

with copper and the interior with tin, and that the walls of the citadel were
of gold. It is not improbable that Plato adopted this Persian or Egyptian
representation, as he assigned the planets to the demons; but perhaps it was
72
first introduced into his system only by his disciples . They seem,
however, to have varied from the nomination used at present; as they
dedicated to Venus copper, or brass, the principal component part of which
is indeed copper; to Mercury tin; and to Jupiter electrum. The last-
mentioned metal was a mixture of gold and silver; and on this account was
probably considered to be a distinct metal, because in early periods
73
mankind were unacquainted with the art of separating these noble metals .
The characters by which the planets and metals are generally expressed
when one does not choose to write their names, afford a striking example
how readily the mind may be induced to suppose a connexion between
things which in reality have no affinity or relation to each other. Antiquaries
and astrologers, according to whose opinion the planets were first
distinguished by these characters, consider them as the attributes of the
deities of the same name. The circle in the earliest periods among the
Egyptians was the symbol of divinity and perfection; and seems with great
propriety to have been chosen by them as the character of the sun,
especially as, when surrounded by small strokes projecting from its
circumference, it may form some representation of the emission of rays.
The semicircle is in like manner the image of the moon, the only one of the
heavenly bodies that appears under that form to the naked eye. The
character ♄ is supposed to represent the sythe of Saturn; ♃ the
thunderbolts of Jupiter; ♂ the lance of Mars, together with his shield; ♀ the
looking-glass of Venus; and ☿ the caduceus or wand of Mercury.
The expression by characters adopted among the older chemists agrees
with this mythological signification only in the character assigned to gold.
Gold, according to the chemists, was the most perfect of metals, to which
all others seemed to be inferior in different degrees. Silver approached
nearest to it; but was distinguished only by a semicircle, which, for the
more perspicuity, was drawn double, and thence had a greater resemblance
to the most remarkable appearance of the moon; the name of which this
metal had already obtained. All the other metals, as they seemed to have a
greater or less affinity to gold or silver, were distinguished by marks

composed of the characters assigned to these precious metals. In the
character ☿ the adepts discover gold with a silver colour. The cross placed
at the bottom, which among the Egyptian hieroglyphics had a mysterious
74
signification , expresses, in their opinion, something I know not what,
without which quicksilver would be silver or gold. This something is
combined also with copper, the possible change of which into gold is
expressed by the character ♀. The character ♂ declares the like honourable
affinity also; though the half-cross is applied in a more concealed manner;
for, according to the most proper mode of writing, the point is wanting at
the top, or the upright line ought only to touch the horizontal, and not to
intersect it. Philosophical gold is concealed in steel; and on this account it
produces such valuable medicines. Of tin one-half is silver, and the other
consists of the something unknown: for this reason the cross with the half
moon appears in ♃. In lead this something is predominant, and a similitude
is observed in it to silver. Hence in its character ♄ the cross stands at the
top, and the silver character is only suspended on the right-hand behind it.
The mythological signification of these characters cannot be older than
the Grecian mythology; but the chemical may be traced to a much earlier
period. Some, who consider them as remains of the Egyptian
75
hieroglyphics , pretend that they may be discovered on the table of Isis,
and employ them as a proof of the high antiquity, if not of the art of making
gold, at least of chemistry. We are told also that they correspond with many
other characters which the adepts have left us as emblems of their wisdom.
If we are desirous of deciding without prejudice respecting both these
explanations, it will be found necessary to make ourselves acquainted with
the oldest form of the characters, which in all probability, like those used in
writing, were subjected to many changes before they acquired that form
which they have at present. I can, however, mention only three learned men,
76 77 78
Salmasius , Du Cange , and Huet , who took the trouble to collect these
characters. As I am afraid that my readers might be disgusted were I here to
insert them, I shall give a short abstract of the conclusion which they form
from them; but I must first observe that the oldest manuscripts differ very
much in their representation of these characters, either because they were
not fully established at the periods when they were written, or because
many supposed adepts endeavoured to render their information more

enigmatical by wilfully confounding the characters; and it is probable also
that many mistakes may have been committed by transcribers.
The character of Mars, according to the oldest mode of representing it,
is evidently an abbreviation of the word Θοῦρος, under which the Greek
mathematicians understood that deity; or, in other words, the first letter Θ,
with the last letter ς placed above it. The character of Jupiter was originally
the initial letter of Ζεύς; and in the oldest manuscripts of the mathematical
and astrological works of Julius Firmicus the capital Ζ only is used, to
which the last letter ς was afterwards added at the bottom, to render the
abbreviation more distinct. The supposed looking-glass of Venus is nothing
else than the initial letter, a little distorted, of the word Φωσφόρος, which
was the name of that goddess. The imaginary sythe of Saturn has been
gradually formed from the first two letters of his name Κρόνος, which
transcribers, for the sake of dispatch, made always more convenient for use,
but at the same time less perceptible. To discover in the pretended caduceus
of Mercury the initial letter of his Greek name Στίλβων, one needs only
look at the abbreviations in the oldest manuscripts, where they will find that
the Σ was once written as Ϲ; they will remark also that transcribers, to
distinguish this abbreviation still more from the rest, placed the C thus, ◡;
and added under it the next letter τ. If those to whom this deduction appears
improbable will only take the trouble to look at other Greek abbreviations,
they will find many that differ still further from the original letters they
express than the present character ☿ from the Ϲ and τ united. It is possible
that later transcribers, to whom the origin of this abbreviation was not
known, may have endeavoured to give it a greater resemblance to the
caduceus of Mercury. In short, it cannot be denied that many other
astronomical characters are real symbols, or a kind of proper hieroglyphics,
that represent certain attributes or circumstances, like the characters of
Aries, Leo, and others quoted by Salmasius.
But how old is the present form of these characters? According to
79
Scaliger , they are of great antiquity, because they are to be found on very
old gems and rings. If the ring No. 104 in Goræus be old and accurately
delineated, this must indeed be true; for some of these characters may be
80
very plainly distinguished on the beazel . We are told by Wallerius that
they were certainly used by the ancient Egyptians, because Democritus,

who resided five years in Egypt, speaks of them in the plainest terms. I do
not know whence Wallerius derived this information, but it proves nothing.
He undoubtedly alludes to the laughing philosopher of Abdera, who lived
about 450 years before our æra, but no authentic writings of his are now
extant. Fabricius says that we have a Latin translation of a work of his, De
Arte Sacra, Patavii, 1572, which, however, is certainly a production of
much later times. I have it now before me from the library of our university;
and I find that it is not the whole book, but only an abstract, and written in
so extravagant a manner that the deception is not easily discovered. It
contains chemical processes, but nothing of the characters of metals; which
81
is the case also with the letters of Democritus, published by Lubbinus .
[By way of contrast to the seven metals with which the ancients were
acquainted, we may enumerate those known at the present day. They are as
follows:—
1. Gold ☉
2. Silver ☽
3. Iron ♂
4. Copper ♀
5. Mercury ☿
6. Lead ♄
7. Tin ♃
8. Antimony Basil Valentine 1490.
9. Bismuth Agricola 1530.
10. Zinc (Paracelsus?) 1530.
11. Arsenic
Brandt 1733.
12. Cobalt
13. Platinum Wood 1741.
14. Nickel Cronstedt 1751.
15. Manganese Gahn 1774.
16. Tungsten D’Elhujart 1781.
17. Tellurium Müller 1782.
18. Molybdenum Hjelm 1782.

19. Uranium Klaproth 1789.
20. Titanium Gregor 1791.
21. Chromium Vauquelin 1797.
22. Columbium Hatchett 1802.
23. Palladium
Wollaston 1803.
24. Rhodium
25. Iridium
Tennant 1803.
26. Osmium
27. Cerium Hisinger 1804.
28. Potassium
29. Sodium
30. Barium Davy 1807.
31. Strontium
32. Calcium
33. Cadmium Stromeyer 1818.
34. Lithium Arfwedson 1818.
35. Silicium
Berzelius 1824.
36. Zirconium
37. Aluminum
38. Glucinum Wöhler 1828.
39. Yttrium
40. Thorium Berzelius 1829.
41. Magnesium Bussy 1829.
42. Vanadium Sefström 1830.
43. Didymium
Mosander 1842.
44. Lanthanium
45. Erbium
Mosander 1843.
46. Terbium
47. Pelopium
H. Rose 1845.
48. Niobium
49. Ruthenium Claus 1845.
50. Norium Svanberg 1845. ]

FOOTNOTES
62
See Goguet, Origines. Bailly, Hist. de l’Astron. Ancienne.
63
Jablonski, Pantheon Ægypt. 1750, p. 49.
64
These contradictions are pointed out by Goguet, in a note, p. 370.
A better view of them may be found in Hygini Astronom. (ed. Van
Staveren), xlii. p. 496.
65
Jablonski, Panth. p. 55. Vossius de Idololatria, ii. 34, p. 489.
Bruckeri Histor. Philosoph. i. p. 1055.
66
Origenes Contra Celsum, lib. vi. 22. I expected to have received
some explanation of this passage from the editors of Origen, and in
those authors who have treated expressly on the religious worship
of the Persians; but I find that they are quoted neither by Hyde;
Philip a Turre, whose Monumenta Veteris Antii is printed in
Thesaurus Antiquitat. et Histor. Italiæ; nor by Banier in his
Mythology.
67
Borrichius arranges the words in the following manner:
“Secundam portam faciunt Jovis, comparantes ei stanni
splendorem et mollitiem; tertiam Veneris æratam et solidam;
quartam Martis, est enim laborum patiens, æque ac ferrum,
celebratus hominibus; quintam Mercurii propter misturam
inæqualem ac variam, et quia negotiator est; sextam Lunæ
argenteam; septimam Solis auream.”—Ol. Borrichius De Ortu et
Progressu Chemiæ.” Hafniæ, 1668, 4to, p. 29. Professor Eichhorn
reminded me, as allusive to this subject, of the seven walls of
Ecbatana, the capital of Media, the outermost of which was the
lowest, and each of the rest progressively higher, so that they
overtopped each other. Each was of a particular colour. The
outermost was white; the second black; the third purple; the fourth
blue; the fifth red, or rather of an orange colour; and the summit of

the sixth was covered with silver, and that of the seventh, or
innermost, with gold. Such is the account given by Herodotus, i.
98; and it appears to me not improbable that they may have had a
relation to the seven planets, though nothing is hinted on that
subject by the historian.
68
Philostrat. Vita Apollonii, iii. 41, p. 130. How was the ring for
Wednesday made? Perhaps it was hollow, and filled with
quicksilver. Gesner, in Commentaria Societat. Scien. Gotting.
1753, iii. p. 78, thinks that these rings might have been made or
cast under certain constellations.
69
Oneirocritica, v. 37.
70
Isthm. Od. ver. 1. Of the like kind are many passages in Eustathius
on Homer’s Iliad, b. xi., and also the following passages of
Constantinus Manasses, where he describes the creation of the
stars, in his Annales (edit. Meursii, Lugd. 1616), p. 7, and p. 263:
“Saturnus nigricabat, colore plumbeo; Jupiter ut argentum
splendebat; Mars flammeus conspiciebatur; Sol instar auri puri
lucebat; (Venus uti stannum;) Mercurius instar æris rubebat; Luna
in morem glaciei pellucida suam et ipsa lucem emittebat,” &c.
71
In his Preface to Critias. Platonis Opera; Francof. 1602, fol. p.
1097.
72
It is probable that Ficinus had in view a passage in Olympiodori
Commentar. in Meteora Arist. Ven. 1551, fol. lib. iii. p. 59.
73
This distribution, which is ascribed to the Platonists, may be found
also in the scholiasts on Pindar, at the beginning of the fifth
Isthmian Ode, p. 459.
74
Jablonski, Pantheon Ægypt. i. p. 282, 283, 287; and ii. p. 131. This
author makes it the representation of something which cannot be
well named. Kircheri Œdipus Ægypt. t. ii. pars ii. p. 399. Romæ,
1653, fol.

75
Goguet, ii. pp. 370, 371, considers them as remains of the original
hieroglyphics; but he is of opinion that we received them in their
present form from the Arabians.
76
Plinianæ Exercitat. in Solinum, p. 874.
77
Gloss. ad Script. Med. et Infimæ Græcitatis.
78
In his Annotations on Manilii Astronomicon (in usum Delphini).
Par. 1679, 4to, p. 80.
79
In his Annotations on Manilii Astron. Strasb. 1665, 4to, p. 460.
80
In Gorii Thesaurus Gemmarum antiquarum astriferarum, Florent.
1750, 3 vols. fol., I found nothing on this subject. Characters of the
moon and of the signs in the zodiac often occur; but no others are
to be seen, except in tab. 33, where there is a ring, which has on it
the present characters of Mars and Venus. In general the planets
are represented by seven small asterisks, or by six and the
character of the moon. Besides, the antiquity of this gem cannot be
ascertained.
81
See the collection of Greek letters of Eilh. Lubbinus. Commelin.
1601, 8vo.

ZINC.
82
Zinc is one of those metals which were not known to the Greeks ,
Romans, or Arabians. This we have reason to conjecture, because it has not
been distinguished by a chemical character like the rest; but it is fully
proved, by our not finding in the works of the ancients any information that
appears even to allude to it. I know but of one instance where it is supposed
to have been found among remains of antiquity. Grignon pretends that
something like it was discovered in the ruins of the ancient Roman city in
83
Champagne . Such an unexpected discovery deserved to have been
investigated with the utmost minuteness; but it seems to have been
examined only in a very superficial manner; and as that was the case, it is
impossible to guess what kind of a metal or metallic mixture this author
considered as zinc.
It is not surprising that this metal should have remained so long
unknown, for it has never yet been found in the metallic state. Its ores are
often and in a great degree mixed with foreign ingredients; and when they
are melted, it sublimes in a metallic form, and is found adhering above to
the cool sides of the furnace; but a particular apparatus is necessary, else the
reduced metal partly evaporates, and is partly oxidized, by which means it
appears like an earth, and exhibits to the eye no traces of metal.
That mixture of zinc and copper called at present brass, tomback,
pinchbeck, princes-metal, &c., and which was first discovered by ores,
abundant in zinc, yielding when melted not pure copper, but brass, was
certainly known to the ancients. Mines that contained ores, from which this
gold-coloured metal was produced, were held in the highest estimation;
when exhausted, the loss of them was regretted; and it was supposed that
the metal would never be again found. In the course of time it was
remarked, no one knows by what accident, that an ore, which must have
been calamine, when added to copper while melting, gave it a yellow

colour. This ore was therefore used, though it was not known what metal it
contained, in the same manner as oxide of cobalt was employed in
colouring glass before mineralogists were acquainted with that metal itself.
Aristotle and Strabo speak of an earth of that kind, the use of which in
making brass has been retained through every century. Ambrosius, bishop
of Milan, in the fourth century; Primasius, bishop of Adrumetum in Africa,
in the sixth; and Isidore, bishop of Seville, in the seventh, mention an
addition by which copper acquired a gold colour, and which undoubtedly
must have been calamine. When in course of time more calamine was
discovered, the ancient method of procuring brass from copper-ore that
contained zinc was abandoned; and it was found more convenient first to
extract from it pure copper, and then to convert it into brass by the addition
of calamine.
Those desirous of inquiring further into the knowledge which the
ancients had of this metal must examine the meaning of the word cadmia,
which seems to have had various significations. This task I have ventured to
undertake; and though I cannot clear up everything that occurs respecting it,
I shall lay before my readers what information I have been able to obtain on
the subject, because perhaps it may amount to somewhat more than is to be
found in the works of old commentators. Cadmia signified, then, in the first
place, a mineral abounding in zinc, as well as any ore combined with it, and
also that zinc-earth which we call calamine. Those who should understand
under it only the latter, would not be able to explain the greater part of the
passages in the ancients where it is mentioned. It is probable that ore
84
containing zinc acquired this name, because it first produced brass . When
it was afterwards remarked that calamine gave to copper a yellow colour,
the same name was conferred on it also. It appears, however, that it was
85
seldom found by the ancients ; and we must consider cadmia in general as
signifying ore that contained zinc. Gold-coloured copper or brass was long
preferred to pure or common copper, and thought to be more beautiful the
nearer it approached to the best aurichalcum. Brass therefore was supposed
to be a more valuable kind of copper; and on this account Pliny says that
cadmia was necessary for procuring copper, that is brass. Copper, as well as
brass, was for a great length of time called æs, and it was not till a late
period that mineralogists, in order to distinguish them, gave the name of

86
cuprum to the former . Pliny says that it was good when a large quantity of
cadmia had been added to it, because it not only rendered the colour more
beautiful, but increased the weight. In the like manner a quintal of copper in
Hungary produces a hundred and fifty pounds of brass. The same author
remarks also that the cadmia (fossilis) was not used in medicine: this
however is to be understood only of the raw ore, for some physicians
prepared oxide of zinc from ore that contained zinc, as he afterwards tells
us; and Galen extols the calamine found in Cyprus on account of its
superior effects, because, perhaps, the oxide could be obtained from it much
purer.
In the second place, cadmia, among the ancients, was what we call
(ofenbruch) furnace-calamine, or what in melting ore that contains zinc, or
in making brass, falls to the bottom of the furnace, and which consists of
more or less calcined zinc. As this furnace-calamine assumes various
appearances, according to the manner of melting, and according to many
other circumstances that in part cannot be defined, and as the ancients
comprehend all its varieties under the general name of cadmia, and give to
each variety, according to its form, consistence and colour, a particular
name also, a confusion of names has hence arisen which cannot now be
cleared up, especially as it is not thought worth while to distinguish all its
incidental variations. Our physicians esteem only the pure oxide of zinc;
and as they know how to obtain it, they are not under the necessity of using
impure furnace-calamine. In our melting-houses it is employed, without
87
much nicety in the choice, for making zinc or brass .
What here appears to me most singular is, that the ancients should have
given the same names to furnace-calamine as they gave to ores that
contained zinc. The affinity of these substances they could conjecture only
from their effects, or perhaps they were induced to do so from observing
that furnace-calamine was not produced but when the different kinds of
cadmia, as they were called, were melted; that is, when yellow and not red
copper was obtained. Ofenbruch got the name of furnace-calamine at
Rammelsberg, when it was observed that it could be employed instead of
88
native calamine for making brass . Were the ancients then in any measure
acquainted with this use of it? Galen and Dioscorides speak only of its use
in medicine, and say nothing of its being employed in the preparation of

brass. The Arabian writers, particularly the translators of the Greek
physicians, speak in a much clearer manner of the preparation of brass; but
the appellations which they employ are so indeterminate in their
signification, that an answer to the above question cannot be deduced from
them. Climia, which some pronounce calimia and from which the modern
Greeks made kelimia, and the Latins lapis calaminaris, seems to have
entirely the same meaning as cadmia. Tutia, which occurs first in the
eleventh century, in Avicenna, and which the Greeks write toutia, or
perhaps more properly thouthia, signifies sometimes pompholyx; but in
common it seems to express also minerals that contain zinc, and likewise
89
furnace-calamine . Could it be proved that the tutia of the Arabs and later
Greeks was furnace-calamine, or the tutia of our druggists, the oldest
account with which I am acquainted of furnace-calamine, employed in
making brass, would occur in Zosimus, who, according to every
90
appearance, lived in the fifth century . This author tells us, that in order to
make brass, Cyprus copper must be melted, and pounded tutia must be
strewed over it. Salmasius suspects that Zosimus here means only calamine:
but however this may be, his receipt has been retained till the present time
91
in books on the arts; for these recommend not calamine, but tutia .
We can with more certainty affirm that this use of furnace-calamine, in
making brass, was known to Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth century; for
he says, first, that yellow copper was made by the addition of calamine,
which he calls lapis calaminaris. He tells us afterwards, that Hermes taught
how to give a gold colour to copper by throwing pounded tutia into the
melted metal. Tutia, says he, which is used in the transmutation of metals, is
not a native mineral, but an artificial mixture, produced in the furnace when
copper-ore is melted; and he advises glass-gall to be strewed over the ore,
92
otherwise calamine and tutia will lose their force in the fire . It would
appear that the last-mentioned name, in the thirteenth century, signified
only furnace-calamine, and that its use for making brass was at that period
known.
For many centuries, however, the ofenbruch (furnace-calamine), with
which, as we are told, the furnaces at Rammelsberg overflowed, was thrown
aside as useless, till at length, in the middle of the sixteenth century,

Erasmus Ebener first showed that it might be used instead of native
calamine for making brass. This Ebener, descended from the noble family
of that name at Nuremberg, was a man of great learning, and an able
statesman. He was employed by his native city, and by foreign princes, on
occasions of the highest importance. In 1569 he was privy-counsellor to
Julius duke of Brunswick, and died in 1577, at Helmstadt, where he was
buried. I regret much that I can give no further account of this important
discovery; the time even when it was made is not known with certainty.
Lœhneyss says that it was sixty years before the period when he wrote. But
at what period did he write? The oldest edition, with which I am acquainted,
of his treatise on mines, is of the year 1617, so that this discovery would fall
93
about the year 1557 . Calvör caused to be printed an old account of the
Rammelsberg mines, which was said to have been published in 1565.
According to that work, Ebener made the above-mentioned observation at
Nuremberg, about seventeen years before, that is, about the year 1548.
Schluter assigns as the period about 1550, and Honemann about 1559. We
may therefore very safely place it in the middle of the sixteenth century, and
probably the discovery happened in 1553, at which time Ebener was sent to
duke Henry, with whom he continued a long time, as we are expressly told
by Doppelmayer. This use of calamine refuse induced the managers of the
profitable brass-works in the Harz forest to pick up carefully that which
before had been thrown aside. Duke Julius, who endeavoured to improve
every branch of manufacture, and particularly what related to metallurgy,
and who, agreeably to the then prevailing mode of princes, suffered himself
to be duped with the hopes of making gold, improved the brass-works at
Buntheim, below Harzburg, and by these means brought a great revenue to
the electoral treasury.
Another production of zinc, artificial white vitriol, was also long
prepared, used and employed in commerce before it was known that it was
procured from this metal. That it was not known before the middle of the
sixteenth century, and that it was first made at Rammelsberg, may with
confidence be affirmed. Schluter ascribes the invention of it to duke Julius,
and places it in the year 1570: but it must be somewhat older than the
above-quoted account of Rammelsberg; for the author, who wrote about
94
1565 , relates, that in his time one citizen only, whom he calls Henni
Balder, boiled white vitriol; and it appears that this person kept the process

a secret. That the invention was not then new, is evident from his adding,
that what its effects might be in medicine had not been examined; but that
its use in making eye-water had been known almost as early as the time
when it was discovered. This agrees with another account, according to
which the method of boiling white vitriol was found out at the time when
Christopher Sander, whose service to the Harz is well-known, was tithe-
gatherer. Honemann says that Sander was tithe-gatherer at the mines of the
Upper Harz before the year 1564, but that in this year he was principal
tithe-gatherer and director of the mines and melting-houses at Goslar.
Sander himself, in a paper dated August 3, 1575, seems to ascribe the
95
invention of white vitriol to duke Julius .
At first this salt was called Erzalaun, a name occasioned by its likeness
to alum, but afterwards it was more frequently known by those of
Gallitzenstein, Golitzenstein, and Calitzenstein. The latter names however
appear to be older than white vitriol itself; as we find that green vitriol, even
before the year 1565, was called green Gallitzenstein. May not the word be
derived from gallæ; because it is probable that vitriol and galls were for a
long time the principal articles used for making ink and in dyeing? I am of
opinion that the white vitriol, which is produced in the mines of
Rammelsberg in the form of icicles, gave rise to the discovery and
manufacture of this salt. The former, so early as the year 1565, was called
white native vitriol, or white Gogkelgut, and was packed up in casks, and in
96
that manner transported for sale . I shall not here enter into the old
conjectures respecting the origin and component parts of this vitriol; but it
97
deserves to be remarked, that Henkel and Neumann observed in it a
mixture of zinc, by which Brandt, a member of the Swedish council of
mines, was led to prove, that, when pure, it consists of vitriolic acid and
98
oxide of zinc; and this was afterwards confirmed by Hellot .
I come now, in the last place, to the history of this metal, which, when
furnace-calamine was used, could not remain long unobserved, as it is
sometimes found amongst it uncalcined in metallic drops. It is worthy of
remark, that Albertus Magnus, who first described the use of furnace-
calamine in making brass, is the oldest author in whose works mention is
made of zinc. He calls it marchasita aurea. This was properly a stone, the

metallic particles of which were so entirely sublimated by fire, that nothing
but useless ashes remained behind. It contained fixed quicksilver,
communicated a colour to metals, on which account it was well known to
the alchemists, burned in the fire, and was at length entirely consumed. It
was found in various parts, but that at Goslar was the best, because the
copper it contained seemed to have in it a mixture of gold. To give this
copper however a still greater resemblance to gold, some tin was added to
it, by which means it became more brittle. This marchasita also rendered
copper white as silver. Thus far Albertus. It obtained without doubt the
name of marchasita aurea, because zinc communicates a yellow colour to
copper; and for the same reason the Greeks and the Arabians called cadmia
golden or aurea. But how could Albertus say that marchasite made copper
white? Did he commit a mistake, and mean tin? To me this appears not
probable, as at one time he seems to call it argentea. I imagine that he knew
that copper, when mixed with as much zinc as possible, that is, according to
Scheffer, eighty-nine pounds to a hundred, became white; and it appears
that by this he wished to establish its affinity with quicksilver.
The next author who gives an intelligible account of this metal is
Theophrastus Paracelsus, who died in 1541. I do not however imagine that
it was forgotten in this long interval, at least by those who were called
alchemists. I am rather of opinion, that on account of the great hopes which
it gave them by the colouring of copper, they described it purposely in an
obscure manner, and concealed it under other names, so that it was not
discovered in their works. There are few who would have patience to wade
through these, and the few who could do so, turn their attention to objects
of greater importance than those which occupy mine. Gold and silver
excepted, there is no metal which has had formerly so many and so
99
wonderful names as zinc . For this reason, chemists long believed that zinc
was not a distinct metal, but only a variety of tin or bismuth; and with these
perhaps it may hence have been often confounded.
The name zinc occurs first in Paracelsus. He expressly calls it a distinct
metal, the nature of which was not sufficiently known; which could be cast,
but was not malleable, and which was produced only in Carinthia. Was he
then unacquainted with the zinc of Goslar, which was known at an earlier
100
period to Albertus Magnus ? George Agricola, who wrote about the year

1550, speaks however of the Goslar zinc, but he calls it liquor candidus,
101
and in German conterfey . Mathesius, who published his sermons in
1562, says, “at Freyberg there is red and white zinc.” Perhaps he did not
mean the metal, but minerals that contained zinc. George Fabricius, who
died in 1571, conjectures that stibium is what the miners call cincum, which
can be melted, but not hammered.
It is seen by these imperfect accounts that this metal must have been
scarce, even in the middle of the sixteenth century, and that it was not in the
collection of Agricola, which was considerable for that period. Libavius,
who died in 1616, mentions it several times, but he regrets, in one of his
102
letters, that he had not been able to procure any of it . Was this owing to
the prohibition of duke Julius, by which it was forbidden to be sold? This
prohibition is quoted by Pott from Jungii Mineralogia, with which I am
unacquainted; but as Pott has already, by his unintelligible quotations, made
me spend many hours to no purpose, I shall not waste more in searching for
it. The prohibition alluded to is mentioned neither by Rehtmeier nor by any
other author. The foolish taste for alchemy, which prevailed then at the
103
duke’s court, makes it not altogether improbable that one was issued ; and
if that was really the case, it was occasioned not so much by any dread of
this metal being misused, as Pott thinks, but by the high hopes which were
entertained of its utility in making gold. The first accurate and certain
account of the method of procuring zinc at Goslar, is, as far as I know,
given by Lœhneyss, in 1617, though he considers it to be the same as
104
bismuth . Joh. Schrœder of Westphalia, who died in 1664, calls it
marcasita pallida.
The first person who purposely procured this metal from calamine, by
the addition of some inflammable substance, was undoubtedly Henkel, who
gave an account of his success in the year 1741, though he concealed the
105
whole process . After him, Dr. Isaac Lawson, a Scotsman, seems to have
made experiments which proved the possibility of obtaining zinc in this
manner on a large scale; and in 1737 Henkel heard that it was then
manufactured in England with great advantage. Of this Lawson I know
106
nothing more than what is related by Dr. Watson . Anthony von Swab,

member of the Swedish council of mines, procured this metal afterwards
from calamine by distillation, in 1742; as did Marggraf in 1746, who
appears however not to have been acquainted with the Swedish experiment.
In the year 1743, one Champion established zinc works at Bristol, which
were continued by his successor James Emerson, who established works of
the like kind at Henham, in the neighbourhood. The manner in which the
metal was procured, has been described by Dr. Watson in his Chemical
Essays.
The greater part of this metal, used in Europe, was undoubtedly
brought from the East Indies. The Commercial Company in the
Netherlands, between the years 1775 and 1779, caused to be sold, on their
107
account, above 943,081 pounds of it . In the year 1780, the chamber of
Rotterdam alone sold 28,000 pounds; and I find, by printed catalogues, that
the other chambers, at that period, had not any of it in their possession. If
the account given by Raynal be true, the Dutch East India Company
108
purchased annually, at Palimbang, a million and a half of pounds . In
1781, the Danish Company at Copenhagen purchased 153,953 pounds of
tutenage, which had been carried thither in two vessels, at the rate of from
four and one-eighth to four and a quarter schillings Lubec per pound. It is
probable that the English and Swedes import this article also. It would be of
some consequence if one could learn in what part of India, when, and in
what manner this metal was first procured, and in what year it was first
carried thence to Europe. According to the scanty information which we
109
have on the subject, it comes from China, Bengal, Malacca , and the
Malabar coast, from which copper and tin are also imported. In the oldest
bills of lading of ships belonging to the Netherlands I find no mention of
zinc; but it is possible that it may be comprehended under the name of
Indian tin; for so it was at first called. Savot, who died about the year 1640,
110
relates, on the authority of a contemporary writer , that some years before
the Dutch had taken from the Portuguese a ship laden with this metal,
which was sold under the name of speautre. It is probable therefore that it
was brought to Europe so early as the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Indian tin is mentioned by Boyle.

It is probable that this metal was discovered in India before anything of
the European zinc had been known in that country; but we are still less
acquainted with the cause of the discovery than with the method of
procuring the metal. We are told that an Englishman, who, in the above
century, went to India, in order to discover the process used there, returned
with an account that it was obtained by distillation ver descensum.
Respecting the origin of the different names of this metal, I can offer
very little. Conterfey signified formerly every kind of metal made in
111
imitation of gold . Frisch says it was called zink, from which was formed
first zinetum, and afterwards zincum, because the furnace-calamine assumes
the figure of (zinken or zacken) nails or spikes; but it is to be remarked that
these names do not occur before the discovery of this metal, though
ofenbruch was known long before. Fulda speaks of the Anglo-Saxon sin,
zink, which he translates obryzum. Spiauter, speauter, and spialter, from
which Boyle made speltrum, and also tutaneg or tuttanego, came to us from
India with the commodity. Under the last-mentioned name is sometimes
comprehended a mixture of tin and bismuth. Calaem is also an Indian
appellation given to this metal, and has a considerable likeness to calamine;
but I am of opinion with Salmasius that the latter is not derived from the
former, as lapis calaminaris occurs in the thirteenth century, and calaem
was first brought to us by the Portuguese from India.
[Most of the zinc works in this country are situated in the
neighbourhood of Birmingham and Bristol; a few furnaces also exist in the
neighbourhood of Sheffield, among the coal-pits surrounding that town;
there is also one at Maestag in Glamorganshire. The ores worked at Bristol
and Birmingham are principally obtained from the Mendip-hills and
Flintshire; those at Sheffield from Alston Moor. The greater part however of
the zinc used in this country is imported in ingots and plates from Silesia,
by way of Hamburg, Antwerp, Dantzic, &c. We receive annually from
100,000 to 170,000 cwts. from Germany; of this quantity, about 80,000 cwt.
are entered for home consumption, and the rest is exported for India.
From its moderate price and the ease with which it can be worked, zinc
is now extensively used for making water-cisterns, baths, pipes, covering of
roofs, and a great many architectural purposes. It has also of late been
employed in the curious art of transferring printing, known under the name

of Zincography, but owing to the ease with which this metal becomes
coated with a film of oxide or carbonate, by exposure to the air, the plates
cannot be preserved for any great length of time.]

FOOTNOTES
82
[It has been observed by an anonymous reviewer (British and
Foreign Medical Review, vol. viii. p. 361) that a passage in Strabo
authorises the belief that the ancients were acquainted with this
metal in its separate state, and that it is the false silver,
ψευδάργυρον, of that ancient geographer.]
83
Bulletin des fouilles d’une ville Romaine, p. 11.
84
Plin. lib. xxxiv. sect. 22.
85
Zinc-ore, besides being mentioned by Aristotle and Strabo, is
mentioned by Galen, De Simplic. Medicam. Facultatibus, lib. ix. p.
142. As he found no furnace-calamine when he resided in Cyprus,
he procured from the overseer of the mines some raw cadmia,
which had been found in the mountains and rivulets, and which
certainly must have been calamine.
86
At first it was called æs cyprium, but in the course of time only
cyprium; from which was at length formed cuprum. It cannot
however be ascertained at what periods these appellations were
common. The epithet cupreus occurs in manuscripts of Pliny and
Palladius; but one cannot say whether later transcribers may not
have changed cyprius into cupreus, with which they were perhaps
better acquainted. The oldest writer who uses the word cuprum is
Spartian; who says, in the Life of Caracalla, “cancelli ex ære vel
cupro.” But may not the last word have been added to the text as a
gloss? Pliny, book xxxvi. 26, says, “Addito cyprio et nitro;” which
Isidore, xvi. 15, p. 393, expresses by the words adjecto cupro et
nitro. The superiority of the Cyprian copper gave occasion to this

appellation; as the best iron or steel was called chalybs, from the
Chalybes (a people of Galatia) who prepared the finest, and carried
on the greatest trade with it. But in what did the superiority of this
Cyprian copper consist? In its purity, or in its colour, which
approached near to that of gold? That island produced a great deal
of ore which contained zinc, and abounded also with calamine.
Pliny says, “in Cypro prima fuit æris inventio.” Red copper
however had been known there from the earliest periods, so that
the honour of its invention must be allowed to that island without
any contradiction; and Pliny must undoubtedly allude in the above
passage to some particular kind.
87
Dioscorides, book v. c. 84, first mentions some sorts of cadmia,
βοτρυίτις, πλακωτὴ and ὀστρακῖτις. These, according to Galen and
Pliny, are undoubtedly certain kinds of (ofenbruch) furnace-
calamine; but Salmasius in his book De Homonymis, p. 230, and
Sarracen in his Annotations, p. 113, are of opinion that Dioscorides
considered them as native kinds of cadmia, or minerals abundant
in zinc. I cannot however allow myself to believe that Dioscorides,
who was so careful, and who immediately after describes the
artificial preparation of cadmia clearly and properly, should have
thus erred. Besides, every kind of ofenbruch (furnace-calamine)
must have discovered its origin from fire to such a good judge of
minerals as Dioscorides. I am convinced that he, as well as Galen
and Pliny, considered the above kinds as furnace-calamine.
Pompholyx was the name of the white flowers of zinc which
Dioscorides, v. 85, p. 352, compares to wool, and which by
chemists were formerly called lana philosophica. The ancients
collected these flowers when produced by the melting of zinc-ore;
but they obtained them also by an apparatus which is fully
described by Dioscorides and Galen, and which approaches near to
that used for collecting arsenic in the poison melting-houses, as
they are usually called.
88
This however I will not with certainty affirm. As calmey and
galmey have probably taken their rise from cadmia or calimia, and
as both these words signified proper calamine, as well as

ofenbruch, the latter, perhaps, may at an earlier period have
signified furnace-calamine.
89
Proofs respecting this subject may be found in Salmasius De
Homonymis.
90
It is not certainly known when this Zosimus Panopolitanus lived.
His works, which must contain abundance of information
respecting the history of chemistry, have never yet been printed.
The greater part of them were preserved in the king’s library at
Paris. The receipt to which I allude has been inserted by
Salmasius, p. 237.
91
We read in Observations sur la Physique, vi. p. 255, that for many
years tutia has been collected and sold in the bishopric of Liege.
Lehmann endeavours to show that it was made by the Jews in
Poland. Novi Comment. Acad. Petrop. xii. p. 381. As the use of
tutia [which is an impure oxide of zinc found in the chimneys of
the furnaces in which zinc-ores are roasted, or in which zinciferous
lead-ores are smelted] has been almost abandoned, because
physicians prefer pure flowers of zinc, and because those who
make pinchbeck employ purified zinc, it is probable that this
substance will soon be entirely neglected.
92
De Mineralibus. Coloniæ, 1569, 12mo, p. 350, lib. iv. cap. 5; and
lib. v. cap. 7, p. 388.
93
The other edition was printed at Stockholm and Hamburg, by
Liebezeit, and is the same as that mentioned by H. Gatterer, in
Anleitung den Harz zu bereisen, i. p. 313, and ii. p. 13.
94
“White vitriol also is made at Goslar, but by one citizen only,
named Henni Balder. It is not procured by the evaporation of
copper like other vitriol; but when large quantities of ore are
roasted in the furnaces, a red substance is from time to time
collected on the refuse of the ore, and found in some places half an
ell thick. This substance, which is saltish, is formed into a lye, and
boiled in small leaden pans. The rest of the process I do not know,

but I observed that it crystallizes like saltpetre, but is stronger and
whiter. It is also cast into small cakes about the thickness of one’s
hand. This vitriol is employed by the leather-dressers, and may be
used for many things instead of alum; but it cannot be used in
dressing white skins, because it makes them yellowish.”
95
Bruckmann, ii. p. 446. [Schwartze, in his Pharm. Tabell. 2nd edit.
p. 779, states that white vitriol was known towards the end of the
thirteenth or at the commencement of the fourteenth century.]
96
Calvor, Historische Nachricht, p. 199 and 200. Properly it is
written and pronounced jöckel. It is very remarkable that in Iceland
this word at present signifies icicles.
97
Chemie, von Kessel, iv. 2, p. 832, where may be found the old
opinions on this subject.
98
Brandt, in Acta Upsaliens. 1735. Hellot, in Mémoires de l’Acad.
des Sciences, Paris, 1735, p. 29. [Sulphate of zinc or white vitriol
is at present manufactured in considerable quantity for
pharmaceutical purposes, and for the calico-printer.]
99
A great many may be found collected in Fuchs, Geschichte des
Zinks. Erfurt, 1778, 8vo.
100
Paracelsi Opera. Strasb. 1616, fol. I shall here transcribe the
principal passage. Of zinc:—There is another metal, zinc, which is
in general unknown. It is a distinct metal of a different origin,
though adulterated with many other metals. It can be melted, for it
consists of three fluid principles, but it is not malleable. In its
colour it is unlike all others, and does not grow in the same
manner; but with its ultima materia I am as yet unacquainted, for it
is almost as strange in its properties as argentum vivum. It admits
of no mixture, will not bear the fabricationes of other metals, but
keeps itself entirely to itself.
101
De Re Metallica, lib. ix. p. 329.

102
In J. Hornung’s Cista Medica. Lipsiæ.
103
How much duke Julius, who in other respects did great service to
his country, suffered himself to be duped by the art of making
gold, appears from an anecdote given by Rehtmeier, p. 1016. Of
this anecdote I received from M. Ribbentrop an old account in
manuscript, which one cannot read without astonishment. There is
still shown, at the castle of Wolfenbuttle, an iron stool, on which
the impostor, Anna Maria Zieglerinn, named Schluter Ilsche, was
burnt, February 5, 1575.
104
Page 83:—“When the people at the melting-houses are employed
in melting, there is formed under the furnace, in the crevices of the
wall, among the stones where it is not well plastered, a metal
which is called zinc or conterfeht; and when the wall is scraped,
the metal falls down into a trough placed to receive it. This metal
has a great resemblance to tin, but it is harder and less malleable,
and rings like a small bell. It could be made also, if people would
give themselves the trouble; but it is not much valued, and the
servants and workmen only collect it when they are promised
drink-money. They however scrape off more of it at one time than
at another; for sometimes they collect two pounds, but at others
not above two ounces. This metal, by itself, is of no use, as, like
bismuth, it is not malleable; but when mixed with tin, it renders it
harder and more beautiful, like the English tin. This zinc or
bismuth is in great request among the alchemists.”
105
Kieshistorie, p. 571, and particularly p. 721.
106
Pott refers to Lawson’s Dissert. de Nihilo, and quotes some words
from it; but I cannot find it; nor am I surprised at this, as it was not
known to Dr. Watson.—See Chemical Essays, iv. p. 34. Pryce, in
Mineral. Cornub., p. 49, says, “The late Dr. J. Lawson, observing
that the flowers of lapis calaminaris were the same as those of
zinc, and that its effects on copper were also the same with that
semi-metal, never remitted his endeavours till he found the method
of separating pure zinc from that ore.” The same account is given

in the supplement to Chambers’s Dictionary, 1753, art. calm. and
zinc; and in Campbell’s Political Survey of Britain, ii. p. 35. The
latter however adds, that Lawson died too early to derive any
benefit from his discovery.
107
Ricards Handbuch der Kaufleute, i. p. 57.
108
Raynal says that the company purchase it at the rate of twenty-
eight florins three-quarters per hundred weight, and that this price
is moderate. At Amsterdam, however, the price was commonly
from seventeen to eighteen florins banco. According to a catalogue
which I have in my possession, the price, on the 9th of May, 1788,
was seventeen florins, and on the 22nd of January, 1781, it was
only sixteen.
109
Linschoten, b. ii. c. 17. The author calls it calaem, the name used in
the country. It is a kind of tin.
110
De Nummis Antiquis; in Grævii Thes. Antiq. Rom. xi. p. 1195.
111
Matthesius, Pred. v. p. 250.—“Conterfeil is a metal of little value,
formed by additions and colouring substances, so that it resembles
gold or silver, as an image, or anything counterfeited, does its
archetype. Thus copper is coloured by calamine and other
mixtures, in such a manner that it appears to be pure gold.” In the
police ordinance issued at Strasburg in 1628, young women are
forbidden to wear gold or silver, or any conterfaite, and everything
that might have the appearance of gold or silver.

CARP.
So obscure is the ichthyology of the ancients, or so little care has been
taken to explain it, that the question whether our carp were known to
Aristotle, Pliny, and their contemporaries, cannot with any great degree of
probability be determined. Besides, that subject is attended with much
greater difficulties than the natural history of quadrupeds. Among four-
footed animals there is a greater variety in their bodily conformation, which
at any rate strikes the eye more, and can be more easily described than that
of fishes, which in general are so like in shape, that an experienced
systematic naturalist finds it sometimes difficult to determine the characters
of the genera and species. It is not surprising therefore that the simple
descriptions of the ancients, or rather the short accounts which they give us
of fish, do not afford information sufficient to enable us to distinguish with
accuracy the different kinds. Quadrupeds may terrify us by their ferocity, or
endeavour to avoid us by shyness and craft; but it is still possible to observe
their sexes, their age, and their habits, and to remark many things that are
common to one or only a few species. Fishes, on the other hand, live in an
element in which we cannot approach them, and which for the most part
conceals them from our observation. The chase, since the earliest periods,
and in modern times more than formerly, has been the employment of idle
persons, who bestow upon it greater attention the fewer those objects are
which can attract their curiosity or employ their minds: but fishing has
almost always been the laborious occupation of poor people, who have no
time to make observations, as they are obliged to follow it in order to find a
subsistence; and mankind in general seldom see fish except on their tables
or in collections of natural history. On this account those properties of fish
by which their species could be determined, were less known. The
descriptions of four-footed animals which have been handed down to us
from the time of the Greek and Roman writers, give us, at any rate, some
information; but from those of fishes, which are more uncommon, we can
scarcely derive any; unless one were as acute or easy of belief as many

collectors of petrefactions, who imagine that they can distinguish each
species of fish in the impressions which they see in stones. More however
might be done towards elucidating the ichthyology of the ancients than has
hitherto been attempted. It would be necessary only to make a beginning by
collecting the species and names which can with certainty be determined,
together with the authorities, and separating them from the rest; and an
abstract should be formed of what is said in the ancients respecting the
unknown species, or whatever may in any measure serve to make us
acquainted with them; but mere conjectures ought never to be given as
proofs, nor ought the opinions of commentators, or the explanations of
dictionaries to be adopted without sufficient grounds. If these are to be
believed without further examination, the names cyprini and lepidoti must
be considered as those of carp; and the proposed question would be soon
answered: but that opinion has scarcely probability in its favour when one
searches after proofs.
I shall not here lay before the reader everything completely that the
ancients have said respecting the cyprini, and which is in part so corrupted
by transcribers, that no certain meaning can be drawn from it. Were I to
treat of the ichthyology of the ancients, it might be necessary; but as that is
not the case, I shall only quote such parts of it as have been employed by
Rondelet and others to prove that they were our carp. Their principal
grounds seem to be, that among all the fish of the ancients no others occur
which can with any probability be considered as carp. If the cyprini
therefore were not carp, these must not have been named by the ancients;
and that undoubtedly will not readily be admitted. It is well known what a
high value the ancients, particularly the Orientals, set upon fish, of which
they had a great variety; and it appears that they preferred them to all dishes
prepared from four-footed animals or fowls. Fish seem to have been the
choicest delicacies of voluptuaries, and in that respect they are oftener
mentioned by historians than fowls. Physicians also, to whom the most
sumptuous tables have in all ages been of the greatest benefit, speak of fish
oftener in their writings than of dishes made of the flesh of other animals. In
the ancient cookery, the number of dishes prepared from fish is indeed great
in comparison of those dressed from fowls. Turdi and attagines are much
praised; but had pheasants, snipes, partridges, and others, been as much
esteemed then as they are now, these would not have been forgotten, or
would have occurred oftener. Fish at present form the principal food in

Greece, as well as at Constantinople, and a great abundance and variety of
them may be found there in the markets; but fowls which have been caught
or shot are seldom exposed for sale. When the Egyptian and Greek monks
wished to distinguish themselves by abstinence and temperance, they
denied themselves all kinds of fish, as the richest delicacies, in the same
manner as pretended devotees among the Europeans deny themselves flesh.
But though all this may be true, it does not prove that our carp must occur
in the writings of the ancients. The Roman voluptuaries, indeed, left very
little untried that was likely to gratify their appetite; but it was impossible
for them to make a trial of everything. There may have been particular
reasons which prevented them from meeting with carp; and who will
venture to affirm that all the knowledge of the ancients must be contained in
those few of their writings which have been preserved to us by accidents?
If one, freed from these prejudices, should now ask why the cyprinus
must be our carp, the answer will be, because what we read of the tongue
and scales of the cyprini cannot be applied with so much propriety to any
species of fish as to the Cyprinus carpio of Linnæus. Aristotle informs us
that the cyprini had properly no tongue, but that their soft fleshy palate
112
might very readily be taken for one . Athenæus affirms that they had a
tongue, but that it lay in the upper part of the mouth or palate; and in
113
confirmation of this he refers to Aristotle . This assertion of Athenæus
however is very dubious; for these words are not to be found in the works
of Aristotle which have been preserved, though the same meaning might be
indeed forced, in case of necessity, from the passage first quoted. It is
114
possible that Athenæus, as Casaubon has already conjectured, may here,
as well as in other parts, allude to some book of Aristotle not now extant.
Besides, he calls the fish of which he speaks, not cyprinus, but cyprianus;
and a question therefore arises, whether he may not have meant some other
kind. This much at any rate appears certain from the passage of Aristotle,
that the cyprinus had a thick fleshy palate; and that indeed is the case with
our carp, so that the head, on account of the delicacy and agreeable taste of
the palate, is reckoned the most relishing part. By that circumstance
however nothing is proved; as it is not peculiar to carp alone, but common
to every species of the same family, such as the bream, tench, &c. Fish of
this kind, says Bloch, have properly no tongue; that which appears to be one

is merely a cartilaginous substance which projects through those band-like
parts that enclose it on each side. This proof would have more weight, did
we find it related, that in the time of Aristotle, the tongue was considered as
an exquisite morsel: but that is not mentioned; and H. Krunitz is mistaken,
when he says that Heliogabalus, to satisfy his luxurious appetite, was
induced to try a fricassee of the tongues of carp: it consisted only of the
115
tongues of peacocks and nightingales . Had the ancients really used carp
on their tables, we must have ascribed to them the discovery of these
delicious fish.
The other proof which is brought from the scales consists in what is
116
said by Dorion, in Athenæus , that the cyprianus was called also by some
lepidotus, or scaly. As nearly all fish have scales, the scales of this species
must have been extremely large, as they got that name by way of eminence;
and it must be indeed allowed, that the above epithet would suit our carp
exceedingly well, as their scales are very large. But this circumstance alone
proves nothing, as the Mullus and Mugil have still larger scales; and to the
117
first genus belonged one of the fish most esteemed by the ancients .
Strabo mentions the lepidotus among the sacred fish of the Nile; but
whether it be the same as that of which Dorion speaks, cannot be
determined. It is certain that the Nile contains carp still; for Norden saw
them caught at the waterfall near Essuane, which is the ancient Syene. Did
we know that the modern Greeks at present call carp cyprini, this would
prove more; for it is an undoubted fact that the ancient names have for the
118
most part been retained in Greece. We are assured by Massarius , that the
Greeks still use the name cyprinus; but Gyllius says that it is employed only
by a few: and this is confirmed by Bellon, who mentions all the names of
carp which he heard in Greece, and which are entirely different from the
119
ancient ; but he adds, that carp in Ætolia are still called cyprini. Both the
before-mentioned circumstances respecting the cyprini agree extremely
well with our carp; but as they will suit other kinds equally well, they afford
no complete proof, but only a probability which amounts to this, that among
the large-scaled fish, carp in particular have a fleshy palate; and it is readily
admitted that the ancients were acquainted with all kinds, and chose names
for them with more foundation than is done at present.

In opposition to this probability it may be said that Oppian and Pliny
reckon the cyprini among the sea-fish, to which kind our carp do not
belong. This reply however, which some have indeed made, is not of great
weight. In the first place, both these writers seem to have been in an error;
for what Pliny says of the cyprini is evidently taken from Aristotle, and the
latter does not tell us that these fish live in the sea, but rather the contrary.
The Roman author, as Dalechamp remarks, added the words in mari, if they
were not added by some transcriber. Oppian as a poet does not always
adhere strictly to truth; and he makes more of the freshwater fish of
Aristotle to be inhabitants of the sea. In the second place, I consider the
distinction made between sea-fish, freshwater fish and those kept in ponds,
to be not always very certain or well founded. Who knows whether the
greater part of the last may not have been originally sea-fish? This is the
more probable in regard to carp, as Professor Foster says that carp are
120
sometimes caught in the harbour at Dantzic .
In order to answer the question here proposed, another point may be
considered. As all nations at present give these fish the same name, it is
probable that it was brought with them from that country where they were
first found, and from which they were procured. Cassiodorus, who lived in
the sixth century, is the oldest author as yet known in whom that name has
121
been observed . In a passage where he speaks of the most delicate and
costly fish, which at that time were sent to the tables of princes, he says,
“Among these is the carpa, which is produced in the Danube.” In the
earliest Latin translation of Aristotle, the word cyprinus, as Camus says, is
expressed by carpra. In the thirteenth century this fish was called by
122
Vincentius de Beauvais carpera, and by Cæsarius carpo; and it is highly
probable that both these names allude to our carp. By the above passage of
Cassiodorus, the opinion that these fish were the cyprini of the ancients
obtains a new, but at the same time a very feeble proof; for the cyprinus was
123
found also in the Danube, as we learn from Ælian , who among the fish of
the Ister, mentions black cyprini; and these, according to the conjecture of
Professor Schneider, were the black fish of the Danube which Pliny
considers as unhealthful or poisonous, and like which there were some in
Armenia. Our carp indeed are not poisonous, but Pliny alludes to a
particular variety, and what he says was only report, to which something

must have given rise, as also to the idea of carp with a death’s head, and the
head of a pug-dog, as some have been represented by writers of the
sixteenth century. The carpo of Cæsarius appears to have been our carp,
because its scales had a very great resemblance to those of the latter; for we
are told in the work already quoted, that the devil, once indulging in a
frolic, appeared in a coat of mail, and had scales like the fish carpo. The
carpera of Vincent de Beauvais is still less doubtful, as the same craft in
avoiding rakes and nets is ascribed to that fish as is known to be employed
by our carp. Sometimes they thrust their heads into the mud and suffer the
net to pass over them; and sometimes they join the head and tail together,
and separating them suddenly, throw themselves towards the surface of the
water, and springing often four or five feet above the net, make their escape.
But whence did this name arise? The origin assigned by Vincentius, or
the anonymous author of the lost books De Natura Rerum, like another
mentioned in ridicule by Gesner, is too silly to be repeated. More learned at
any rate is the derivation of Menage, who traces it from cyprinus, which
was afterwards transformed into cuprinus, cuprius, cuprus, cupra, curpa,
and lastly into carpa. For my part, I am more inclined to derive it from a
dialect which was spoken on the banks of the Danube, and to believe that it
was brought with the fish from the southern part of Europe; but I am too
little acquainted with that dialect to be able to render my conjecture very
probable; and the etymologists I consulted, such as Wachter, Ihre, Johnson,
&c., afforded me no assistance. Fulda gave me some hopes, as he allows the
word to be of German extraction; but I must confess that his derivation is
too far-fetched, and like the chemistry of the adepts, to me not perfectly
intelligible.
It may perhaps not be superfluous here to observe that one must not
confound carpa and carpo, or our carp, with carpio. The latter belongs to
the genus of the salmon and trout; and in the Linnæan system is called
Salmo carpio. It is found chiefly in the Lago di Garda, the ancient Lacus
Benacus, on the confines of Tyrol. The oldest account of this fish is to be
found in works of the sixteenth century, such as the poems of Pierius
Valerianus, and in Jovius de Piscibus. According to Linnæus, it is found in
the rivers of England; but that is false. This celebrated naturalist suffered
himself to be misled by Artedi, who gives the char or chare, mentioned by
Camden in his description of Lancashire, as the Salmo carpio. Pennant

however, by whom it is not mentioned among the English fish, says
expressly that the char is not the carpio of the Lago di Garda, but rather a
124
variety of the Salmo alpinus .
That our carp were first found in the southern parts of Europe, and
conveyed thence to other countries, is undoubtedly certain. Even at present
they do not thrive in the northern regions, and the further north they are
125
carried the smaller they become . Some accounts of their transportation
are still to be found. If it be true that the Latin poem on the expedition of
Attila is as old as the fifth or sixth century, and if the fish which Walther
gave to the boatman who ferried him over the Rhine, and which the latter
carried to the kitchen of Gunther king of the Franks, were carp, this
circumstance is a proof that these fish had not been before known in that
126
part of France which bordered on the Rhine . The examination of this
conjecture I shall however leave to others. D’Aussy quotes a book never
printed, of the thirteenth century, entitled Proverbes, and in which is given
an account of the best articles produced at that time by the different parts of
the kingdom, and assures us that a great many kinds of fish were mentioned
in it, but no carp, though at present they are common all over France.
It appears also that there were no carp in England in the eleventh
century, at least they do not occur in the Anglo-Saxon Dictionary of Ælfric,
127
who in 1051 died archbishop of York . We are assured likewise that they
were first brought into the kingdom in the fifth year of the reign of Henry
128
VIII., or in 1514, by Leonard Mascal of Plumsted in Sussex . What we
read in the Linnæan System, that these fish were first brought to England
about the year 1600, is certainly erroneous. Where that celebrated naturalist,
under whom I had the pleasure of studying, acquired this information, I do
not know.
Denmark is indebted for these fish to that celebrated statesman Peter
Oxe, who introduced them into the kingdom as well as cray-fish, and other
objects for the table. He died in the year 1575.
We are told that these fish were brought from Italy to Prussia, where
they are at present very abundant, by a nobleman whose name is not
mentioned. This service however may be ascribed with more probability to

the upper burg-grave, Caspar von Nostiz, who died in 1588, and who in the
middle of the sixteenth century first sent carp to Prussia from his estate in
Silesia, and caused them to be put into the large pond at Arensberg not far
from Creuzburg. As a memorial of this circumstance, the figure of a carp,
cut in stone, was shown formerly over a door at the castle of Arensberg.
This colony must have been very numerous in the year 1535, for at that
period carp were sent from Königsberg to Wilda, where the archduke Albert
then resided. At present (1798) a great many carp are transported from
Dantzic and Königsberg to Russia, Sweden, and Denmark. It appears to me
probable that these fish after that period became everywhere known and
esteemed, as eating fish in Lent and on fast-days was among Christians
considered to be a religious duty, and that on this account they endeavoured
to have ponds stocked with them in every country, because no species can
be so easily bred in these reservoirs.
I shall observe in the last place, that the Spiegel-carpen, mirror-carp,
distinguished by yellow scales, which are much larger, though fewer in
number, and which do not cover the whole body, are not mentioned but by
modern writers. Bloch says that they were first described by Johnston under
the name of royal carp. The passage where he does so I cannot find; but in
plate xxix. there is a bad engraving, with the title Spiegel-karpen, which
however have scales all over their bodies, and cannot be the kind alluded to.
On the other hand, the Spiegel-karpen are mentioned by Gesner, who, as it
appears, never saw them. In my opinion, Balbinus, who wrote in the middle
of the sixteenth century, was the first person who gave a true and complete
description of them; and according to his account, they seem to have come
originally from Bohemia. The first correct figure of them is to be found in
Marsigli.

FOOTNOTES
112
Histor. Animal. lib. iv. cap. 8.
113
Lib. vii. p. 309.

114
Animadvers. vii. 17, p. 540.
115
Lampridii Vita Heliogab. c. 20.
116
Lib. vii. p. 309.
117
This fish was a first-rate article of luxury among the Romans, and
was purchased at a dear rate. Juvenal says, “Mullum sex millibus
emit, æquantem sane paribus sestertia libris.” See Plin. lib. ix. c.
17. The Italians have a proverb, “La triglia non mangia chi la
piglia,” which implies, that he who catches a mullet is a fool if he
eats it and does not sell it. When this fish is dying, it changes its
colours in a very singular manner till it is entirely lifeless. This
spectacle was so gratifying to the Romans, that they used to show
the fish dying in a glass vessel to their guests before dinner.
118
Fr. Massarii in ix. Plinii. libr. Castigat. Bas. 1537, 4to.
119
A great service would be rendered to the natural history of the
ancients, if some able systematic naturalist would collect all the
Greek names used at present. Tournefort and others made a
beginning.
120
Philosophical Transact. vol. lxi. 1771, part i. 310.
121
Variorum, p. 380.
122
Speculum Naturale.
123
De Nat. Anim. xiv.—Plin. xxxi. sect. 19.—Antig. Car. c. 181.
124
British Zoology, vol. iii. p. 259.
125
Pontoppidan, Natürliche Historie von Norwegen, ii. p. 236.
126
De Prima Expedit. Attilæ, ed. Fischer. Lips. 1780, 4to.
127
Printed at the end of Somneri Dict. Saxonicum.

128
See Anderson’s Hist. of Commerce, and Pennant’s Zoology, p. 300.
Both these authors refer to Fuller’s British Worthies. [The carp
existed in England before the year 1486: for in Dame Juliana
Berners’ work on Angling, which was published at St. Albans
(hence called the Book of St. Albans) in 1486, we find the
following passage: speaking of the carp, she says “That it is a
deyntous fysshe, but there ben but few in Englonde. And therefore
I wryte the lesse of hym. He is an euyll fysshe to take. For he is so
stronge enarmyd in the mouthe, that there maye noo weke harnays
hold him.”]

CAMP-MILLS.
Under this appellation are understood portable or moveable mills,
which can be used, particularly in the time of war, when there are neither
wind- nor water-mills in the neighbourhood, and which on that account
formerly accompanied armies in the same manner as camp-ovens and
camp-forges. Some of these mills have stones for grinding the corn, and
others are constructed with a notched roller like those of our coffee-mills.
Some of them also are so contrived that the machinery is put in motion by
the revolution of the wheels of the carriage on which they are placed; and
others, and perhaps the greater part of those used, are driven by horses or
men, after the wheels of the carriage are sunk in the ground, or fastened in
some other manner.
129
To the latter kind belongs that mill of which Zonca has given a
coarse engraving, but without any description. He says it was invented by
Pompeo Targone, engineer to the well-known marquis Ambrose Spinola;
and he seems to place the time of the invention about the end of the
sixteenth century. This mill is the same as that described by Beyer in his
Theatrum Machinarum Molarium, and represented in the twenty-seventh
130
plate of that work . Beyer remarks that it was employed by Spinola.
The inventor, as his name shows, was an Italian, who made himself
known, in particular, at the celebrated siege of Rochelle, under Louis XIII.,
at which he was chosen to assist, because in the year 1603, when with
Spinola, who was consulted respecting the operations at Rochelle, he had
helped by means of a mole to shut the harbour of Ostend during the tedious
siege of that place. He was likewise in the French service, as intendant des
machines du roi; but his numerous and expensive undertakings did not
131
succeed according to his expectations . He invented also a particular kind
132
of gun-carriages, and a variety of warlike machines .

Another old figure of such a mill was shown to me by Professor
Meister, in Recueil de Plusieurs Machines Militaires, printed in 1620. This
machine was driven by the wheels of the carriage; but whether it was ever
used the author does not inform us.
133
Lancellotti ascribes this invention to the Germans, about the year
1633.
Carriages for transporting camp-forges and mill-machinery are
134
mentioned by Leonard Fronsperger , but he does not say whether
complete mills were affixed to them.

FOOTNOTES
129
Novo Teatro di Machine ed Edificii, di Vittorio Zonca. Padoua,
1621, and reprinted in 1656, fol. The greater part of the machines
delineated in this scarce book are engines for raising heavy bodies;
but many of them are used in various trades and manufactures, and
may serve in some measure to illustrate the history of them.
130
J. M. Beyer’s Schauplatz der Mühlen-Bau-kunst. Leipzig, 1735,
fol. Reprinted at Dresden, 1767.
131
All those authors who have written expressly on the fate of the
Huguenots, the History of Richelieu, Louis XIII., and the siege of
Rochelle, make mention of Targone.
132
Histoire de la Milice Françoise, par Daniel. Amst. 1724, i. p. 332.
133
L’Hoggidi, overo gl’Ingegni non inferiori a’ passati. Ven. 1636,
8vo.
134
Kriegsbuch, Frankf. 1596, fol. p. 9.

MIRRORS135.
136
It is highly probable that a limpid brook was the first mirror , but we
have reason to think that artificial mirrors were made as mankind began to
exercise their art and ingenuity on metals and stones. Every solid body,
capable of receiving a fine polish, would be sufficient for this purpose; and
indeed the oldest mirrors mentioned in history were of metal. Those which
137
occur in Job are praised on account of their hardness and solidity; and
138
Moses relates , that the brazen laver, or washing-basin, was made from
the mirrors of the women who had assembled at the door of the tabernacle
to present them, and which he caused them to deliver up. As the women
appeared in full dress at divine worship, it was necessary for them to have
looking-glasses after the Egyptian manner. With these the washing-basins,
according to the conjecture of most interpretators, were only ornamented,
139
covered, or perhaps hung round; and Michaelis himself was once of this
opinion. But why should we not rather believe that the mirrors were melted
and formed into washing-basins? As soon as mankind began to endeavour
to make good mirrors of metal, they must have remarked that every kind of
metal was not equally proper for that use, and that the best could be
obtained only from a mixture of different metals. In the mirrors however
which were collected by Moses, the artists had a sufficient stock of
speculum metal, and were not under the necessity of making it themselves;
and for this reason they could much more easily give to the whole basin a
polished surface, in which the priests, when they washed, might survey
themselves at full length. At any rate such a basin would not be the only one
140
employed instead of a mirror. Artemidorus says that he who dreams of
viewing himself in a basin, will have a son born to him by his maid. Dreams
indeed are generally as groundless as this interpretation; but one can hardly
conjecture that Artemidorus would have thought of such a dream, had it not
been very common for people to contemplate themselves in a basin. There

were formerly a kind of fortune-tellers, who pretended to show in polished
141
basins to the simple and ignorant, what they wished to know . The
ancients also had drinking-vessels, the inside of which was cut into mirrors,
so disposed that the image of the person who drank from them was seen
142
multiplied . Vopiscus mentions, among the valuable presents of Valerian
to the emperor Probus, when a tribune, a silver cup of great weight, which
143
was covered on the inside with mirrors of this sort .
Menard and others conjecture that mirrors in the time of Homer were
not much used, because he mentions them on no occasion, not even where
144
he describes in so circumstantial a manner the toilet of Juno . In answer to
this, however, I have two things to observe. In the first place, it is not to be
expected that Homer should have mentioned every article with which he
was acquainted; and secondly, we are assured by Callimachus, where he
145
evidently has imitated the passage of Homer before-quoted , that neither
Juno nor Pallas employed a mirror when they dressed. Mythology therefore
did not allow the poet to introduce a mirror upon the toilet of that deity.
Polydore Vergilius, Boccace, Menard, and others have all fallen into the
146
error of making Æsculapius the inventor of mirrors, though Cicero seems
to say the same thing; but the best commentators have long since observed
very justly, that the Roman philosopher alludes not to a mirror but to a
probe, the invention of which we may allow to the father of medicine, who
was at first only a surgeon.
When one reflects upon the use made of metal mirrors, particularly at
Rome, to add to magnificence and for other purposes, and how many artists,
during many successive centuries, were employed in constructing them, and
vied to excel each other in their art, one cannot help conjecturing that this
branch of business must at those periods have been carried to a high degree
of perfection. It is therefore to be regretted that they have not been
particularly described by any writer, and that on this account the art was
entirely lost after the invention of glass mirrors, which are much more
convenient. No one at that time entertained the least suspicion that
circumstances would afterwards occur which would render these metal
mirrors again necessary, as has been the case in our days by the invention of

the telescope. Our artists then were obliged to make new experiments in
order to discover the best mixture for mirrors of metal; and this should be a
warning to mankind, never to suffer arts which have been once invented
and useful to become again unknown. A circumstantial description of them
should at any rate be preserved for the use of posterity, in libraries, the
archives of human knowledge.
When we compare metals in regard to their fitness for mirrors, we shall
soon perceive that the hardest of a white colour possess in the highest
degree the necessary lustre. For this reason platina is preferable to all
others, as is proved from the experiments made by the Count von
Sickengen. Steel approaches nearest to this new metal, and silver follows
steel; but gold, copper, tin and lead, are much less endowed with the
requisite property. I have however observed among the ancients no traces of
steel mirrors; and it is probable they did not make any of that metal, as it is
so liable to become tarnished, or to contract rust. An ancient steel-mirror is
indeed said to have been once found, but as some marks of silvering were
perceived on it, a question arises whether the silvered side was not properly
147
the face of the mirror . Besides, every person knows that a steel mirror
would not retain its lustre many centuries amidst ruins and rubbish.
The greater part of the ancient mirrors were made of silver, not on
account of costliness and magnificence, as many think, but because silver,
as has been said, was the fittest and the most durable of all the then known
unmixed metals for that use. In the Roman code of laws, when silver plate
is mentioned, under the heads of heirship and succession by propinquity,
148 149
silver mirrors are rarely omitted; and Pliny , Seneca , and other writers,
who inveigh against luxury, tell us, ridiculing the extravagance of the age,
that every young woman in their time must have a silver mirror. These
polished silver plates may however have been very slight, for all the ancient
mirrors, preserved in collections, which I have ever seen, are only covered
with a thin coat of that expensive metal; and in the like manner our artists
have at length learned a method of making the cases of gold and silver
watches so thin and light, that every footman and soldier can wear one. At
first the finest silver only was employed for these mirrors, because it was
imagined that they could not be made of that which was standard; but
afterwards metal was used of an inferior quality. Pliny tells us so expressly,

150
and I form the same conclusion from a passage of Plautus . Philematium
having taken up a mirror, the prudent Scapha gives her a towel, and desires
her to wipe her fingers, lest her lover should suspect by the smell that she
had been receiving money. Fine silver however communicates as little smell
to the fingers as gold; but it is to be remembered that the ancients
understood much better than the moderns how to discover the fineness of
the noble metals by the smell, as many modes of proof which we use to find
out the alloy, were to them unknown. Money-changers therefore employed
151
their smell when they were desirous of trying the purity of coin . The
witty thought of Vespasian, who, when reproached on account of his tax
upon urine, desired those who did so to smell the money it produced, and to
tell him whether it had any smell of the article which was the object of it,
alludes to this circumstance. In the like manner many savage nations at
152
present can by their smell determine the purity of gold .
We are informed by Pliny, that Praxiteles, in the time of Pompey the
Great, made the first silver mirror, and that mirrors of that metal were
preferred to all others. Silver mirrors however were known long before that
period, as is proved by the passage of Plautus above-quoted. To reconcile
this contradiction, Meursius remarks that Pliny speaks only of his
countrymen, and not of the Greeks, who had such articles much earlier, and
the scene in Plautus is at Athens. This therefore seems to justify the account
of Pliny, but of what he says afterwards I can find no explanation. Hardouin
is of opinion, that mirrors, according to the newest invention, at that period,
were covered behind with a plate of gold, as our mirrors are with an
amalgam. But as the ancient plates of silver were not transparent, how
could the gold at the back part of them produce any effect in regard to the
image? May not the meaning be, that a thin plate of gold was placed at
some distance before the mirror in order to throw more light upon its
surface? But whatever may have been the case, Pliny himself seems not to
have had much confidence in the invention.
Mirrors of copper, brass and gold, I have found mentioned only by the
poets, who perhaps employed the names of these metals because they best
suited their measure, or because they wished to use uncommon expressions,
and thought a golden mirror the noblest. By the brass ones perhaps are to be
understood only such as were made of mixed copper. Did golden mirrors

occur oftener, I should be inclined to refer the epithet rather to the frame or
ornaments than to the mirror itself; for at present we say a gold watch,
though the cases only may be of that metal.
Mirrors seem for a long time to have been made of a mixture of copper
153
and tin, as is expressly said by Pliny , who adds, that the best were
constructed at Brundisium. This mixture, which was known to Aristotle,
produces a white metal, which, on account of its colour, may have been
extremely proper for the purpose, and even at present the same mixture,
according to the careful experiments made by Mr. Mudge, an
154
Englishman , produces the best metal for specula. It appears that the
ancients had not determined the proportion very accurately; for Pliny
assures us twice that in his time mirrors of silver were preferred. It is indeed
not easy to ascertain the quantity of each metal that ought to be taken, and
the most advantageous degree of heat; upon which a great deal depends.
One of the principal difficulties is to cast the metal without blisters or air-
holes, and without causing any part of the tin to oxidize, which occasions
knots and cracks, and prevents it from receiving a fine polish. A passage of
155
Lucian , which no one as yet has been able to clear up, alludes certainly,
in my opinion, to these faults. A mixture of copper and tin is so brittle, that
it is very liable to crack; and a mirror formed of it, if not preserved with
great care, soon becomes so dim, that it cannot be used till it has been
previously cleaned and polished. For this reason a sponge with pounded
pumice-stone was generally suspended, from the ancient mirrors, and they
were kept likewise in a case or box, as may be seen by the greater part of
those still extant. Mirrors of silver were less subject to this inconvenience,
and I am inclined to think that the latter on this account made the former be
disused, as we are informed by Pliny.
As ancient mirrors of metal are still to be found in collections of
antiquities, it might be of some importance to the arts if chemical
experiments were made on their composition. Those who have hitherto
given us any account of them have contented themselves with describing
156
their external figure and shape. Count Caylus is the only person, as far as
I know, who caused any chemical experiments to be undertaken on this
subject. They were made on a mirror found near Naples, by M. Roux, who

asserts that the composition was a mixture of copper and regulus of
antimony, with a little lead. Antimony however was not known to the
ancients. If that metal was really a component part, the mirror must have
been the work of more modern times, or it must be allowed that the artist
had metal combined with antimony without knowing it; but the latter is not
probable. The experiments made by Roux do not seem to me to have proved
in a satisfactory manner the presence of regulus of antimony; moreover, no
certain information can be derived from them, for the antiquity of the mirror
was not ascertained; nor was it known whether it ought to be reckoned
amongst the best or the worst of the period when it was made.
Those mirrors, which were so large that one could see one’s self in
them at full length, must, in all probability, have consisted of polished
plates of silver; for to cast plates of such a size of copper and tin would
have required more art than we can allow to those periods; and I do not
157
know whether our artists even now would succeed in them .
We read in various authors, that, besides metals, the ancients formed
stones into mirrors, which were likewise in use. It is undoubtedly certain
that many stones, particularly of the vitreous kind, which are opake and of a
dark colour, would answer exceedingly well for that purpose; but let the
choice have been ever so good, they would not, in this respect, have been
nearly equal to metals. These of all mineral bodies have the most perfect
opacity; and for that reason the greatest lustre: both these properties are
produced by their solidity; and hence they reflect more perfectly, and with
more regularity, the rays of light that proceed from other bodies. Our glass
mirrors, indeed, are properly metallic. Stones, on the other hand, have at
any rate some, though often hardly perceptible, transparency; so that many
of the rays of light are absorbed, or at least not reflected. Mention of stone
mirrors occurs also so seldom in the ancients, that we may conclude they
were made rather for ornament than real utility. In general, we find accounts
only of polished plates or panels of stone, fixed in the walls of wainscoted
apartments, which were celebrated on account of their property of
reflection.
158
Pliny praises in this respect the obsidian stone, or, as it is now called,
the Icelandic agate. Everything that he says of it will be perfectly
intelligible to those who are acquainted with this species of stone or

vitrified lava. The image reflected from a box made of it, which I have in
my possession, is like a shadow or silhouette; but with this difference, that
one sees not only the contour, but also the whole figure distinctly, though
the colours are darkened. To form it into images and utensils, which Pliny
speaks of, must have been exceedingly difficult, on account of its
brittleness. I saw at Copenhagen, among other things made of it, a drinking-
cup and cover, on which the artist had been employed four years.
Domitian, when he suspected that plots were formed against him,
caused a gallery, in which he used to walk, to be lined with phengites,
159
which by its reflection showed everything that was done behind his back .
Under that appellation we are undoubtedly to understand a calcareous or
gypseous spar, or selenite, which is indeed capable of reflecting an image;
but we cannot therefore pretend to say that the ancients formed mirrors of
it; nor do I explain what Pliny says, where he speaks of the phengites, as if
160
whole buildings had been once constructed of it . That kind of stone, for
various reasons, and particularly on account of its brittleness, is altogether
unfit for such a purpose. At those periods, the windows of houses were
open, and not filled up with any transparent substance, but only covered,
sometimes by lattices or curtains. It is probable, therefore, that those
openings of the walls of the building mentioned by Pliny, where the
windows used to be, were filled up with phengites, which, by admitting a
faint light, prevented the place from being dark even when the doors were
shut; so that Pliny might say, “It appeared as if the light did not fall into the
building, but as if it were inclosed in it.”
I might be accused of omission did I not here mention also a passage of
161
Pliny , where he seems to speak of a mirror made of an emerald, which
Nero used to assist him to see the combats of the gladiators. Cary asserts
that Nero was short-sighted, and that his emerald was formed like a concave
162
lens. The former is expressly said by Pliny , but the latter, though by Abat
163
considered not improbable , I can scarcely allow myself to believe,
because such an interpretation of Pliny’s words is too forced, and because
they can be explained much better in another manner. As no mention of
such an excellent help to short-sighted people is to be found in any other
ancient author, we must allow, if Cary’s opinion be adopted, that this

property of the concave emerald was casually remarked, and that no
experiments were made to cut any other natural or artificial glass in the
same form for the like use, because people imagined that this property was
peculiar to the emerald alone, which was then commonly supposed to be
endowed with the power of greatly strengthening the eye-sight. Much more
probable to me is the explanation of an Italian, which Abat also does not
entirely reject, that the emerald had a smooth polished surface, and served
164
Nero as a mirror ; and the passage of Pliny alluded to seems to have been
165
thus understood by Isidore and Marbodæus. It may here be objected, that
real emeralds are too small to admit of being used as mirrors; but the
ancients speak of some sufficiently large for that purpose, and also of
166
artificial ones ; so that we may with certainty conclude, that they classed
among the emeralds fluor-spar green vitrified lava, or the green Icelandic
agate as it is called, green jasper, and also green glass. The piece of green
glass in the monastery of Reichenau, which is seven inches in length, three
inches in thickness, and weighs twenty-eight pounds three-quarters; and the
167
large cup at Genoa, which is however full of flaws , have been given out
to be emeralds even to the present time.
168
Mirrors were made also of rubies, as we are assured by Pliny , who
refers to Theophrastus for his authority; but this precious stone is never
found now of such a size as to render this use possible; and Gary and the
anonymous Italian before-mentioned have proved very properly that Pliny
has committed a gross mistake, which has not been observed by Hardouin.
169
Theophrastus, in the passage alluded to , does not speak of a ruby, but of
the well-known black marble of Chio, though he calls both carbunculus, a
name given to the ruby on account of its likeness to a burning coal, and to
the black marble on account of its likeness to a quenched coal or cinder;
and the latter, as well as the obsidian stone, was used sometimes for
mirrors.
The account how mirrors were formed by the native Americans, before
they had the misfortune to become acquainted with the Europeans, is of
considerable importance in the history of this art. These people had indeed
mirrors which the Europeans could not help admiring. Some of them were

made of black, somewhat transparent, vitrified lava, called by the Spaniards
gallinazo, and which is of the same kind as the obsidian stone employed by
the Romans for the like purpose. Of this substance the Americans had
plane, concave, and convex mirrors. They had others also made of a mineral
170
called the Inca’s stone , which, as has been already said by Bomare, Sage,
Wallerius, and other mineralogists, was a compact pyrites or marcasite,
susceptible of a fine polish; and on that account often brought to Europe,
and worn formerly in rings under the name of the stone of health. Ulloa
says the Inca’s stone is brittle, opake, and of a somewhat bluish colour; it
has often veins which cannot be polished, and where these veins are it
frequently breaks. The mirrors formed of it, which he saw, were from two to
three inches in diameter; but he saw one which was a foot and a half. The
opinion which some have entertained, that these mirrors were cast, has no
other foundation than the likeness of polished marcasite to cast brass. This
mineral is very proper for reflecting images; and I am inclined to think that
the Peruvians had better mirrors than the Greeks or the Romans, among
whom we find no traces of marcasite being employed in that manner. It
appears, however, that the Indians had mirrors also of silver, copper, and
171
brass .
I come now to the question in what century were invented our glass
mirrors, which consist of a glass plate covered at the back with a thin leaf of
metal. This question has been answered by some with so much confidence,
that one might almost consider the point to be determined; but instead of
real proofs, we find only conjectures or probabilities; and I must here
remark, that I cannot help thinking that they are older than has hitherto been
supposed, however desirous I may be to separate historical truth from
conjecture. When I have brought together everything which I know on the
subject, I would say, that attempts were even made at Sidon to form mirrors
of glass; but that they must have been inferior to those of metal, because
they did not banish the use of the latter. The first glass mirrors appear to me
to have been of black-coloured glass, or an imitation of the obsidian stone;
and to have been formed afterwards of a glass plate with some black foil
172
placed behind it . At a much later period, blown glass, while hot, was
covered in the inside with lead or some metallic mixture; and still later, and,
as appears, first at Murano, artists began to cover plates of glass with an

amalgam of tin and quicksilver. The newest improvements are, the casting
of glass-plates, and the art of making plates equally large by blowing and
stretching, without the expensive and uncertain process which is required
for casting.
That glass mirrors were made at the celebrated glass-houses of Sidon,
173
is mentioned so clearly by Pliny that it cannot be doubted . When I read
the passage, however, without prejudice, without taking into consideration
what others have said on it, and compare it with what certain information
the ancients, in my opinion, give on the same subject, I can understand it no
otherwise than as if the author said, that the art of manufacturing glass
various ways was invented, principally, at Sidon, where attempts had been
made to form mirrors of it. He appears therefore to allude to experiments
which had not completely succeeded; and to say that such attempts, at the
time when he wrote, had been entirely abandoned and were almost
forgotten. Had this circumstance formed an epoch in the art, Pliny, in
another place, where he describes the various improvements of it so fully,
would not have omitted it; but of those experiments he makes no further
174
mention . All the inventions which he speaks of, evidently relate to metal
mirrors only, of which the silver, at that time, were the newest. Had the
Sidonian mirrors consisted of glass plates covered at the back, those of
metal, the making of which was, at any rate, attended with no less trouble,
which were more inconvenient for use on account of their aptness to break,
their requiring to be frequently cleaned and preserved in a case, and which
were more unpleasant on account of the faint, dull image which they
reflected, could not possibly have continued so long in use as they really
did; and circumstances and expressions relative to glass mirrors must
certainly have occurred. Though glass continued long to be held in high
estimation, particularly at Rome; and though many kinds of glass-ware are
mentioned in ancient authors, among costly pieces of furniture, mirrors are
mentioned only among articles of silver plate. I am acquainted with no
certain trace of glass mirrors from the time of Pliny to the thirteenth
century; but after that period, at which they are spoken of in the clearest
manner, we find them often mentioned in every century; and mirrors of
metal at length entirely disappear.

How the Sidonian mirrors were made, is not known; but if I may be
allowed a conjecture, I am of opinion that they consisted of dark-coloured
glass, which had a resemblance to the obsidian stone. Such is the usual
progress of inventions. At those periods one had no other representation of
glass mirrors than that afforded by natural glass or vitreous stones. When
artists wished to make mirrors of glass, they would try to imitate the latter.
After the invention of printing, people endeavoured to render printed books
as like as possible to manuscripts; because they imagined that this invention
was to be approved only so far as it enabled them to imitate these, without
observing that it could far excel the art of writing. But the Sidonian glass
mirrors were so much surpassed by the silver or brass ones, which perhaps
were invented about the same time, that on this account they were never
brought into use. Glass mirrors, perhaps, would have been invented sooner,
had mankind employed at an earlier period glass-windows, which often,
when they are shut on the outside so that no light can pass through them,
reflect images in a much better manner than the best mirrors of metal. This
observation, which may be made daily, would then, in all probability, have
been sooner turned to advantage.
No one has employed a greater profusion of words to maintain an
opinion opposite to mine, than Abat; but when his proofs are divested of
their ornaments, they appear so weak that one has very little inclination to
agree with him. “The observation,” says he, “that a plate of glass is the best
mirror, when all other rays of light, except those reflected back from the
glass, are prevented, by a metallic covering placed behind it, from falling on
the eye, is so easy, that it must have been made immediately after the
invention of glass.” Who does not think here of Columbus and his egg?
Instances occur in history of many having approached so near an invention,
that we are astonished how they could have missed it; so that we may
175
exclaim with a certain emperor, “Taurum toties non ferire difficile est .”
“The Sidonian invention,” continues he, “would not have been worth
mentioning, had it not produced better mirrors than those which the
ancients had before of the obsidian stone. But these even are mentioned
only once, in so short and abrupt a manner, and as it were out of ridicule,
that one may easily perceive they were not much esteemed.” “If the
Sidonians,” adds he, “were not the inventors, let some other inventor be
mentioned;” and he assures us that he had sought information on this

subject, in Neri, Kunkel, and Merret, but without success. That I believe;
but Abat does not remark that by the same manner of reasoning we may
ascribe to the Sidonians the invention of watches, and many other articles,
the inventors of which are not to be found in books where they ought as
much to be expected as the inventor of glass in Neri. The grounds on which
many old commentators of the Bible, Nicholas de Lyra and others, have
supposed that glass mirrors were known so early as the time of Moses, are
still weaker. If quoting the names of writers who entertain a like opinion be
of any weight, I could produce a much greater number of learned men, who,
after an express examination of the question, deny altogether that glass
mirrors were used by the ancients.
176
Dr. Watson also has endeavoured to support the opinion of Abat, but
with less confidence and with more critical acumen. His grounds, I think, I
have weakened already; but one observation here deserves not to be
overlooked, because it suggests an idea that may serve to illustrate a
passage of Pliny, which, as I before remarked, has never yet been explained.
“If we admit,” says he, “that Pliny was acquainted with glass mirrors, we
may thus understand what he says respecting an invention, which was then
new, of applying gold behind a mirror.” Instead of an amalgam of tin, some
one had proposed to cover the back of the mirror with an amalgam of gold,
with which the ancients were certainly acquainted, and which they
177
employed in gilding . He mentions, also, on this occasion, that a thought
had once occurred to Buffon, that an amalgam of gold might be much better
178
for mirrors than that used at present . This conjecture appears, at any rate,
to be ingenious; but when I read the passage again, without prejudice, I can
hardly believe that Pliny alludes to a plate of glass in a place where he
speaks only of metallic mirrors; and the overlaying with amalgam requires
too much art to allow me to ascribe it to such a period without sufficient
proof. I consider it more probable that some person had tried, by means of a
polished plate of gold, to collect the rays of light, and to throw them either
on the mirror or the object, in order to render the image brighter.
Professor Heeren showed me a passage in the Ecloga of Stobæus,
179
which, on the first view, seems to allude to a glass mirror . It is there said,
Philolaus the Pythagorean believed that the sun was a vitreous body, which

only received the rays of the æthereal fire and reflected them to us like a
mirror. When we compare, however, the words of Stobæus with those by
180 181 182
which Plutarch , Achilles Tatius , Eusebius , and others, express the
same thing, that meaning cannot be drawn from them. It appears, at first, as
if Philolaus had considered the sun to be transparent, and supposed that the
rays passed through it, and came condensed to our earth, in the same
manner as they are brought to a focus by a glass globe. Some commentators
have explained the passage in this manner; and on account of the affinity of
the Greek words have thought also of a funnel. In that case, however, the
comparison of the sun with a mirror would not have been just; and if it be
admitted that Philolaus considered the sun as a bright body endowed with
the property of reflection, what he says of rays passing or transmitted
through it, and of the pores of the sun’s body, will become unintelligible.
But even if we adopt the last explanation, that Philolaus imagined the sun to
183
be a mirror, it does not follow that he had any idea of a glass one ; and
besides, he only speaks of a body capable of reflecting a strong light; and
that glass, under certain circumstances, is fit for that purpose, may have
been remarked as soon as it was invented, though men might not find out
the art of forming it into proper mirrors by placing some opake substance
184
behind it . Empedocles also said, that the sun was a mirror, and that the
light received by our earth was the reflection of the æthereal fire, which
185
Eusebius compares to the reflection made by water .
In the problems ascribed to Alexander of Aphrodisias, glass mirrors,
covered on the back with tin, are clearly mentioned; but this information
does not lead us one step further in the history of the art; as it is proved that
the above Alexander, who lived in the beginning of the third century, could
not have written that work. The author, who must have been a physician,
maintains the immortality of the soul, which Alexander of Aphrodisias, with
Aristotle, denies. Some therefore have ascribed these problems to
Alexander Trallianus, who practised physic in the middle of the sixth
century; but this is only a conjecture which no one has as yet rendered
probable, especially as there have been many physicians of the name of
Alexander. The problem to which I allude is not to be found in every
manuscript and edition; so that it is doubtful whether it may not be the
production of a later author than that of the rest of the book, particularly as

it is certain that many who had it in their possession added problems of
various kinds according to their pleasure. However this may be, it is evident
that the author of this problem was acquainted with mirrors covered at the
back; and the expression which he uses does not merely imply that a leaf of
tin was placed behind the glass plate, but that the tin in a liquid state was
rubbed over it. The old French translator thinks that the author speaks of
186
windows; but that opinion is undoubtedly false .
Of as little importance as the above passage of Alexander, is another of
Isidore, often quoted in support of the antiquity of glass mirrors. On the first
view it appears to be a testimony of great weight; but when closely
examined it becomes reduced to very little. “Nothing,” says he, “is so fit for
187
mirrors as glass .” Abat and others, who have considered these words as
decisive, make less hesitation to ascribe to the sixth century, in which
Isidore lived, a knowledge of mirrors covered on the back with tin and
quicksilver, as the same writer, in another place, observes, that quicksilver
188
can be kept in no vessel but one of glass . It is very true that a glass filled
with that metal will form a very good mirror; but I am of opinion that this
may have been long known, before people thought of making an amalgam
of tin and quicksilver in order to cover the backs of mirrors. The first
passage, which is properly the one of any consequence, loses its force when
we see that it is taken from Pliny and copied incorrectly. The latter says,
that one can give to glass every kind of shape and colour, and that no
189
substance is more ductile, or fitter to be moulded into any form . Isidore,
as is usual, says the same thing, and in the same words, except, that instead
of sequacior he substitutes speculis aptior; so that the mention of a mirror is
altogether unexpected, and so little suited to what goes before and what
follows, that one must believe that this alteration, occasioned perhaps by the
similitude of the words, or by an abbreviation, was not made by Isidore, but
by some transcriber. But even if we believe that Isidore himself spoke of
glass being used at that period for mirrors, we are not able to comprehend,
from what he says, how glass mirrors were made in the sixth century.
I have met with no information respecting this subject in the whole
period between the age of Isidore and the eleventh century. About the year
1100, at least as is supposed not without probability, Alhazen the Arabian

wrote his well-known treatise on Optics, in which I conjectured that I
should find mention made of glass mirrors; but I searched that work in vain,
though I must confess I did not read it through entirely. Where he begins his
catoptrical lessons, he however often speaks of iron mirrors, by which we
may understand mirrors of the best steel. In explaining a certain
phænomenon, he says, that the cause of it cannot be in the darkness of the
iron mirror, because if a mirror of silver be used, the same effects will be
produced. Would he not on this occasion have introduced glass mirrors, had
he been as well-acquainted with them as with those already mentioned? At
first, he never speaks of mirrors without adding of iron, of silver; but he
mentions them afterwards without any epithet of the kind.
All these mirrors I find also in the Optics of Vitello, who wrote in the
middle of the thirteenth century, in Italy, a country which was at that time
190
almost the only one where the arts flourished . That author has, indeed,
borrowed a great deal from Alhazen, though there are many things of his
own, and he gives an account of some experiments on the refracting power
of glass; but he never, as far as I have observed, mentions glass mirrors.
Whether Jordanus Nemorarius, or Nemoratius, who also wrote, in the
thirteenth century, a book De Speculorum Natura, makes mention of them, I
do not know, because I have never had an opportunity of seeing that work. I
am of opinion it was never printed.
It is in the thirteenth century, that I find the first undoubted mention of
glass mirrors covered at the back with tin or lead. Johannes Peckham, or
Peccam, an English Franciscan monk, who taught at Oxford, Paris, and
Rome, and who died in 1292, wrote about the year 1279 a treatise of optics,
which was once printed, with the title of Johannis Pisani Perspectiva
191
Communis . In this work, besides mirrors made of iron, steel, and
polished marble, the author not only speaks often of glass mirrors, but says
also that they were covered on the back with lead, and that no image was
192
reflected when the lead was scraped off. Vincentius Bellovacensis speaks
in a manner still clearer, for he tells us that lead was poured over the glass
plate while hot. To the same century also belong the concurrent testimonies
193 194 195
of Raimundus Lullius , Roger Bacon , Antonius di Padua , and
196 197
Nicephorus Gregoras , who died after the year 1360 .

That this invention cannot be much older we have reason to conclude,
because glass mirrors were extremely scarce in France even in the
fourteenth century, while mirrors of metal were in common use; and we are
told that the mirror of Anne de Bretagne, consort of Louis XII., was of the
198
latter kind . Metal mirrors also were made and employed in Persia and the
East, where indeed ancient usages continued longest, and glass mirrors
were not known there till the commencement of the European trade with
these remote regions. The former are still preferred in those countries,
because they are not so liable to break, and can be preserved better in a dry
hot climate than the amalgam of the latter.
Respecting the progress of this art, I know nothing more than what
follows:—At first, melted lead, or perhaps tin, was poured over the glass
plate while yet hot as it came from the furnace. This process agrees with
that which, since very early periods, has been employed in or around
Nuremberg for making convex mirrors by blowing with the pipe into the
glass-bubble whilst still hot a metallic mixture, with a little resin or salt of
tartar, which prevents oxidation and assists the fusion. When the bubble is
covered all over in the inside, and after it has cooled, it is cut into small
round mirrors. This art is an old German invention, for it is described by
Porta and Garzoni, who both lived in the beginning of the sixteenth century,
and who both expressly say, that it was then common in Germany. Curious
foreigners often attempted to learn it, and imagined that the Germans kept it
a secret. Boyle made various experiments in order to discover the process;
and the secretary of the Royal Society endeavoured, by means of the
ambassador from Charles II., who, perhaps about 1670, resided at
Frankfort, to obtain a knowledge of it; but did not succeed, as we are told
199
by Leibnitz . It was called the art of preparing mirrors without foil; and it
was highly esteemed, because it was supposed that it might be useful to
those fond of catoptrics, by enabling them to form convex and concave
mirrors themselves. This account of Leibnitz seems to have led Von Murr
into a slight error, and induced him to believe that the art of making convex
mirrors without foil was first found out at Nuremberg in 1670. I introduce
this remark because I flatter myself he will not be displeased that I make the
above service, rendered by his native city, to be a century and a half older.
These small convex mirrors, which reflect a diminished, but a clearer image
than our usual mirrors, are perhaps made still, though they are not now

carried round so frequently for sale in Germany as they were thirty years
ago, at which time, if I remember right, they were called (Ochsen-augen)
ox-eyes. They were set in a round painted board, and had a very broad
border or margin. One of them, in my possession, is two inches and a half in
diameter. It is probable that the low price of plane mirrors, when glass-
houses began to be more numerous, occasioned these convex ones to be
little sought after. The mixture employed in making them was, according to
Porta, antimony, lead, and colophonium; but according to Garzoni, it was
una mistura di piombo, stagno, marchesita d’argento, e tartaro, which in
the German edition is translated very badly, “lead, tin, flint, silver, and
tartar.” The following observation perhaps is not altogether useless:
Colophonium, which is employed on many other occasions for soldering,
was formerly called mirror-resin, and was sold under that name even in the
beginning of the present century. Frisch assigns no reason for this
appellation, and Jacobson gives a wrong one, viz. its having a bright shining
surface when broken. The true reason was the above-mentioned use; and as
that is now very little known, it is called from that to which it is principally
applied, violin-resin.
It appears that, instead of pouring melted metal over plates of glass,
artists for some time applied to them the before-mentioned amalgam of tin,
or covered them in some other manner, perhaps in the same way as Boyle
covered concave glasses in the inside. Porta however saw almost the same
process employed at Murano as that which is still followed at present. The
tin, hammered to thin leaves, was spread out very smoothly; and quicksilver
was poured over it, and rubbed into it, either with the hand or a hare’s foot;
and when the tin was saturated it was covered with paper. The glass, wiped
exceedingly clean, was then laid above it; and while the workman pressed it
down with his left hand, he drew out very carefully with his right the paper
that lay between the tin and the glass, over which weights were afterwards
placed. This much at any rate is certain, that the method of covering with tin
200
foil was known at Murano so early as the sixteenth century , and therefore
it is much older than J. M. Hoffmann supposes. To conclude, whether this
ingenious invention belongs to the Venetians, as several later, and
particularly Italian, writers assert, I can neither prove nor contradict; but it
is well known that till about the end of the seventeenth century their mirrors
were sold all over Europe and in both the Indies. After that period the glass-

houses in other countries were improved, and new ones established; and the
discovery made in France, that glass, like metal, could be cast into much
larger plates than had been before prepared by blowing and rolling, was in
more than one respect prejudicial to the sale of those made at Venice.
So early as the year 1634, attempts were made in France to establish
glass-houses for manufacturing mirrors, and Eustache Grandmont obtained
a patent for that purpose; but his undertaking was not attended with success.
As Colbert exerted himself very much to promote manufactures of every
kind, Nicholas de Noyer proposed to make mirrors according to the
Venetian method. This plan was adopted by Charles Rivière, sieur du Freni,
valet-de-chambre to the king; and having procured the royal permission, he
sold it afterwards for a large sum to De Noyer, who, in 1665, received a
confirmation of the patent, and an advance of 12,000 livres for four years,
on condition of his procuring workmen from Venice, who, after serving
eight years in the kingdom, were to be naturalized. De Noyer was joined by
several more, who entered into partnership with him, and particularly by
one Poquelin, who had hitherto carried on the greatest trade in Venetian
mirrors, and who engaged workmen from Murano. The glass-houses were
erected at the village of Tourlaville, near Cherbourg, in Lower Normandy.
After the death of Colbert, who was succeeded by Louvois, the charter of
the company was in 1684 renewed for thirty years longer, and at that period
Pierre de Bagneux was at the head of it.
Scarcely had five years of this period elapsed, when, in 1688, Abraham
Thevart made a proposal to the court for casting glass mirrors of a much
larger size than any ever before made. This plan, after an accurate
investigation, was approved; and in the same year he received the royal
permission to use his invention for thirty years, but it was not registered till
1693 or 1694. The first plates were cast at Paris, and astonished every artist
who saw them. They were eighty-four inches in height, and fifty in breadth.
In order to lessen the excessive expense, the glass-houses were erected at
St. Gobin, in Picardy; and to prevent all dispute with the old privileged
company, Thevart was expressly bound to make plates at least sixty inches
in length and forty in breadth, whereas the largest of those made before had
never exceeded forty-five or fifty inches in length. On the other hand, the
old company were allowed to make plates of a smaller size, and were
prohibited from employing any of the instruments or apparatus invented by

Thevart. These however had not been so accurately defined as to remove all
cause of litigation between the companies, and for that reason permission
was at length granted, in 1695, for both to be united into one, under the
inspection of François Plastrier, to whom the king, in 1699, sold the palace
of St. Gobin. After this they declined so rapidly, that in 1701 they were not
able to pay their debts, and were obliged to abandon several of the furnaces.
To add to their misfortune, some of the workmen whom they had
discharged retired to other countries, which were already jealous of the
French invention, and wished to turn it to their advantage. The French
writers assert that their attempts never succeeded, and that most of the
workmen returned again to France, when a new company was formed in
1702, under the management of Antoine d’Agincourt, who by prudent
œconomy improved the establishment, so as to render the profit very
considerable. At present mirrors are cast as well as blown, both at St. Gobin
and at Cherbourg; and in 1758 the price of them was greatly reduced, in
order probably to weaken the competition of the foreign glass-houses,
among which there are many not inferior to the French.
This short history of the glass manufactories in France is collected from
201 202
Savary and Expilly . A more particular account perhaps may be
expected of the inventor, of his first experiments, and of their success; but
notwithstanding a strict search, I have not been able to find any further
information on the subject. We are told only that his name was sieur
Abraham Thevart, though the historians who record that circumstance have
filled their pages with uninteresting anecdotes, and even with the vices of
many of the courtiers of the same period.
The principal benefit which has arisen to the art from this invention,
properly is, that much larger mirrors can be obtained than formerly; for
when attempts were made to blow very large plates, they were always too
203
thin. Casting, however, besides great expense in apparatus , requires so
many expert workmen, and so tedious and severe labour, and is
accompanied with so much danger, that it is only seldom that plates of an
extraordinary size succeed, and the greater part of them must be cut into
smaller plates which might have been blown. Those cast are never so even
and smooth as those that have been blown; they require therefore a great
deal of polishing, and on that account must be very thick. The monstrous

mass requisite for a mirror of the largest size, stands ready melted in a very
frail red-hot earthen pot, which is taken from the furnace and placed upon
an iron plate, strongly heated, that the mass may be cast upon it into a glass
plate. The latter must then be speedily conveyed to the cooling-furnace, and
if it be found free from faults, it is ground, polished and silvered; but the
last part of the process is generally done at the place where a purchaser can
be found for so expensive an article, in order that less loss may be sustained
in case it should happen to break by the way.
These great difficulties, which have excited the astonishment of every
one who has seen the process, and that of finding sale for so expensive and
magnificent wares, have obliged artists to return to the old method of
blowing; and many have been so fortunate in improving this branch of
manufacture, that plates are formed now by blowing, sixty-four Flemish
inches in height and twenty-three in breadth, which it was impossible to
make before but by casting.
The mass of matter necessary for this purpose, weighing more than a
hundred pounds, is by the workman blown into the shape of a large bag; it
is then reduced to the form of a cylinder, and being cut up, is, by stretching,
rolling it with a smooth iron, and other means, transformed into an even
plane.
[All but the very commonest mirrors are now made of plate-glass;
which is also used to a great extent for window-panes, and is manufactured
by casting, rolling and polishing. The enormous plates of glass which are
seen in many of the large shops of this city are well-calculated to excite the
astonishment of those who are not yet aware of the late improvements in
this branch of manufacture. An idea of what may be accomplished by
blowing was given in 1845, at the Exhibition at Vienna, where a blown
glass 7 feet in length and 3½ in breadth was exhibited; and which was of
sufficient thickness to admit of polishing. Nevertheless, the casting of plate-
glass is now managed with such comparative ease, that there appears to be
no limit to the size to which the plates can be brought, so that the blowing
of large panes of glass is given up in this country. Private houses may now
be seen decorated with single sheets of glass upwards of 20 feet in height
and 10 in width.

A patent for a very ingenious process for silvering glass was taken out
in November 1843 by Mr. Drayton. It consists in depositing silver, from a
solution, upon glass, by deoxidizing the oxide of silver in solution, so that
the precipitate will adhere to the glass, without the latter having been coated
with metallic or other substances. This is effected by mixing 1 oz. of
coarsely powdered nitrate of silver with ½ oz. of spirits of hartshorn and 2
oz. of water; after standing for 24 hours, the mixture is filtered (the deposit
on the filter, which contains silver, being preserved), and an addition is
made thereto of 3 oz. of spirit (by preference, spirit of wine) at 60° above
proof, or naphtha; from 20 to 30 drops of oil of cassia are then added, and
after remaining for about 6 hours longer, the solution is ready for use. The
glass to be silvered must have a clean and polished surface; it is to be
placed in a horizontal position, and a wall of putty formed around it, so that
the solution may cover the surface of the glass to the depth of from ⅛th to
¼th of an inch. After the solution has been poured on the glass, from 6 to 12
drops of a mixture of oil of cloves and spirit of wine (in the proportion of 1
part by measure of the oil to 3 of spirit of wine) are dropped into it at
different places; or the diluted oil of cloves may be mixed with the solution
before it is poured upon the glass; the more oil of cloves used, the more
rapid will be the deposition of the silver, but the patentee prefers that it
should occupy about two hours. When the required deposit has been
obtained, the solution is poured off; and as soon as the silver on the glass is
perfectly dry, it is varnished with a composition, formed by melting
together equal quantities of bees’ wax and tallow. The patentee states that,
by experiment, he has ascertained that about 18 grs. of nitrate of silver are
used for each square foot of glass.
It has been urged as an objection to this process, that in the course of a
few weeks the surfaces of the mirrors formed by it become dotted over with
small brownish-red spots, which greatly injures their appearance. Dr.
Stenhouse states that these spots are caused by the metallic silver, whilst
being deposited on the surface of the glass, carrying down with it
mechanically small quantities of a resinous matter, resulting most probably
from the oxidation of the oil. This subsequently acts upon the metallic
surface with which it is in contact, and produces the small brown spots
already mentioned. Mr. Drayton, however, states that the brown spots only
occur when the oil employed is old and unfit for use.]

FOOTNOTES
135
The works in which this subject has been already treated are the
following:—Eberhartus de Weihe, de Speculi origine, usu et abusu.
A compilation formed without taste, of which I gave some account
in the Article on Chimneys.—Spanhemii Obs. in Callimachi hymn.
lavacr. Palladis, p. 615.—Académie des Inscriptions, t. xxiii. p.
140.—Recherches sur les Miroirs des Anciens, par Menard. A
short paper, barren of information.—Saggi di Dissertazioni Accad.
dell’ Accad. Etrusca dell’ città di Cortona, vii. p. 19: Sopra gli
Specchi degli Antichi, del Sig. Cari. A translation from the French,
with the figures of some ancient mirrors. It contains an explanation
of some passages in Pliny, where he seems to speak of a mirror
formed of a ruby, and some conjectures respecting the mirror of
Nero. An anonymous member of the Academy, in an appendix,
confirms the former, and considers the latter, very properly, as
improbable.—Caylus, Recueil d’Antiquités, iii. p. 331, and v. p.
173. A description and figures of ancient mirrors, with some
chemical experiments on their composition.—Amusemens
Philosophiques. Par le père Bonaventure Abat. Amst. 1763, 8vo, p.
433: Sur l’Antiquité des Mirroirs de Verre. A dissertation worthy
of being read on account of the author’s acquaintance with the
ancient writers, and his knowledge of technology; but he roves
beyond all proof, and employs too much verbosity to decorate his
conjectures.
136
Passages of the poets, where female deities and shepherdesses are
represented as contemplating themselves in water instead of a
mirror, may be found in the notes to Phædri Fab. i. 4, in the edition
of Burmann.
137
Chap. xxxvii. ver. 18.
138
Exodus, chap. xxxviii. ver. 8.

139
Historia Vitri apud Judæos, in Comment. Societat. Scient. Gotting.
iv. p. 330. Having requested Professor Tychsen’s opinion on this
subject, I received the following answer:—“You have conjectured
very properly that the mirrors of the Israelitish women, mentioned
Exod. xxxviii. 8, were not employed for ornamenting or covering
the washing-basins, in order that the priests might behold
themselves in them; but that they were melted and basins cast of
them. The former was a conceit first advanced, if I am not
mistaken, by Nicol. de Lyra, in the fourteenth century, and which
Michaelis himself adopted in the year 1754; but he afterwards
retracted his opinion when he made his translation of the Old
Testament at a riper age. In the Hebrew expression there is no
ground for it; and mirrors could hardly be placed very
conveniently in a basin employed for washing the feet. I must at
the same time confess that the word (‫ )מראת‬which is here
supposed to signify a mirror, occurs nowhere else in that sense.
Another explanation therefore has been given, by which both the
women and mirrors disappear from the passage. It is by a learned
Fleming, Hermann Gid. Clement, and may be found in his
Dissertatio de Labro Æneo, Groning. 1732, and also in Ugolini
Thesaurus, tom. xix. p. 1505. He translates the passage thus: Fecit
labrum æneum et operculum ejus æneum cum figuris ornantibus,
quæ ornabant ostium tabernaculi. This explanation however is
attended with very great difficulties; and as all the old translators
and Jewish commentators have here understood mirrors; and as the
common translation is perfectly agreeable to the language and
circumstances, we ought to believe that Moses, not having copper,
melted down the mirrors of his countrywomen and converted them
into washing-basins for the priests.”
140
Oneirocrit. lib. iii. cap. 30. p. 176.
141
Joh. Sarisberiensis, i. cap. 12.
142
Plin. lib. xxxiii. cap. 9. Seneca, Quæst. Nat. i. cap. 5.

143
Vita Probi, cap. iv. p. 926: “Patinam argenteam librarum decem
specillatam.” Salmasius chooses rather to read specellatam. I am
inclined to think that this word ought to be read in Suetonius
instead of speculatum, where he speaks of an apartment which
Horace seems to have been fond of. That historian, in his Life of
Horace, says, “Ad res venereas intemperantior traditur: nam
speculato cubiculo scorta dicitur habuisse disposita, ut quocunque
respexisset, ibi ei imago coitus referretur.” Lessing, who in his
Miscellanies (Vermischten Schriften, Berlin 1784, 12mo, iii. p.
205) endeavours to vindicate the poet from this aspersion,
considers the expression speculatum cubiculum, if translated an
apartment lined with mirrors, as contrary to the Latin idiom, and
thinks therefore that the whole passage is a forgery. Baxter also
before said that this anecdote had been inserted by some malicious
impostor. This I will not venture to contradict, but I am of opinion
that specillatum or specellatum cubiculum is at any rate as much
agreeable to the Roman idiom as patina specillata. This expression
Salmasius and Casaubon have justified by similar phrases, such as
opera filicata, tesselata, hederata, &c. The chamber in which
Claudian makes Venus ornament herself, and be overcome by the
persuasion of Cupid, was also covered over with mirrors, so that
whichever way her eyes turned, she could see her own image. Did
Claudian imagine that this goddess knew how to employ such an
apartment, not only for dressing, but even after she was undressed,
as well as Horace? I have seen at a certain court, a bed entirely
covered in the inside with mirrors.
144
Iliad. lib. xiv. ver. 166.
145
Hymnus in Lavacrum Palladis, v. 15, 21. It was however
customary to ascribe a mirror to Juno, as Spanheim on this passage
proves; and Athanasius, in Orat. contra Gentes, cap. xviii. p. 18,
says that she was considered as the inventress of dress and all
ornaments. Should not therefore the mirror, the principal
instrument of dress, belong to her? May it not have been denied to
her by Callimachus, because he did not find it mentioned in the
description which Homer has given of her dressing-room?

146
De Natur. Deorum, iii. 22.
147
Licetus de Lucernis Antiq. lib. vi. cap. 92.
148
Lib. xxxiv. cap. 17, p. 669.
149
Quæst. Nat. at the end of the first book.
150
Mostell. act i. sc. 3. v. 101.
151
Arrianus in Epictet. i. cap. 20, p. 79.
152
Among the remaining passages of the ancients with which I am
acquainted, in which mention is made of silver mirrors, the
following deserves notice. Chrysostom, Serm. xvii. p. 224, who, in
drawing a picture of the extravagance of the women, says, “The
maid-servants must be continually importuning the silversmith to
know whether their lady’s mirror be yet ready.” The best mirrors
therefore were made by the silversmiths. It appears that the mirror-
makers at Rome formed a particular company; at least Muratori, in
Thesaur. Inscript. Clas. vii. p. 529, has made known an inscription
in which collegium speculariorum is mentioned. They occur also
in Codex Theodos. xiii. tit. 4, 2. p. 57, where Ritter has quoted
more passages in which they may be found. But perhaps the same
name was given to those who covered walls with polished stones,
and in latter times to glaziers.
153
Lib. xxxiii. c. 9. p. 627, and lib. xxxiv. c. 17, p. 669.
154
Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxvii. p. 296.
155
Quomodo Historia sit conscrib. cap. 51, Bipont edition, iv. p. 210,
535. Commentators have found no other way to explain κέντρον (a
word which occurs in Lucian’s description of the mirror), than by
the word centre, to which, according to their own account, there
can be here no allusion. In my opinion κέντρον signifies those
faulty places which are not capable of a complete polish, on
account of the knots or cracks which are found in them. Lucian

therefore speaks of a faultless mirror which represents the image
perfect, as he afterwards informs us.
156
As the account of these experiments is given only in an expensive
work, which may not often fall into the hands of those who are
best able to examine it, I insert it here. “The ancient mirror, which
I examined, was a metallic mixture, very tender and brittle, and of
a whitish colour inclining to grey. When put into the fire, it
remained a long time in a state of ignition before it melted. It was
neither inflammable nor emitted any smell like garlic, which
would have been the case had it contained arsenic. It did not either
produce those flowers which are generally produced by all
mixtures in which there is zinc. Besides, the basis of this mixture
being copper, it would have been of a yellow colour had that semi-
metal formed a part of it. I took two drams of it and dissolved them
in the nitrous acid. A solution was speedily formed, which
assumed the same colour as solutions of copper. It precipitated a
white powder, which I carefully edulcorated and dried. Having put
it into a crucible with a reductive flux, I obtained lead very soft
and malleable.
“Having filtered the solution, I took a part of it, upon which I
poured an infusion of gall-nuts, but it produced no change. A
solution of gold, which I poured upon another part, made it assume
a beautiful green colour; but no precipitate was formed: which is
sufficient to prove that there was neither iron nor tin in the
mixture.
“On the remaining part of the solution I poured a sufficient
quantity of the volatile alkali to dissolve all the copper that might
be contained in it. The solution became of a beautiful sapphire blue
colour, and a white precipitate was formed. Having decanted the
liquor, and carefully edulcorated the precipitate, I endeavoured to
reduce it; but whether it was owing to the quantity being too small,
or to my not giving it sufficient heat, I could not succeed. I had
recourse therefore to another method.
“I took the weight of two drams of the mixture, which I brought
to a high state of ignition in a cuppel. When it was of a whitish-red

colour, I threw upon it gradually four drams of sulphur, and when
the flame ceased, I strengthened the fire in order to bring it to
complete fusion. By these means I obtained a tender brittle
regulus, whiter than the mixture, in which I observed a few small
needles. Being apprehensive that some copper might still remain, I
sulphurated it a second time, and then obtained a small regulus
which was almost pure antimony.
“It results from these experiments, that the metal of which the
ancients made their mirrors was a composition of copper, regulus
of antimony, and lead. Copper was the predominant, and lead the
smallest part of the mixture; but it is very difficult, as is well
known, to determine with any certainty the exact proportion of the
substances contained in such compositions.”
[In the examination of an Etruscan mirror, which was placed in
my hands for analysis by Professor Gerhardt of Berlin, it was
found to consist, in 100 parts, of 67·12 copper, 24·93 tin, and 8·13
lead, approximating closely to an alloy of eight parts of copper to
three of tin and one of lead. The oxide of tin obtained in the course
of analysis was carefully examined, before the blowpipe, for
antimony, but I did not succeed in detecting a trace of that metal. A
similar mirror had been likewise analysed by Klaproth; he found
62 per cent. copper, 32 tin, and 6 per cent. lead, but no trace of
antimony.—W. F.]
157
Of such large mirrors Seneca speaks in his Quæst. Nat. lib. i. Of
the like kind was the mirror of Demosthenes mentioned by
Plutarch, Lucian, and Quintilian.—Institut. Orat. xi. 3, 68, p. 572.
158
Lib. xxxvi. c. 26, p. 758.
159
Sueton. in Vita Domit. cap. xiv. p. 334.
160
Lib. xxxvi. 22, p. 752.—“Cappadociæ lapis, duritia marmoris,
candidus atque translucidus, ex quo quondam templum
constructum est a quodam rege, foribus aureis, quibus clausis
claritas diurna erat.”—Isidor. Origin. 16, 4. Our spar is transparent,
though clouds and veins occur in it, like the violet and isabella-

coloured, for example, of that found at Andreasberg. Compare this
explanation with what Salmasius says in Exercitat. Plin. p. 184.
161
Lib. xxxvii. cap. 5, p. 774.
162
Lib. xi. cap. 37, p. 617.
163
This dissertation of Abat may be found translated in Neuen
Hamburg. Magazin. i. p. 568.
164
Academia di Cortona, vii. p. 34.
165
Origin. xvi. 7.
166
Goguet, ii. p. 111. Fabricii Biblioth. Græca. vol. i. p. 70.
167
Keyssler, i. pp. 17 and 441.
168
Lib. xxxvii. cap. 7.
169
De Lapid. § 61.
170
[This stone acquired its name from its being much used in
ornaments by the Incas or Princes of Peru.]
171
De la Vega, ii. 28.
172
Montamy in Abhandlung von den Farben zum Porzellan, Leipzig,
1767, 8vo, p. 222, asserts that he saw, in a collection of antiquities,
glass mirrors which were covered behind only with a black foil.
173
Lib. xxxvi. cap. 26, p. 758.
174
Lib. xxxiii. cap. 9, p. 627.
175
Trebell. Pollio, Vita Gallien. cap. 12.
176
Chemical Essays, vol. iv. p. 246.

177
Plin. lib. xxxiii.: Æs inaurari argento vivo, aut certe hydrargyro,
legitimum erat. The first name here seems to signify native
quicksilver, and the second that separated from the ore by an
artificial process.
178
Hist. Nat. Supplem. i. p. 451.
179
Stob. Eclog. Antv. 1575, fol. p. 56.
180
De Placitis Philos. ii. cap. 20.
181
In Aratum, cap. 19.
182
Lib. i. cap. 8.
183
It is undoubtedly certain, that ὕαλος, which is translated vitreous or
glassy, means any smooth polished body capable of reflecting rays
of light. Originally it signified a watery body; and because watery
bodies have a lustre, it was at length used for glass. See Salmas. ad
Solin. p. 771.
184
More observations respecting the opinion of Philolaus may be
found in the edition of Plutarch’s work De Placitis Philosophorum
by Ed. Corsinus, Flor. 1750, 4to, p. 61, and p. 23.
185
Professor Heeren having given me his opinion on this passage of
Stobæus, I shall here insert it for the satisfaction of the learned
reader. The critics, says he, will hardly be persuaded that the words
καὶ τὸ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ πυροειδὲς κατὰ τὸ ἐσοπτροειδὲς are correct, as
they can be translated different ways. With regard to the
explanation of the matter, I build only on the plain meaning of the
words. The author tells us, that Philolaus thought the sun to be a
mirror; but we must conclude that he speaks of a mirror such as
were then in use; a smooth plate of metal, and not a globe. In this
case the first explanation of a glass globe falls to the ground. This
is confirmed by Eusebius, who calls it ὑαλοειδὴς δίσκος, though it
is possible that the latter word may be a gloss added by some

grammarian, or by Eusebius himself. If we enter further into the
explanation, we must adopt the plain idea, that the rays of the sun
fall upon this plate, and are reflected to us. I am however of
opinion, that ὕαλος ought to be translated glass, ὑαλοειδὴς glassy
or vitreous; for the intention of Philolaus evidently was to define
the substance of the sun’s body. The result of the whole is,
Philolaus considered the sun as a plain plate of glass which
reflected the rays or brightness of the æthereal fire. But that he was
acquainted with a proper glass mirror does not thence follow with
certainty.
186
Pourquoy reluient les fenestres de verre si fort? Pourtant que la
nature de l’estain, duquel elles sont basties par dedans, fort clere,
meslée avec le verre cler aussi de lui mesme reluyst d’avantage; et
le quel estain outrepassant ses raïons par les petits pores du verre,
et augmentant doublement la face extérieure du dit verre, la rend
grandement clere.—Problemes d’Alexandre Aphrod., traduit par
M. Herret. Paris 1555, 8vo, p. 50.
187
Origin. lib. xvi. 15, p. 394.
188
Origin. lib. xvi. 18, p. 396.
189
Lib. xxxvi. cap. 26, p. 759.
190
Bayle, Diction. Histor. vol. iv. p. 462.
191
Printed at Leipzig, 1504, in small folio. There is an edition also
printed at Cologne in 1624, and Fabricius quotes a Venetian
edition. Pisanus seems to have been a by-name given by some one
to Peckham.
192
Specul. Natur. ii. 78, p. 129.
193
Ars Magna, cap. lxvii. p. 517, in Lullii Opera. Argent. 1607, 8vo.
194
Opus Majus, ed. Jebb. Lond. 1733, fol. p. 346.

195
Franc. Assisiatis et Ant. Paduani Opera. Lugd. 1653, fol.
196
Nicephori Schol. in Synesium, in Synesii Op. Par. 1612, fol. p.
419.
197
In the collection of antiquities at St. Denis, an ancient mirror was
shown, which was said to have belonged to Virgil. It was oval, and
before Mabillon let it fall, was fourteen inches in length and
twelve in breadth, and weighed thirty pounds. It is transparent, and
of a brownish-yellow colour. According to experiments made on
purpose, it was found to consist of artificial glass, mixed with a
considerable portion of lead; and as it had been preserved in the
above collection from the earliest periods, the practice of adding
lead to glass must be very old. But whether this mirror was
covered at the back, and how it was covered, though these are the
most important points, I find nowhere mentioned. In the collection
of the Grand Duke of Tuscany there is a piece of the same kind,
said also to have been the mirror of Virgil. See Le Veil, Kunst auf
Glas zu malen, Nurnb. 1779, 4to, p. 23, and Hist. de l’Acad. des
Sciences, 1737, p. 412.
198
Villaret, Hist. de France. Par. 1763, xi. p. 142.
199
In Miscellanea Berolinensia, i. p. 263; but nothing further is said
respecting the art, than that it was daily used in the glass-houses.
Had I an opportunity, I should make experiments of every kind in
order to discover a method of forming plane mirrors also in the
like manner.
200
Wecker, in his book De Secretis, lib. x. p. 572, seems to say, that
one must lay the saturated tin leaf so carefully on the glass plate,
that no air can settle between them. According to Garzoni, the tin
leaf is spread out on a smooth stone table, and after it has been
rubbed over with quicksilver, the glass is placed above it.
201
Tome iii. p. 87, art. Glace.

202
Dict. Géog. de la France. Amst. 1762, fol. v. pp. 415, 672.
203
A furnace for casting large glass plates, before it is fit to be set at
work, cost, it is said, 3500l. It seldom lasts above three years, and
even in that time it must be repaired every six months. It takes six
months to rebuild it, and three months to repair it. The melting-
pots are as big as large hogsheads, and contain above 200 cwt. of
metal. If one of them burst in the furnace, the loss of the matter
and time amounts to 250l.—Trans.

GLASS-CUTTING. ETCHING ON GLASS.
I do not here mean to enter into the history of engraving on stone, as
that subject has been already sufficiently illustrated by several men of
learning well acquainted with antiquities. I shall only observe, that the
ancient Greek artists formed upon glass both raised and engraved figures; as
may be seen by articles still preserved in collections, though it is probable
that many pieces of glass may have been moulded like paste; for that art
204
also is of very great antiquity . It appears likewise that they cut upon
plates of glass and hollow glass vessels all kinds of figures and ornaments,
in the same manner as names, coats of arms, flowers, landscapes, &c. are
205
cut upon drinking-glasses at present . If we can believe that learned
engraver in stone, the celebrated Natter, the ancients employed the same
206
kind of instruments for this purpose as those used by the moderns . They
undoubtedly had in like manner a wheel which moved round in a horizontal
direction above the work-table, or that machine which by writers is called a
lapidary’s wheel.
If this conjecture be true, what Pliny says respecting the various ways
of preparing glass is perfectly intelligible. It is turned, says he, by the
wheel, and engraven like silver. In my opinion we are to understand by the
first part of this sentence, that the glass was cut by the wheel, like stone,
both hollow and in relief, though it is possible that drinking-cups or vessels
207
may have been formed from the glass metal by means of the wheel also .
In the latter part of the sentence we must not imagine that Pliny alludes to
gravers like those used by silversmiths, for the comparison will not apply to
instruments or to the manner of working, which in silver and glass must be
totally different; but to the figures delineated on the former, which were
only cut out on the surface in a shallow manner; and such figures were
formed on glass by the ancient artists, as they are by our glass-cutters, by
means of a wheel.

Many, however, affirm that the art of glass-cutting, together with the
necessary instruments, was first invented in the beginning of the
seventeenth century. The inventor is said to have been Casper Lehmann,
who originally was a cutter of steel and iron; and who made an attempt,
which succeeded, of cutting crystal, and afterwards glass, in the like
manner. He was in the service of the emperor Rodolphus II., who, in the
year 1609, besides presents, conferred on him the title of lapidary and glass-
cutter to the court, and gave him a patent by which every one except
himself was forbidden to exercise this new art. He worked at Prague, where
he had an assistant named Zacharias Belzer; but George Schwanhard the
elder, one of his scholars, carried on the same business to a far greater
extent. The latter, who was a son of Hans Schwanhard, a joiner at
Rothenburg, was born in 1601; and in 1618 went to Prague to learn the art
of glass-cutting from Lehmann. By his good behaviour he so much gained
the esteem of his master, who died a bachelor in 1622, that he was left his
heir; and obtained from the emperor Rodolphus a continuation of
Lehmann’s patent. Schwanhard, however, removed to Nuremberg, where he
worked for many of the principal nobility; and by these means procured to
that city the honour of being accounted the birth-place of this new art. In the
year 1652 he worked at Prague and Ratisbon by command of the emperor
Ferdinand III., and died in 1667, leaving behind him two sons, who both
followed the occupation of the father. The elder, who had the same christian
name as the father, died so early as 1676; but the other, Henry, survived him
several years. After that period Nuremberg produced in this art more expert
masters, who, by improving the tools and devising cheaper methods of
208
employing them, brought it to a much higher degree of perfection .
That the art is of so modern date seems to be confirmed by Zahn, who
speaks of it as of a new employment carried on at that time, particularly at
Nuremberg. He describes the work-table as well as the other instruments;
and gives a figure of the whole, which he appears to have considered as the
209
first . It may be seen, however, from what I have already quoted, that this
invention does not belong entirely to the moderns; and, to deny that the
ancients were altogether unacquainted with it, would be doing them an
injustice. It was forgotten and again revived; and this is the opinion of
Caylus.

I must here remark, that before this invention there were artists, who,
with a diamond, cut or engraved figures on glass, which were everywhere
admired. Without entering, however, into the history of diamonds, which
would require more materials than I have yet been able to collect, I will
venture to assert that the ancient artists employed diamond dust for
210
polishing or cutting other kinds of stones. Pliny speaks of this in so clear
a manner that it cannot be doubted. The same thing has been repeated by
211 212 213
Solinus , Isidore , and Albertus Magnus , in a manner equally clear,
214
and Mariette considers it as fully proved; but it does not appear that the
ancients made any attempts to cut this precious stone with its own dust; I
mean to give it different faces and to render it brilliant. Whether they
engraved on it in that manner I cannot pretend to decide, as the greatest
215
artists are not agreed on the subject. Mariette denies that they did;
216 217
whereas Natter seems not to deny it altogether, and Klotz confidently
asserts it as a thing certain. But the last-mentioned author knew nothing
more of this circumstance than what he had read in the above-quoted
writers.
The question which properly belongs to my subject is, whether the
Greeks and the Romans used diamond pencils for engraving on other
stones. That many ancient artists assisted their labour by them, or gave their
work the finishing touches, seems, according to Natter, to be shown by
various antique gems. But even allowing this to have been the case (for at
any rate I dare not contradict so eminent a connoisseur), I must confess that
I have found no proofs that the ancients cut glass with a diamond. We are
however acquainted with the means employed by the old glaziers to cut
glass: they used for that purpose emery, sharp-pointed instruments of the
hardest steel, and a red-hot iron, by which they directed the rents according
to their pleasure.
The first mention of a diamond being used for writing on glass occurs
in the sixteenth century. Francis I. of France, who was fond of the arts,
sciences, and new inventions, wrote the following lines with his diamond
ring upon a pane of glass, at the castle of Chambord, in order to let Anne de
Pisseleu, duchess of Estampes, know that he was jealous:

Souvent femme varie,
Mal habil qui s’y fie.

The historian recorded this not so much on account of the admonition,
which is not new, as because it was then thought very ingenious to write
218
upon glass . About the year 1562, festoons and other ornaments, cut with
a diamond, were extremely common on Venetian glasses, which at that
period were accounted the best. George Schwanhard the elder was a great
219
master in this art ; and in more modern times, John Rost, an artist of
Augsburg, ornamented in a very curious manner with a diamond pencil,
some drinking-glasses which were purchased by the emperor Charles VI.
I now come to the art of etching on glass, which properly was the
subject of this article. As the acid which dissolves siliceous earth, and also
220
glass, was first discovered in the year 1771, by Scheele the chemist , in
fluor-spar, one might imagine that the art of engraving with it upon glass
could not be older. It has indeed been announced by many as a new
221
invention ; but it can be proved that it was discovered as early as the year
1670, by the before-mentioned artist Henry Schwanhard. We are told that
some aquafortis having fallen by accident upon his spectacles, the glass was
corroded by it; and that he thence learned to make a liquid by which he
222
could etch writing and figures upon plates of glass . How Schwanhard
prepared this liquid I find nowhere mentioned; but at present we are
acquainted with no other acid but that of fluor-spar which will corrode
every kind of glass; and it is very probable that his preparation was the
same as that known to some artists as a secret in 1721. The inventor
however employed it to a purpose different from that for which it is used at
present.
At present the glass is covered with a varnish, and those figures which
one intends to etch are traced out through it; but Schwanhard, when the
figures were formed, covered them with varnish, and then by his liquid
corroded the glass around them; so that the figures, which remained smooth
and clear, appeared when the varnish was removed, raised from a dim or
dark ground. He perhaps adopted this method in order to render his
invention different from the art known long before of cutting the figures on

the glass as if engraven. Had he been able to investigate properly what
accident presented to him, he might have enriched the arts with a discovery
which gave great reputation to a chemist a hundred years after.
I mentioned this old method of etching in relief to our ingenious
Klindworth, who possesses great dexterity in such arts, and requested him
to try it. He drew a tree with oil varnish and colours on a plate of glass,
applied the acid to the plate in the usual manner, and then removed the
varnish. By these means a bright, smooth figure was produced upon a dim
ground, which had a much better effect than those figures that are cut into
the glass. I recommend this process, because I am of opinion that it may be
brought to much greater perfection; and M. Renard, that celebrated artist of
Strasburg, whose thermometers with glass scales, in which the degrees and
numbers are etched, have met with universal approbation, was of the same
opinion, when I mentioned the method to him while he resided here,
banished from his home by the disturbances in his native country.
It is probable that Schwanhard and his scholars kept the preparation of
this liquid a secret, as the receipt for that purpose was not made known till
the year 1725, though it is possible that one older may be found in some of
those books which treat on the arts. In the above-mentioned year, Dr. John
George Weygand, from Goldingen in Courland, sent to the editor of a
periodical work a receipt which had been written out for him by Dr. Matth.
Pauli of Dresden, then deceased, who had etched, in this manner on glass,
223
arms, landscapes, and figures of various kinds . We find by it that a strong
acid of nitre was used, which certainly disengages the acid of fluor-spar,
224
though the vitriolic acid is commonly employed for that purpose . That
the Bohemian emerald or hesphorus, mentioned in the receipt, is green
fluor-spar, cannot be doubted, and will appear still more certain from the
history of this species of stone, as far as I am acquainted with it, which I
shall here insert.
In the works of the old mineralogists, fluor-spar is either not
mentioned, or is classed among their natural glasses and precious stones;
and in those of the first systematic writers it is so mingled with quartz and
calcareous and gypseous spars, that it is impossible to discover it. The old
German miners, however, distinguished it so early as the sixteenth century,
and called it fluss; because they used it to accelerate the fusion of ores that

were difficult to be reduced to that state. Agricola, who first remarked this,
changed the German name into fluor, an appellation, which, like many
others, formed by him from German words, such for example as quarzum
from quarz, spatum from spat, wismuthum, zincum, cobaltum, &c., became
afterwards common. If a passage of the ancients can be quoted that seems
to allude to fluor-spar, it is that of Theophrastus, where he says that there
are certain stones which, when added to silver, copper, and iron ores,
225
become fluid . The first systematic writer who mentioned this kind of
stone as a particular genus, was Cronstedt.
Besides being known by its metallurgic use, fluor-spar is known also
by having the colours of some precious stones, so that it may be sold, or at
least shown as such to those who are not expert judges; because the first
time when heated in the dark it shines with a bluish-green lustre. It is
possible that fluor-spar may have been among the number of that great
variety of stones which the ancients, with much astonishment, tell us shone
in the dark; though it is certain that the principal part of them were only
light-magnets, as they are called, or such as retain for a certain period the
light they have absorbed in the day-time. The observation, however, that
fluor-spar emits light after it is heated, seems to have been first made when
artificial phosphorus excited the inquiry of naturalists and chemists; and
when they began to search in their own country for stones which, in the
property of emitting light, might have a resemblance to the Bologna spar,
made known about the year 1630. It is well known that the latter is prepared
for that purpose by calcination. Stones of the like kind were sought for; and
among these fluor-spar, which is not scarce in Germany.
In my opinion, the observation was made in the year 1676; for in that
year Elsholz informed the members of the Society for investigating Nature,
that he was acquainted with a phosphorus which had its light neither from
the sun nor from fire, but which, when heated on a metal plate over glowing
coals, shone with a bluish-white lustre; so that by strewing the powder of it
over paper, one might form luminous writing. I doubt much whether this
experiment was ever tried; at least I find no further account of it in the
papers of the Society, nor in the re-publication of the above author’s first
226
dissertation, which appeared in 1681 .

As far as I know, Kirchmaier, professor at Wittenberg, was the first who
227
disclosed the secret, in the year 1679 . Both call this phosphorus the
smaragdine; because the ancients speak much of luminous emeralds, and
because green fluor-spar is often exhibited as an emerald. Kirchmaier calls
this mineral also hesperus and vesperugo; and these names have been often
given since to fluor-spar, as in the receipt before-mentioned for making a
liquid to etch on glass. Kirchmaier’s information, however, must have been
very little known; for the Jesuit Casatus, who, in 1684, wrote his Treatise on
Fire, was not acquainted with it, as he has inserted only the words of
Elsholz. This observation must have been new to Leibnitz himself, and to
the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, in 1710; for the former then mentioned
228
it to the Society as a philosophical novelty .
I shall remark, in the last place, that the manufacturing of vessels and
ornaments of every kind from solid fluor-spar was begun in Derbyshire in
229
the year 1765 . The articles formed of it are in England called spar
ornaments, and sometimes blue John. Many beautiful colours must, as is
said, be brought forward by means of fire. But the heat must be applied
with great caution; for fluor-spar, as is well known, by a strong and
particularly a sudden heating, cracks, and loses its transparency. Since
230
writing the above, I find that M. Raspe denies this bringing forward of
colours by fire.

FOOTNOTES
204
Mariette, Traité des Pierres gravées. Par. 1750, fol.
205
The two ancient glasses found at Nismes, and described in Caylus’
Recueil d’Antiquités, ii. p. 363, were probably of this sort.
206
Natter, Traité de la Méthode antique de graver en Pierres fines,
comparé avec la Méthode moderne. Lond. 1754, fol.

207
Of this kind were the calices audaces of Martial, xiv. 94, and those
cups which often broke when the artist wished to give them the
finishing touch.
208
See Sandrart’s Teutsche Akademie, vol. i. part 2, p. 345, where
there is much valuable information respecting the German artists.
Compare also Doppelmayer’s Nachricht von Nürnberg. Künstlern.
209
Oculus Artificial. iii. p. 79.
210
Lib. xxxvii.
211
Cap. 52, p. 59.
212
Origin. xvi. 8.
213
De Miner. lib. ii. 2.
214
Traité des Pierres gravées, i. pp. 90, 156.
215
Ibid. p. 156.
216
In the preface, p. 15.
217
Ueber den Nutzen d. geschnitt. Steine. Altenb. 1768, p. 42.
218
Le Veil, iii. p. 19. This anecdote however is not mentioned by
Mezeray, Castelnau, or Laboureur; and Bayle must have been
unacquainted with it, or he would have introduced it into his long
article on the Duchesse d’Estampes.
219
Doppelmayer, p. 232.
220
Abhandlungen der Schwed. Akad. xxxiii. p. 122.
221
Halle, Fortgesetzte Magie. Berlin, 1788, 8vo, i. p. 516. This author
says that the invention came from England, where it was kept very

secret; but the honour of the second invention belongs to H.
Klaproth.
222
Schwanhard, by the acuteness of his genius, proved what was
before considered as impossible, and found out a corrosive so
powerful that the hardest crystal glass, which had hitherto
withstood the force of the strongest spirits, was obliged to yield to
it, as well as metals and stones. By these means he delineated and
etched on glass, figures of men, some naked and some dressed,
and all kinds of animals, flowers, and plants, in a manner perfectly
natural; and brought them into the highest estimation.—Sandrart,
Teutsche Akademie, i. 2, p. 346.—Doppelmayer, p. 250, says,
“After 1670 he accidentally found out by the glass of his
spectacles, upon which some aquafortis had fallen, becoming quite
soft, the art of etching on glass.”
223
Breslauer Sammlung zur Natur- und Medicin-Geschichte. 1725,
January, p. 107. “Invention of a powerful acid by which figures of
every kind, according to fancy, can be etched upon glass.—When
spiritus nitri per distillationem has passed into the recipient, ply it
with a strong fire, and when well dephlegmated, pour it, as it
corrodes ordinary glass, into a Waldenburg flask; then throw into it
a pulverised green Bohemian emerald, otherwise called hesphorus
(which, when reduced to powder and heated, emits in the dark a
green light), and place it in warm sand for twenty-four hours. Take
a piece of glass well cleaned and freed from all grease by means of
a lye; put a border of wax round it, about an inch in height, and
cover it all equally over with the above acid. The longer you let it
stand the better, and at the end of some time the glass will be
corroded, and the figures, which have been traced out with sulphur
and varnish, will appear as if raised above the plane of the glass.”
This receipt has been inserted by H. Krunitz in his Œkonomische
Encyclopedie, xi. p. 678.
224
Klindworth covers the glass with the etching ground of the
engravers; but in the Annals of Chemistry for 1790, ii. p. 141, a
solution of isinglass in water, or a turpentine oil varnish, mixed

with a little white lead, is recommended. Complete instructions for
acquiring this art may be found there also.
225
De Lapidibus, sect. 19.
226
See Ephemerid. ac Nat. Cur. 1676, Dec. 1, obs. 13, p. 32; and
Elsholtii De Phosphoris Observationes, Berol. 1681, 4to.
227
G. C. Kirchmaieri De Phosphoris et Natura Lucis, necnon de Igne,
Commentatio Epistolica. Wittebergæ, 1680, 4to.
228
Miscellanea Berolin. 1710, vol. i. p. 97. The fluor-spar earth, or
phosphoric earth, as it is called, which in later times has been
found in marble quarries, and which some at present consider as an
earth saturated with phosphoric acid, is mentioned by the Swede
Hierne, in Prodromus Hist. Nat. Sueciæ. Henkel had never seen it.
229
Watson’s Chemical Essays, ii. p. 277.
230
Descriptive Catalogue of Tassie’s Engraved Gems, Lond. 1791, 2
vols. 4to, i. p. 51.

SOAP.
That the first express mention of soap occurs in Pliny and Galen, and
that the former declares it to be an invention of the Gauls, though he prefers
231
the German to the Gallic soap , has already been remarked by many.
232
Pliny says that soap was made of tallow and ashes; that the best was
made of goats’ tallow and the ashes of the beech-tree, and that there were
two kinds of it, hard and soft. The author of a work on simple medicines,
which is ascribed to Galen, but which however does not seem to have been
written by that author, and of which only a Latin translation has been
printed, speaks of soap being made by a mixture of oxen, goats’, or sheep’s
tallow, and a lye of ashes strengthened with quicklime. He says the German
soap was the purest, the fattest, and the best, and that the next in quality was
233
the Gallic . This account corresponds more exactly with the process used
in Germany at present; whereas the French use mineral alkali, and instead
of tallow, employ oil, which appears to be a later invention. Pliny in his
description does not speak of quicklime; but as he mentions a mixture of
goats’ tallow and quicklime a little before, it is probable that the use of the
latter was then known at Rome. Gallic and German soap are often
234
mentioned by later writers , as well as by the Arabians, sometimes on
account of their external use as a medicine, and sometimes on account of
their use in washing clothes. The latter purpose is that for which soap is
principally employed in modern times; but it does not seem to have been
the cause of German soap being introduced at Rome. Washing there was the
occupation of indigent scourers, who did not give themselves much trouble
concerning foreign commodities. The German soap, with which, as Pliny
tells us, the Germans coloured their hair red, was imported to Rome for the
use of the fashionable Roman ladies and their gallants. There is no doubt
that the pilæ Mattiacæ, which Martial recommends as a preventive of gray
235 236
hair ; the caustica spuma with which the Germans dyed their hair ; and

the Batavian froth or lather which the Romans employed for colouring
237
theirs , were German soap. It is probable that the Germans tinged it with
238
those plants which were sent to Rome for dyeing the hair ; and according
to the modern manner of speaking, it was more properly a kind of pomade
than soap.
It appears that the Romans at first considered hair-soap as an ointment
made from ashes; for we read in various passages of ancient authors, that
the hair was dyed by means of ashes, or an ointment made of ashes and a
certain kind of oil. It is however possible that they may have had such an
ointment, which undoubtedly would be of a saponaceous nature, before
they were acquainted with the German soap, or that they imitated the
239
German pomade with different variations .
As soap is everywhere used for washing at present, a question arises
what substitutes were employed before it was invented. Those with which I
am acquainted I shall mention and endeavour to illustrate. They are all still
used, though not in general; and they are all of a soapy nature, or at least
have the same effects as soap; so that we may say the ancients used soap
without knowing it.
Our soap is produced by a mixture of lixivious salts and tallow, by
which means the latter becomes soluble in water. The greater part of the dirt
on our linen and clothes consists of oily perspiration or grease, or dust
which that grease attracts, and which either cannot be washed out, or, but
very imperfectly, by water alone. But if warm water, to which lixivious salts
have in any manner been added, be taken, and if dirty cloth be rubbed in it,
the greasy dirt unites with the salts, becomes saponaceous, and is so far
soluble in water that it may be washed out. There are also natural juices
which are of a soapy quality, in the state in which we find them, and which
can be employed in the stead of artificial soap. Of this kind is the gall of
animals and the sap of many plants. The former being less strong in its
effects on account of its slimy nature, is used at present particularly for
coloured stuffs, the dye of which is apt to fade. As far as I know, however, it
240
was not employed by the ancients , but it is certain that in washing they
used saponaceous plants.

In the remotest periods it appears that clothes were cleaned by being
rubbed or stamped upon in water, without the addition of any substance
whatever. We are told by Homer, that Nausicaa and her attendants washed
their clothes by treading upon them with their feet in pits, into which they
241
had collected water . The epithet black, which the poet gives to the water,
might induce one to conjecture that it had been mixed with ashes, which
would convert it into a lye; but where were the ashes to be found? Had they
brought them along with them, the bard, where he before enumerates
everything that they carried with them, and even oil, would not have failed
to mention them; and such a conjecture is rendered entirely groundless by
his applying the same epithet to pure water, in other places, where nothing
242
can be supposed to have coloured it . Water, when it stands in deep pits,
reflects so few rays of light, that in a poetical sense it may very properly be
called black.
We find however mention made at later periods of ashes, and a lye of
ashes employed for washing; but I think very seldom, and I do not know
how old the use of them may be. According to Julius Pollux, konia,
mentioned by Aristophanes and Plato, was a substance used for washing;
and he says expressly, that we are to understand by it a lye of ashes. This I
mention for the sake of those, who, like me, place little confidence in the
terms of art given in dictionaries. With the above lye, oil- and wine-jars
243
were cleaned ; and it was employed also for washing the images of the
244
gods . The method of strengthening the lye by means of unslaked lime
was known, at any rate, in the time of Paulus Ægineta; but it appears that
the Romans were not acquainted with the salt itself, which is procured by
dissolving common wood-ashes in water: I mean, they did not understand
the art of producing it in a dry solid form, or of boiling potashes.
On the other hand, that fixed lixivious salt, the mineral which nature
presents in many of the southern countries, was long known and used in
washing. This was the nitrum, or, as the people of Attica pronounced it, the
245
litrum, of the ancients, as has already been remarked by others . It would
however be worth the trouble to investigate the proofs still further. By
examining them with more mineralogical and chemical knowledge than
have hitherto been employed for that purpose, they might be further

strengthened, and serve to illustrate many obscure passages. For my part, I
have neither leisure nor room here to undertake such a task, though I have
collected many observations relative to that subject. It is certain at any rate,
that the ancients employed nitrum for washing, and it is evident from the
246
testimony of various authors, that it was much used in the baths .
That the people of Egypt, in the time of Pliny, made mineral alkali also
from the ashes of some plants, we have reason to conclude, because he says
that it was necessary to put the Egyptian nitre into vessels well-corked, else
it became liquid. Natural alkali is never liable to do so, unless it be very
much burnt; and as no reason is assigned for its assuming that form, we
may believe that the Egyptian alkali was the strongly burnt ashes of those
plants which are still used in Egypt for making salt, and perhaps the same
with which the Spaniards were made acquainted by the Arabians, and which
they cultivate for making soda.
Strabo speaks of an alkaline water in Armenia, which was used by the
247
scourers for washing clothes . Of this kind also must have been the lake
248 249
Ascanius, which is mentioned by Aristotle , Antigonus Carystius , and
250
Pliny . It is worthy of remark, that the ancients made ointments of this
mineral alkali and oil, but not hard soap, though by these means they
approached nearer to the invention than the old Germans in their use of
wood-ashes; for dry solid soap can be made with more ease from the
mineral than the vegetable alkali; and when Hungarian, French, and
German soap are of equal goodness, the last does more credit to the
manufacturers because they cannot employ the mineral alkali. I shall here
observe, that this alkali was used for washing by the Hebrews, and that it
251
occurs in the sacred writings under the name of borith .
The cheapest however, and the most common article used for washing,
was the urine of men and animals. When this excrement becomes old, the
alkali disengages itself, which may be perceived by its fœtid smell; and
such alkalised urine being warmed, and employed to wash greasy clothes,
produces the same effects as the nitrum of the ancients. It is still used for
the like purpose in our cloth manufactories.

To procure a supply of it, the ancient washers and scourers placed at the
corners of the streets, vessels which they carried away after they had been
filled by the passengers, who were at liberty to use them; and the practice of
having such conveniences was certainly more decent than that of employing
the walls of churches and other buildings, which the police of Dresden
forbade some years ago, but with no effect. At Rome, that which at present
spoils and renders filthy our noblest edifices, was converted to use. When
clothes were washed, they were trod upon with the feet, as was the case in
the cloth manufactories at Leeds, Halifax, and other places of England,
where the urine was collected by servants, and sold by measure to the
manufacturers under the name of old lant. On account of the disagreeable
smell attending their employment, scourers at Rome were obliged to reside
252
either in the suburbs or in some of the unfrequented streets .
My readers here will undoubtedly call to remembrance the source of
taxation devised by the emperor Vespasian, who, as his historians tell us,
253
urinæ vectigal commentus est . It is not certainly known in what manner
this impost was regulated. Did the emperor declare that article, which was
not subterraneum rarius, to be a regale as a res derelicta, so that the
scourers were obliged to pay him what he thought a reasonable sum
proportioned to the benefit which they derived from it? Or was it imposed
only as a poll-tax? For every tax upon anything indispensably necessary to
all, is, to speak in the language of finance, the same as what is called a poll-
tax, or a tax paid by every one who has a head. The latter conjecture is the
most probable, especially as this tax continued two centuries, till the time of
Anastasius, and as we read also of vectigal pro urina jumentorum et canum,
which was exacted from every person who kept cattle. Vespasian therefore
was not fortunate in the choice of a name for his tribute, which on that
account must have been undoubtedly more detested. A poll-tax at present is
called by those who do not speak favourably of it, the Turkish-tax, because
the Turks impose it on all unbelievers. When it was introduced by Louis
XIV. in 1695, he called it la capitation.
Of plants with a saponaceous juice, the ancients, at any rate, used one
instead of soap; but it is difficult or rather impossible to define it. I shall not
therefore content myself merely with transcribing the passages where it is
mentioned, but I shall arrange whatever I can find respecting it in such a

manner, as, according to my opinion, the names of plants ought to be
explained in dictionaries.
Στρουθίον, Struthium, Latinis Herba lanaria, et Plinio etiam Radicula.

1. Est planta spinosa, Theophrastus, Plinius.
2. Grata aspectu, sed sine odore, Theophrastus, Plinius.
3. Folio oleæ, Plinius; vel papaveris Heraclei, Theophrastus.
4. Caule ferulaceo, tenui, lanuginoso, eduli, Plinius.
5. Radice magna, acri, medicinali, Plinius, Dioscorides;
spumescente, Lucian.
6. Floret æstate, Theophrastus. Plinius; sed semen nullum,
Plinius.
7. Nascitur saxosis et asperis locis, Plinius.
8. Sponte, præcipue in Asia Syriaque; trans Euphratem
laudatissima; sativa ubique, Plinius.
9. Radix conditur ad lanas lavandas, Theophrastus, Plinius,
Dioscorides, Columella, et alii.
10. Herba ovibus lac auget, Plinius.

The above is all that the ancients have told us respecting this plant. The
information is indeed very scanty, and at the same time it is not altogether
certain; but even if it were, it would be sufficient only to confute some
conjectures, but not to establish the systematic name of the plant. I call the
properties of it described to us uncertain: first, because I do not know
whether Pliny did not mean to distinguish the wild plant from that which
was cultivated, and many have understood as alluding to the former that
which I have applied to both: secondly, because the words of Theophrastus,
being in one passage evidently corrupted, will admit of various
constructions; and because in another, on account of some exceptions, of
which he speaks, they appear at least to me unintelligible: thirdly, because
Pliny, who gives us the best account of it, is the only author who calls the
struthium or soap-plant radicula, a name by which is rather to be
understood a dye-plant of the same kind as madder. We have reason
therefore to suspect that he has confounded the properties of the two plants,
especially as the fourth property was ascribed by others to a Rubia,
Asperula, or Galium, which was cultivated in Syria, and named often

radicula Syriaca. On the other hand, this diminutive is very ill-suited to a
root which Pliny himself calls large.
The words of that author, “tingenti, quicquid sit cum quo decoquatur,”
have been by some explained as if he meant that the struthium was a dye-
plant, though as a soapy plant it must have been destitute of colour; and
they have hence deduced a proof that Pliny confounded the struthium with
the radicula used in dyeing. On the other hand, Hardouin reads unguentis
instead of tingenti. He assures us that he found the former in manuscripts,
and is of opinion that the sap of the struthium was used also for ointments.
In my opinion, however, tingenti must be retained; and the meaning is
that when cloth was to be dyed it was necessary to prepare it for that
purpose by soaking it and washing it with the sap of this plant. This he
expressly tells us himself; “tingentibus et radicula lanas præparat.” It is
probable that the ancient dyers mixed their dye-liquors with the juice of the
struthium, for the same purpose as bran and the seeds of fenugreek are
added to dye-liquors at present; that is, to render them thicker and more
slimy, in order that the colouring particles may be longer and more equally
254
suspended in or diffused through them . The words quidquid sit cum quo
decoquatur will now become intelligible. Whatever may be employed for
dyeing, says the author, the addition of the juice of the struthium is
serviceable.
As what has been said contains nothing that can enable us to determine
the genus of the struthium according to the rules of botany, we may be
allowed to conjecture that it was one of those plants still used for the like
purpose in Italy and other neighbouring countries. Fuchs thinks it must have
been the Saponaria officinalis (soap-wort), the roots of which indeed
contain a saponaceous juice that readily changes the saliva into froth. The
root was employed for that purpose by the impostor in Lucian; and the juice
is used at present for cleaning wool and cloth. In the Helvetian Alps, the
sheep, before they are shorn, are washed with a decoction of the plant and
its roots; and with a mixture of ashes it serves for cleaning linen. The taste
of it is so sharp, that it is compared by some to that of the small burnet-
saxifrage.

This Saponaria officinalis however differs too much from the
255
remaining properties of the struthium. Its root is as thick only as a quill,
or at most as one’s finger. The stem, which is three feet in height, throws
out many branches, and cannot be called caulis ferulaceus, tenuis. It is not
rough and prickly, and, instead of growing in poor rocky soil, it is rather
fond of deep ground and the borders of corn-fields.
We may therefore conjecture with more probability that the Gypsophila
256
Struthium, Linn. , a plant still used for washing in the lower part of Italy
and Spain, is the struthium of the ancients. This opinion acquires some
strength by its being adopted among the Italians and Spaniards; and because
the plant, as Pliny says, grows in a rocky soil and on the mountains. It is
also still called lanaria by the Calabrian peasants. It has a tender stem; its
leaves are so like those of the olive-tree that they might be compared to
them by those who are not botanists; and its root is large, but it is neither
rough nor prickly. This contradiction may be accounted for by supposing
that Pliny, through a mistake, of which I have already accused him, ascribed
falsely to the soap-plant the prickly or rough leaves of the dye-plant which
had an affinity to madder. But even after this explanation there still remains
to be got over a dubious passage of Theophrastus, who indeed seems to
make the plant prickly also.
I do not therefore place entire confidence in this opinion; but suspect
rather that we shall receive from the East an account of a plant, still used
there, which will correspond more exactly with the soap-plant described by
Pliny. I am inclined to think that I have already found some precursory
information respecting it in Bauhin, who says that in Syria there is another
kind of soap-plant, which has prickly leaves like the thistle, and a thick root
of a sharp acrid taste. The root, he adds, was employed for washing clothes
and wool; and the confectioners of Damascus formed of it, with honey and
wine, a kind of sweetmeat which appeared as white as if it had been made
of the finest flour and sugar, and which was so hard that it could scarcely be
broken with the teeth. This plant seems to belong to those, the cultivation of
which was abandoned in Europe, after the use of them was rendered
superfluous by newer discoveries.
That the ancients employed their struthium for washing wool is
confirmed by various authorities; but I do not remember to have found any

evidence of its being used for cleaning clothes which had been worn.
Salmasius however quotes a passage from the works, unfortunately never
printed, of the old chemist Zosimus, in which he gives directions for
restoring, by means of the soap-plant, the lustre of pearls which have
257
become yellow .
The meal of many kinds of seeds may be used for washing, as well as
various kinds of bran. That of almonds, which on account of its oil is
remarkably soft, is employed at present for washing the hands by those who
are desirous of having a white delicate skin. Cloth, the colours of which
easily fade, and which will neither endure soap nor hard rubbing, may be
washed extremely well with bran. Our fullers, therefore, and stocking
manufacturers use oat-, barley- and bean-meal, especially when they wish
the cloth to be slowly milled. Whether the ancients employed bran in the
same manner I have not had an opportunity of examining. I am rather
inclined to think that they did; and there is a passage of Galen which seems
258
to allude to the use of bean-meal . In all probability the beans of the
ancients were the smallest and roundest variety of our horse-beans, or those
used as fodder.
In the last place, the ancients, at those periods of which I speak, used
fullers-earth much oftener than it is used at present. Till the countries where
it was procured be described by travellers who unite a knowledge of
antiquities with skill in mineralogy, the species of this earth, mentioned in
the works of ancient authors, cannot be distinguished with accuracy. But
from the purposes to which they were applied, we can with certainty
conclude that they must have been partly of the nature of marl and partly of
the nature of soapstone.
According to the then usual method of washing, by which the clothes
259
were stamped with the feet, the cretæ fulloniæ, as Pliny calls them, acted
in the same manner as our fullers-earth employed at present, partly by
scouring and partly by absorbing the greasy dirt. The ancients, after their
manner, gave them names only from the countries where they were
260 261
produced; and hence we find mention made of terra Cimolia , Chia ,
262 263 264 265
Lemnia , Sarda , Umbria , Samia, Tymphæa , and others. Many of

them, like that brought from Sardinia, could not be used in cleaning
coloured stuffs; and for this reason, perhaps, because some colours would
not stand hard scouring, or endure their caustic nature.
The fullers, however, did not use these earths merely for washing, but
also for whitening many kinds of cloth. This was done by rubbing fine
white earth into the cloth, in the same manner as soldiers do to give some
parts of their dress a brighter appearance. A like process is employed by
glovers and those who wash or clean leather. The earth used by the latter is
a yellowish-white iron-ochre, called from the purpose to which it is applied
266
collar-earth . When a perfect white was required, a kind of white potters-
clay or marl was employed; and the closer it adhered to the cloth, and the
less easily it could be rubbed out, it was so much the better. The poor at
Rome rubbed it over their clothes on festivals, in order that they might
267
appear brighter .
It deserves here to be particularly remarked, that some of these earths,
such as that of Chios, were employed in the baths instead of nitrum; and
this is the case in the Levant still. De la Valle extols in this respect a kind of
reddish earth, and says that people of the first distinction never bathe
without it. Perfumes are often mixed with it; and it is formed into small
balls, which when used are suffered to dissolve in the water. Different kinds
of vessels, and particularly those in which wine and oil had been kept, were
268
cleansed with these earths also . Glass flasks which have had oil in them,
cannot be cleansed better or more speedily than by shaking in them a
mixture of fullers-earth or potters-clay. When these are not to be had,
blotting-paper may be used. The oil is absorbed by the earth or the paper,
and with them can be easily washed out.
To render cloth perfectly white, it was also fumigated with sulphur by
the fullers, who were not ignorant that many colours were destroyed by its
269
vapours . We are told by Apuleius that the wife of a scourer concealed her
gallant under a vessel of basket-work, over which cloth used to be laid to
whiten by the effects of sulphur kindled under it. Our washer-women
employ a cask in this mode of bleaching, and our clothiers a small close
apartment, in which the wet cloth is suspended upon hooks.

Pliny has described the method of washing used at Rome, but many
270
things respecting it appear to me obscure . The cloth was first washed
with Sardian earth; it was then fumigated with sulphur, and afterwards
rinsed with real Cimolian earth. The word desquamatur was undoubtedly a
term of art, which cannot be further explained, because we are unacquainted
with the operation to which it alludes. Pliny seems to have been particular
in mentioning real Cimolian earth, because the false kind became black by
the steam of the sulphur which the cloth absorbed. Was it adulterated with
some metallic oxide or with white lead? It was dear enough to induce
people to mix it with such articles; and in that case it must necessarily have
become black.
The expression funditur sulphure seems to be attended with no less
difficulty. In comparing the different readings, I find that the oldest editions
have offunditur, which has been changed into effunditur, and lastly into
funditur. It is probable however that instead of offunditur we ought to read
offenditur, which would make the whole clear. I am much surprised that this
reading was not adopted by Hardouin. As Pliny says in other parts of his
work “offendit stomachum,” and “offendit aciem oculorum,” he might
undoubtedly have applied that word to the earth and its colour.
Fast colours, which the acid of sulphur might render pale, but could not
entirely destroy, would by washing with Cimolian earth be improved or
rather restored, as the earth would absorb and carry off the acid. There was
also another kind of earth (saxum) which was useful in the preparation of
cloth fumigated with sulphur, but which injured the dye, probably because
it was too calcareous, and which was perhaps our common chalk.
I do not intend to treat here of the whole art of Roman fullers, which
belongs rather to the history of weaving or manufacturing cloth in general;
but I hope I shall be forgiven if I add the few following observations. The
fullers received the cloth as it came from the loom, in order that it might be
scoured, walked and smoothed. It was walked by being stamped upon with
the feet. The rough wool raised by this operation was combed off, partly
with the skin of a hedgehog, and partly with the tops of some plants of the
thistle kind, in order to give the cloth a nap. Shearing seems not then to
have been known: I have at least met with no passage where it is
mentioned: and the case is the same with the use of presses; which, in my

opinion, were not invented till the sixteenth century. The whole process of
smoothing seems to have consisted in making the wool or nap lie as evenly
as possible one way, which certainly must have given to the cloth a much
better appearance.
As cloth at present is more dressed and shorn on one side than another,
the ancient fullers prepared theirs in the like manner; so that clothes could
be turned, after the inside of them had been new dressed. Whether they
made felt, also, I have not yet inquired; but I conjecture that the
manufacturing it was the occupation of those called lanarii, coactores, and
coactilarii.
The occupation of the fullers was at Rome very extensive, and afforded
employment to a great number of people, but it at length entirely decayed.
Schöttgen is of opinion that it belongs to those arts which have been lost.
But other writers have declared arts which are exercised now in greater
perfection than formerly to be lost, merely because they were not
acquainted with them; or because, on account of the alterations they have
undergone, they did not know where to find them. All the different
operations of fulling have become so complex by new methods,
improvements, and inventions, that they can no longer be conducted by one
man; and the whole business has for that reason been separated or divided
into several distinct branches.
The scouring of cloth when it comes from the loom, was, together with
walking, separated from the rest, after the invention of the walk-mill. How
old that invention may be, I cannot accurately determine; but we find it
mentioned in the beginning of the thirteenth, and even at the end of the
tenth century. Such a mill formerly was call fullencium, or molendinum cum
271
fullone . The dressing and smoothing of cloth, since the invention of
shearing and pressing, requires so much art, that these operations can be
performed only by skilful workmen, who are called cloth-shearers or cloth-
dressers. The scouring of cloth dirtied in manufacturing, is by the invention
of soap, bleaching, and other processes, become so easy that it can be
performed by women. The Romans for the most part wore a white dress
made in the form of a cloak; which indeed, as shirts were not then used,
272
must have often stood in need of being cleaned . We, on the other hand,
wear in general short close clothes of coloured cloth; which by the fashion

in which they are made, are less exposed to be dirtied; and we are more
accustomed also to use clothes of linen or cotton, which can be washed with
much less labour. Felt, which is employed almost for hats alone, is
manufactured by our hat-makers. Whoever takes a general view of all these
employments together, will be readily convinced that they maintain more
people, and in a better manner, than the whole ars fullonia did at Rome.
[The principal kinds of soap manufactured in this country are,—white
soap, composed chiefly of tallow and soda, but for some purposes of olive
oil and soda; yellow soap, made of tallow, rosin and soda, a little palm oil
being occasionally added; mottled soap, formed of tallow, kitchen stuff and
soda, its peculiar appearance being communicated by dispersing the lees
through it towards the end of the operation; brown soap, made from palm
oil, rosin and soda. Soft soap is made with potash and drying oils, either
alone or mixed with tallow, and other coarse fatty matters. The fatty matter
is mixed with the alkaline ley, and the whole boiled gently for some time,
until the fat is completely saponified, which may be known by its becoming
clear and transparent, and its susceptibility of being drawn into long
threads. A quantity of common salt is then added to the boiling mixture,
until the soap loses its thready character, and drops from the spatula in short
thick lumps. The soap is then removed, either after cooling, or at once
ladled out. Common fatty matters, as tallow, fat-oils, &c., are compounds of
a fatty acid with a base, thus resembling salts; the base is a peculiar sweet
principle, glycerine; by ebullition with the caustic lye, the neutral fatty
compound is decomposed, the fatty acid combining with the base soda, and
forming the soap, whilst the glycerine with the excess of alkali remains in
the liquid.
The so-called silicated soap, of which large quantities are now
manufactured, is made by combining silicate of soda with hard soap in the
hot and pasty state; in this way from 10 to 30 per cent. of the silicate may
be introduced. Such soap possesses, according to Dr. Ure, very powerful
detergent qualities, but it is apt to feel hard and somewhat gritty in use. The
silicated soda is obtained by boiling ground flints in a strong caustic lye.
Many substances are used to adulterate soap, such as potatoe-starch, clay,
&c., for which improvements, as they are termed, numerous patents have
been granted in this country.

In Great Britain the hard kind of soap is chiefly made at Liverpool and
London, but in considerable quantities also at Runcorn, Bristol, Brentford,
Hull, Bromsgrove, Plymouth and Sethwick, and at Glasgow and Leith in
Scotland; the soft soap is made principally at Liverpool, Glasgow and
Bradford; and silicated soap is likewise extensively manufactured at
Liverpool.
From the excise returns, it appears that 140,712,535 pounds of hard,
9,788,851 pounds of soft, and 3,921,862 pounds of silicated soap were
made in England in 1841; and 10,708,464 pounds of hard, and 4,535,030
pounds of soft soap in Scotland; making in all 169,666,742 pounds, which
273
is an increase of about 30 per cent. since 1832 .
The excise duty on soap was first imposed in Great Britain in 1711,
when it was fixed at 1d. per pound. It was raised in 1713 to 1½d. per pound;
and again, in 1782, when hard and soft soap were first distinguished, the
former being rated at 2¼d., and the latter at 1¾d. per pound. In 1816, that
on hard soap was increased to 3d. per pound. But since May 31, 1833, the
duty has been 1½d. per pound on hard soap, and 1d. per pound on soft. In
1839, the number of soap manufacturers in England was 177; in Scotland
19; and in Ireland 183. Each requires an annual license, costing 4l.
An allowance of duty is made on soap used in the woollen, silk, flax,
and cotton manufactures, which in 1841 was granted on 10,190,160 pounds
of hard, and 9,090,184 pounds of soft soap; the allowances amounting to
78,112l. In the same year the net amount yielded by the soap-duty to the
public revenue was 815,864l. Ireland is not subject to the soap-duty.
The soap-maker was formerly subjected to an arbitrary and vexatious
interference from the excise; but of late years the regulations have been
greatly improved, and there is now no superintendence of the process of
manufacture, which may be conducted in any way and of any material.]

FOOTNOTES
231
Plin. xviii. 12, sect. 51, p. 475.

232
It is beyond all doubt that the words sapo and σάπων were derived
from the German sepe, which has been retained in the Low
German, the oldest and original dialect of our language. In the
High German this derivation has been rendered a little more
undistinguishable by the p being changed into the harder f. Such
changes are common, as schap, schaf; schip, schiff, &c.
233
De Simplicibus Medicaminibus, p. 90, G.
234
According to Aretæus De Diuturnis Morbis, ii. 13, p. 98, soap
appears to have been formed into balls.
235
Mart. xiv. 27. This soap acquired the epithet of Mattiacum from the
name of a place which was in Hesse.
236

Caustica Teutonicos accendit spuma capillos,
Captivis poteris cultior esse comis.—Mart. xiv. 26.

These lines are generally explained in this manner:—“Dye thy hair
with soap, and it will become more beautiful than that of the
Germans.” But in this case all the wit of the advice is lost; and the
expression, “eris cultior quam comæ captivæ,” seems to me to be
very improper. I should rather translate them as follows:—“Let the
Germans dye their hair with pomade; as they are now subdued,
thou mayst ornament thyself better with a peruke made of the hair
of these captives.” This was a piece of delicate flattery to Domitian
and the Roman pride. That prince thought he had conquered the
Germans; and the most beautiful German hair, that which was not
dyed, could be procured, therefore, at Rome, much easier than
before. If the title of this epigram was written by Martial himself,
it contains the first mention of the word sapo.
237

Fortior et tortos servat vesica capillos,
Et mutat Latias spuma Batava comas.—Mart. viii. 23, 19.

The first line of the above proves that people then covered their
heads, in the night-time, with a bladder to keep their hair, after it
was dressed, from being deranged; and a bladder was undoubtedly
as fit for that use as the nets and cauls employed for the like
purpose at present.
238

Femina canitiem Germanis inficit herbis.
Ovidius De Arte Amandi, iii. 163.
239

Valer. Max. i. 5, p. 135: Capillos cinere rutilarunt.
Ad rutilam speciem nigros flavescere crines,
Unguento cineris prædixit Plinius auctor.
Q. Serenus, De Medic. iv. 56.

Serenus seems to allude to a passage of Pliny, xxiii. 2, p. 306,
where he speaks of an ointment made from the burnt lees of
vinegar and oleum lentiscinum. The same thing is mentioned in
Dioscorides, v. 132, p. 379. Servius, Æn. iv. quotes the following
words from Cato: “Mulieres nostræ cinere capillum ungitabant, ut
rutilus esset crinis.” Alex. Trallianus, 1, 3, gives directions how to
make an ointment for gray hair from soap and the ashes of the
white flowers of the Verbascum. The Cinerarii, however, of
Tertullian, lib. ii. ad uxor. 8, p. 641, seem to have been only hair-
dressers, who were so called because they warmed their curling-
irons among the hot ashes.
240
Pliny says that spots of the skin may be removed by ox-gall.
241
Odyss. vi. 91.
242
Iliad, ix. 14, and xvi. 4.
243
Geopon. vii. 6.—Plin. xiv. cap. 21.—Columella, xii. 50. 14.

244
Arnobius, vii. p. 237.
245
The word λίτρον in Pollux ought not to have been translated sapo.
246
Cicer. Ep. Fam. viii. 14.—Pollucis Onom. viii. 9, 39; x. 135.—
Ovid. De Medicam. Faciei, ver. 73 et 85.—Phavorini Dictionar. p.
527. Gynesius calls clothes washed with nitrum, νιτρούμενα, nitro
perfricata.
247
Lib. xi. p. 801.
248
De Mirabil. Auscult. c. 54.
249
Hist. Mirab. c. 162, p. 216.
250
Lib. xxxi. 10, p. 564.
251
J. D. Michaelis Commentationes, 4to, p. 151. I must mention also
C. Schoettgenii Antiquitates Fulloniæ, Traj. 1727, 8vo. My readers
will do me a pleasure if they compare the above work with this
article. No one will accuse me of vanity when I pretend to
understand the theory of washing better than the learned
Schöttgen; but if I have explained the passages which he quotes in
a more satisfactory manner, and turned them to more advantage, I
must ascribe this superiority to my knowledge of that art. I shall
here take occasion to remark, that there is no subject, however
trifling, which may not be rendered useful, or at least agreeable, by
being treated in a scientific manner; and to turn such into ridicule,
instead of displaying wit, would betray a want of judgment.
252
Plin. xxviii. 6; xxviii. 8.—Martial. vi. ep. 93.—Athenæus, xi. p.
484. Macrobius, ii. 12, speaking of drunken people, “Dum eunt,
nulla est in angiporto amphora, quam non impleant, quippe qui
vesicam plenam vini habeant.” This passage is quoted also in Joh.
Sarisberg. Polior. viii. 7, p. 479.
253
Sueton. in Vita Vespas. viii. 23.

254
Porner’s Anleitung zur Farbekunst, p. 31.
255
Those numbered 3, 4, 5, 6.
256
This plant was sent by Imperati to Casp. Bauhin, under the name of
lanaria veterum; and the latter made it first known in his Pinax
Plant. iv. p. 206. The former described it himself, and gave a bad
engraving of it, in Hist. Nat. p. 871. Löffling found this plant on
the Spanish mountains, as well as in the neighbourhood of
Aranjuez; and he relates, that in the province of La Mancha the
people boil clothes that are to be washed with the root of this plant
instead of soap. Linnæus did not hesitate to declare the struthium
of the ancients and the struthium of his system to be the same
plant; and he gave his countrymen reason to hope that their
Gypsophila fastigiata, which has a great resemblance to it, might
be employed in the like manner.—Amœnitat. Academ. v. p. 329.
257
Salmas. ad Solin. p. 818. a.
258
De Alimentor. Facultate, i. cap. 19. in Op. vol. iv. p. 315.
259
Lib. xvii. 18.
260
Pollux.—Plin.
261
Dioscor.
262
This terra Lemnia is entirely different from sealing-earth. See
Galen. De Simplic. Med.
263
Plin.
264
Plin. The Sarda was cheap, and purchased by measure; the Umbria
was dearer, and sold by weight.
265
Theophrast. Dioscor.

266
I here mean that it got its name from being employed to clean that
piece of armour, formerly used, which covered only the breast and
the back, and which was called a koller. The Swedes also call
yellow iron-ochre kiöllerfärg or kyllerfarg.
267
See Taubmann’s Annotations to Plauti Aulular. iv. sc. 9, 6.
268
Geopon. vii. 6.—Plin. xiv. cap. 21.—Columella, xii. 50, 14.
269
Pollux, vii. 11, 41, 715.—Plin. xxxv. 17, p. 719; and xxxv. 15, p.
714.—Isidor. Origin. xvi. 1.
270
Lib. xxxv. cap. 17, sec. 57.
271
Du Cange in his Glossarium.
272
I acknowledge myself one of those who cannot form a proper idea
of the Roman toga. It is certain that the weavers made each piece
of cloth only large enough to be fit for this article of dress; or that
when one toga was wove, it was cut from the loom, in order that
another might be begun. On this account we find so often the
expressions texere vestes, texere togas. It appears, also, that the
toga, when it came from the hands of the weaver, was quite ready
for use; and we therefore never read of tailors, but when torn
clothes were to be mended. The toga had no sleeves, and perhaps
no seam. If it was stitched along the edges before, half-way up, the
assistance of a tailor would not be necessary for that purpose. It
was bound round the body with a girdle, and fastened with clasps.
Such a mantle could be easily made and easily scoured. One may
now readily comprehend why the Roman authors never mention
cloth manufactories, or cloth, among the articles of commerce, but
speak only of clothes; and why we never read of cloth being
measured.
273
Waterston’s Encyclopædia of Commerce.

MADDER.
This plant, the root of which is either dried and bruised, or used fresh,
for dyeing red, has a weak, square, jointed stem; and rises to the height of
eight feet when supported, otherwise it creeps along the ground. At each
joint there are from four to six leaves, about three inches in length, almost
an inch broad in the middle, and pointed at both ends. The upper side of the
leaves is smooth; but the middle nerve of the under side is armed with small
rough prickles; and others of the same kind may be found on the stem. On
this account, the leaves, which drop annually, adhere readily to other
bodies, like those of the asperugo. The branches, which in June bear
flowers divided into four yellow leaves, proceed from the joints. The fruit, a
kind of berry, which, towards the time of its ripening, though that seldom
happens among us, is first of a brownish colour, and then black, contains a
round seed. The roots grow sometimes to the thickness of one’s finger, push
themselves deep into the earth, are surrounded by many small fibres, have a
yellowish-red pith, and are covered with a black bark or rind. This plant
grows wild in the Levant, as well as in Italy, the southern parts of France,
and in Switzerland. The cultivated kind is well known, and is propagated
with much advantage in various countries of Europe.
When one compares this short description with what Dioscorides says
of a plant which he calls ereuthodanon, it will be readily seen that he meant
our madder. He even compares its long square stem, armed with a great
many hooks, to that of the asperugo; and he tells us that the leaves stand in
the form of a star around the joints. The fruit was at first green, then red,
and lastly black. The thin long roots, adds he, which are red, serve for
dyeing; and on that account the cultivated kind (he must therefore have
been acquainted with the wild sort) is reared with much benefit in Galilee,
around Ravenna in Italy and in Caria, where it is planted either among the
olive-trees, or in fields destined for that purpose. It is remarked in some
manuscripts, that this plant had a name given it by the Romans, which, as
Marcellus Virgil observes, meant the same thing as Rubia sativa, and that it

was called in Etruria Lappa minor, doubtless because, like the bur, it
adhered to other bodies. On account of the colour which it communicated, it
274
was called also sometimes cinnabaris .
In opposition to this asserted identity I find only one doubt; namely,
that among those plants which, on account of the position of their leaves,
were called stellatæ, and which were all so like that we must reduce them to
one natural order, there are more sorts, the roots of which dye red, and
which on that account are very improperly called wild madder. Why,
therefore, should the plant of Dioscorides be our madder, and not some
other plant of the like nature? For this reason, in my opinion: because the
ancients, who were acquainted with all these plants, which grew wild in
their lands, were equally prudent as the moderns, and cultivated that kind
only which was the most productive or beneficial, viz. our Rubia tinctorum.
This opinion will be strengthened by comparing the accounts given of
that plant by other ancient writers. Theophrastus agrees almost perfectly
with Dioscorides; and adds, that it did not grow upright, but was fond of
reclining. The comparison, therefore, with the leaves of ivy cannot be just;
but that I shall leave to the critics. Pliny says expressly, that the
erythrodanum or ereuthodanum was in his mother-tongue called rubia; and
275
that its red roots were used to dye wool and leather red .
In the middle ages this plant was called varantia, a name which must
have arisen from verantia. The latter means the real, genuine dye; as
aurantia signified a golden yellow. Till the year 1736, this plant was little
regarded, except among dyers, farmers and merchants, who purchased it
from the farmers, in order to sell it to the dyers with profit; and among a
few herb-dealers and physicians, who, on the authority of the ancients,
ascribed to it eminent virtues, which others doubted or altogether denied. In
the above year, however, a property of it was discovered by accident, as
usual, which rendered it an object of more attention. John Belchier, an
English surgeon, having dined with a cotton-printer, observed that the bones
of the pork which was brought to the table were red. As he seemed
surprised at this circumstance, his host assured him that the redness was
occasioned by the swine feeding on the water mixed with bran in which the
cotton cloth was boiled, and which was coloured by the madder used in

276
printing it. Belchier , to whom this effect was new, convinced himself by
experiments that the red colour of the bones had arisen from the madder
employed in printing the cotton, and from no other cause; and he
communicated his discovery to the Royal Society, in a paper which was
printed in their Transactions.
This singularity was now soon known to all the naturalists, several of
whom made new experiments, the result of which brought to light many
truths useful to physiology. Besides the roots of madder, those of the
Galium (yellow ladies-bed-straw) and other plants which have an affinity to
madder, produce the like effects; but this is the case neither with saffron nor
woad, nor with many others much used in dyeing. The colouring takes place
soonest in young animals; and is strongest where the bones are hardest and
thickest. On the other hand, it does not reach the soft parts; appears only a
277
little in the milk; and in general is not perceptible in the animal juices .
As the English calico-printers were acquainted with this effect of
madder before it was known to naturalists, it is not improbable that it was
known much sooner in other places, where the plant has been much
cultivated and used since the earliest periods. From what J. E. Stief says, we
have reason to believe that the people in the neighbourhood of Breslau, his
native city, who gave the stalks of the madder plant to their cows instead of
straw, must have first discovered that it possessed the property of
278
communicating a red colour to the bones .
As many truths not yet investigated by means of new experiments, and
which on that account have not yet been acknowledged, are concealed
among the evidently false assertions to be found in the works of the
ancients, and as these works were thrown aside too early, before their
contents were properly examined, I was induced to suspect that some hints
of this colouring property might also be mentioned in them, which indeed is
the case.
We learn from the works of Galen and Dioscorides, that the ancient
physicians remarked that the use of certain roots, which they administered
to their patients, communicated a colour to their urine and excrements; and
this observation has been repeated by Cardan, Thurneisser, Porta, Castor,
Durantes, and others. Had those ancient physicians, who often prescribed

these roots, and paid attention to the colour of the excrements of their
patients, been accustomed to open their bodies when they died under their
hands, they would have perhaps remarked, in human bones, what was
observed long after in the bones of animals, when the roots were no longer
used in medicine; and what, if I am not mistaken, was never yet observed in
279
the bones of the human species .
Böhmer, who made researches respecting the antiquity of this
observation, found it neither in Rombert. Dodonæus, Mich. Ettmuller,
Morin, Will. Salmon, nor others, who, however, speak of coloured urine. In
his opinion the oldest writer who speaks of coloured bones is Mizaldus; but
what he relates is all taken from the treatise of Lemnius De Miraculis
Occultis Naturæ; and the latter therefore is the oldest writer that I at present
can mention as acquainted with this property. He was a physician in
Zealand, where madder has been cultivated since the earliest ages, and
where he had an opportunity of remarking it. He says that the bones of
animals became red, as had been observed when the flesh was dressed, by
their eating only the leaves, and not the roots. In the first edition of the
above work, printed in octavo, in the year 1559, which consists of two
books, this information will not be found; but it may be contained in the
second of 1564, which comprehends four books.
[The madder plant is much cultivated in Holland, but Macquei observes
that the Dutch were first indebted to the Flemish refugees for their
knowledge of the method of preparing this plant. Its culture has often been
280
attempted in England, but always without success . It is also largely
cultivated in Alsace and Provence in France, especially near Avignon, in
Asiatic Turkey, and in Italy; from which places it is largely exported. The
Turkey and Provence madder is procured from Rubia peregrina; the
remainder from R. tinctorum. To prepare the root, which is the part used in
dyeing, it is removed from the ground, picked, dried and ground.
Madder contains three distinct colouring principles; two of these are
red, viz. alizarine and purpurine, and one, xanthine, is yellow.
Since 1836, two new products have been introduced into commerce,
which are destined to replace madder in the operations of dyeing and
calico-printing; one is called garancine, the other colorine. Garancine is

prepared by washing and macerating madder, and filtering through linen.
The grounds are then crushed and mixed with sulphuric acid, equal to half
the amount of madder first employed; the acid should be somewhat dilute.
It is then poured hot upon the madder, agitated, and when the mixture
appears intimate, the temperature is raised to 212°, and maintained for
about an hour. It is then again mixed with water, filtered, and thoroughly
washed. It is finally pressed, dried and passed through the sieve. This is the
process patented by MM. Lagier, Robiquet and Colin, in 1828.
It was first introduced into commerce by the house of Lagier and
Thomas, at Avignon, in 1829.
The great advantage of garancine over madder is that it does not change
the white, and that the bleaching of the stuffs dyed with it is reduced to a
mere nothing. Hot water or bran are the only means used for clearing them.
Madder is an adjective colour, that is to say, one which requires to be
combined with some basic substance or mordant to render its fixture upon
the dye-stuff permanent.]

FOOTNOTES
274
Some also may with equal propriety have called it sandyx; and I
am of opinion that under this name we are to understand our
madder, at least in a passage of Virgil, Eclogue iv. 45, where he
says, “Sponte sua sandyx pascentes vestiet agnos.” As the wool of
the sheep became red by eating the madder which grew in the
fields, it could be immediately manufactured, without dyeing it
artificially. We manufacture the wool of our brown sheep in its
natural colour, and this was done also by the ancients. Cloths of
this kind were the panni nativi coloris, as they are called by Pliny,
xxxvi. 7; and the words of Martial, xiv. 133, allude to a dress made
of such cloth:
Non est lana mihi mendax, nec mutor aëno,
... me mea tinxit ovis.

I shall here take occasion to remark, that the word lutum, in the
line preceding the above passage of Virgil, must be translated
yellow-weed, and not woad. The former, Reseda luteola, dyes
yellow; but the latter, Isatis, dyes blue. Lutum, however, in Cæsar
De bello Gallico, v. 14, seems to have been woad: “Omnes se
Britanni luteo inficiunt, quod et cæruleum efficit colorem.” It
appears, therefore, that both names were liable to be confounded in
the Latin, as they are in the German; unless Davis be right, who,
instead of luteo, reads vitro. That sandyx, in Virgil, signifies a plant
rather than a mineral, is to me far more probable. The author
speaks of plants which the sheep ate while feeding (pascentes);
and both the above-mentioned dye-plants, yellow-weed and woad,
grow wild in Italy. The opinion of Pliny, who understood the
passage so, is not to be despised; and therefore the poetical
account, that the pasture dyed the wool, is not altogether without
foundation; especially as not only the roots, but also the leaves of
madder, communicate a colour to the solid parts of animal bodies.
I will however allow that most people readily fall into the error of
being led away by imagination; and often suppose that they find in
passages of ancient authors more than others can discover, or
perhaps even than they contain.
275
Lib. xxiv. 9, p. 341.
276
The first account of this circumstance may be found in the
Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxxix. n. 442, p. 287; n. 443, p.
299. Among the principal experiments made on this subject, are
those of the Italian Matth. Bazanus, in Comment. Bononiens. and
of J. H. Benj. Böhmer, in a dissertation entitled Radicis Rubiæ
tinctorum effectus in Corpore Animali, Lips. 1751. Other works
and observations relative to this singularity are mentioned in
Haller’s Elementa Physiologiæ, v. p. 327.
277
That the Rubia colours the milk has been denied by many, who are
mentioned in Haller’s Physiol. viii. p. 328. Young, in his Treatise
De Lacte, says only that it has no effect on carnivorous animals.
Being once engaged in making experiments on the madder dye, I

gave the plant to a cow for several days, and I found that the milk
became reddish and streaked with veins which were of a darker
colour than the other parts. That well-known farmer, Gugenmus,
gave the madder-plant, formed into hay, to his cows, who ate it
readily. Their milk was somewhat reddish, and the butter and
cheese acquired by these means in winter an agreeable colour.
Perhaps the effects do not take place when the animals get other
food at the same time. Or may not the state of their health occasion
some difference? This much is certain, that Chelidonium (swallow-
wort) makes the milk of cows that are weak appear bloody, while
the same effect does not follow, or at least immediately, in those
that are strong. Ruellius, De Natura Stirpium, Basiliæ, 1543, fol. p.
572, says of the Rubia, “Folia capillum tingunt.” If he meant that
the hair became red by eating the leaves, he committed a mistake.
278
Dissertatio de Vita Nuptiisque Plantarum. Lipsiæ, 1741, p. 11.
279
I do not know that any one ever remarked human bones to have
been dyed by madder, though the proposal for using the roots of it
against the rachitis might have given occasion to make
observations on that subject. See G. L. Hansen, Diss. de Rachitide.
Gottingæ, 1762, p. 36. Professor Arnemann, who has a very
numerous and valuable collection of skeletons, and who carefully
examined many of the like kind during his travels, assured me that
he never saw any bones that had been dyed by madder in the
human body.
280
On Vegetable Substances, by the Society for the Diffusion of
Useful Knowledge.

JUGGLERS, ROPE-DANCERS, AUTOMATA,
ETC.

Under this title I comprehend not only those properly called jugglers,
who, for the sake of money, by quick and artful motions of their hands,
bodies, and limbs, and by various preparations, delude the senses in an
agreeable manner, or practise an innocent deception on the spectators, so
that they think they hear and see what they do not really hear and see, but
also rope-dancers; people who place their bodies in positions according to
all appearance dangerous; and those who for pay exhibit animals taught to
perform uncommon tricks, as well as automata, which by their concealed
construction seem to produce wonderful effects.
But is it worth while to inquire into the antiquity of all these arts,
unprofitable to the public, which form the favourite amusements of the
populace? The selfish question cui bono, which is often thrown out by way
of reproach to men of letters, but oftener to naturalists, and even to jurists,
when, in their researches, they advance beyond the beaten track, I might
easily get rid of by civilly telling the querists to pass over this article if they
think they are not likely to derive benefit from it. I might also apologise for
employing my time and labour on this subject, by using the words of a
certain historian: “Frivola hæc fortassis cuipiam et nimis levia esse
videantur, sed curiositas nihil recusat.” I shall however adopt neither of
these methods; as I flatter myself that this essay may afford as much
amusement as many that are read daily; and that therefore it may not only
be excused, but even justified.
Those arts and employments which are most necessary in life were
undoubtedly the earliest, and they have still continued to be the most
important; but when these were sufficiently occupied, or carried on by as
many persons as could live by them, the rest, who were excluded from
them, conceived the idea of amusing the former when tired with their
labour, that by these means they might obtain from them a part of the fruits

of their industry. I request my readers to reflect how many occupations have
been devised for no other purpose. They will find that several of these have
acquired a pre-eminence over the necessary or useful arts; and to the same
class belong jugglers.
All political writers tell us, as a fundamental principle of government,
that population ought to be increased. This maxim however is just only
under certain circumstances; that is, when employment can be procured to a
greater number of inhabitants than a country already possesses. Of beggars
we have to maintain too many. All our trades and occupations are not only
filled up with workmen, but overflow. Our farmers can employ no more
labourers, and our manufacturers no more hands than they have at present;
our regiments are full; and in every employment there are more candidates
and more supernumeraries than is consistent with the good of the public.
Must it not therefore give us pleasure, when necessity invents new means of
acquiring a livelihood, although they could be dispensed with? It is much
better that those who have learned no useful art; who have lost their youth
in the service of others; or who are destitute, through any other cause,
should gain their bread by amusing their fellow-citizens, than that they
should either beg or steal.
These arts are indeed not unprofitable, for they afford a comfortable
subsistence to those who practise them; but their gain is acquired by too
little labour to be hoarded up; and, in general, these roving people spend on
the spot the fruits of their ingenuity; which is an additional reason why their
stay in a place should be encouraged. I have however known some who
saved so much from their earnings, that, in their old age, they were enabled
to enter into some business more certain as well as more profitable.
People of this description will never want encouragement and support
while they exhibit with confidence anything uncommon, and know how to
suit the nature of their amusements to the taste of the spectators. The greater
part of mankind love deception so much, that they reward liberally those
who impose on their senses, as is proved by the ready sale of gilt articles,
artificial gems, and a thousand other things which are not in reality what
they appear to be. I do not know whether Montagne is right in considering it
as a sign of the weakness of our judgement, that we take a pleasure in
beholding objects on account of their rarity, novelty, or the difficulty that

281
attends them, though they may be subservient to no useful purpose . This
appears to me to proceed from that innate curiosity which serves as a spur
to incite us to enlarge our knowledge, and to engage in researches and
undertakings that often lead to discoveries of greater importance.
Jugglers indeed seldom exhibit anything that can appear wonderful to
those acquainted with natural philosophy and mathematics; but these even
often find satisfaction in seeing truths already known to them applied in a
new manner; and they readily embrace every opportunity of having them
further illustrated by experiments. Many however are too precipitate, and
attempt to explain before they have sufficiently examined, of which the
golden tooth at the end of the sixteenth century, the conjuring-rod at the end
of the seventeenth, and the chess-player and speaking-machine at the end of
the eighteenth, may serve as instances. But it often happens, that what
ignorant persons first employ, merely as a show, for amusement or
deception, is afterwards ennobled by being applied to a more important
purpose. The machine with which a Savoyard, by means of shadows,
amused children and the populace, was by Lieberkühn converted into a
solar microscope; and to give one example more, which may convince
female readers, if I can hope for such, the art of making ice in summer, or in
a heated oven, enables guests, much to the credit of their hostess, to cool the
most expensive dishes. The Indian discovers precious stones, and the
European, by polishing, gives them a lustre.
But if the arts of juggling served no other end than to amuse the most
ignorant of our citizens, it is proper that they should be encouraged for the
sake of those who cannot enjoy the more expensive deceptions of an opera.
They answer other purposes however than that of merely amusing; they
convey instruction in the most acceptable manner, and serve as a most
agreeable antidote to superstition, and to that popular belief in miracles,
exorcism, conjuration, sorcery, and witchcraft, from which our ancestors
suffered so severely. Wherever the vulgar were astonished at the effects of
shadows, electricity, mirrors, and the magnet, interested persons
endeavoured by these to frighten them; and thus misapplied the powers of
nature to promote their own advantage. The pontiffs and their clergy ought,
undoubtedly, to be detested for discouraging experimental philosophy. That
science they considered as a formidable enemy; and they thought they
gained no small advantage when they induced the house of Medici, by

granting it the cardinalship, to suppress the Academy del Cimento. When
Gasner exhibited his deceptions, some one proposed to him to try his art at
Berlin or Göttingen, and to drive out there if it were only the smallest of all
the devils; but these cities were not theatres where he was likely to succeed,
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and he never ventured to appear in them . It is however better that the
populace, if they will absolutely pay for being deceived, should be exposed
to a momentary deception from jugglers than to a continual deception from
priests. As the former are not covered with the sacred cloak of religion, their
deceptions are more easily seen through and detected; and they
consequently soon cease to be hurtful. So late as the year 1601, a horse,
which had been taught to perform a number of tricks, was tried, as
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possessed by the devil, and condemned to be burnt . At present horses of
this kind are so often exhibited publicly in the heretical countries of Europe,
that the Spanish Inquisition, perhaps, will soon be ashamed of considering
such proofs of the docility of these animals, and of the patient dexterity of
their teachers, as the work of the devil, as they did at the above period.
Those who view the art of the juggler in the same light as I do, will, I hope,
forgive me for introducing these observations, and allow me to continue
them while I inquire into the antiquity of this employment; especially as I
shall endeavour by these means to illustrate more fully my subject.
Had that book which Celsus wrote against the Magi been preserved, we
should have been much better acquainted with the art of the ancient
conjurors or jugglers. This Celsus, without doubt, is the same author whose
virulent attack against the Christians was refuted by Origen; and we have,
therefore, greater cause to regret that a work on the above subject, by so
learned and acute a philosopher, should have been lost. He is mentioned
with respect by Lucian, and even by Origen; and the former derived from
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him the account which he gives of Alexander the impostor . More ancient
authors also wrote upon the same subject. Some of them are mentioned by
Diogenes Laërtius in his preface; and Suidas quotes the Magicon of
Antisthenes, though neither of these speaks of Celsus; but of all those
writings none are now extant.
The deception of breathing out flames, which at present excites in a
particular manner the astonishment of the ignorant, is very ancient. When
the slaves in Sicily, about a century and a half before our æra, made a

formidable insurrection, and avenged themselves in a cruel manner for the
severities which they had suffered, there was amongst them a Syrian named
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Eunus , a man of great craft and courage, who, having passed through
many scenes of life, had become acquainted with a variety of arts. He
pretended to have immediate communication with the gods; was the oracle
and leader of his fellow-slaves; and, as is usual on such occasions,
confirmed his divine mission by miracles. When, heated by enthusiasm and
desirous of inspiring his followers with courage, he breathed flames or
sparks among them from his mouth while he was addressing them. We are
told by historians, that for this purpose he pierced a nut-shell at both ends,
and, having filled it with some burning substance, put it into his mouth and
breathed through it. This deception, at present, is performed much better.
The juggler rolls together some flax or hemp, so as to form a ball about the
size of a walnut; sets it on fire; and suffers it to burn till it is nearly
consumed; he then rolls round it, while burning, some more flax; and by
these means the fire may be retained in it for a long time. When he wishes
to exhibit, he slips the ball unperceived into his mouth and breathes through
it; which again revives the fire, so that a number of weak sparks proceed
from it; and the performer sustains no hurt, provided he inspire the air not
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through the mouth, but the nostrils .
By this art the rabbi Bar-Cocheba, in the reign of the emperor Hadrian,
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made the credulous Jews believe that he was the hoped-for Messias ; and
two centuries after, the emperor Constantius was thrown into great terror,
when Valentinian informed him that he had seen one of the body-guards
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breathing out fire and flames in the evening .
For deceptions with fire the ancients employed also naphtha, a liquid
mineral oil, which kindles when it only approaches a flame. Galen informs
us, that a person excited great astonishment by extinguishing a candle and
again lighting it, without any other process than holding it immediately
against a wall or a stone. The whole secret of this consisted in having
previously rubbed over the wall or stone with sulphur. But as the author, a
few lines before, speaks of a mixture of sulphur and naphtha, there is reason
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to think that he alludes to the same here. Plutarch relates how Alexander
the Great was astonished and delighted with the secret effects of naphtha,

which were exhibited to him at Ecbatana. The same author, as well as Pliny,
Galen, and others, has already remarked, that the substance with which
Medea destroyed Creusa, the daughter of Creon, was nothing else than this
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fine oil . She sent to the unfortunate princess a dress besmeared with it,
which burst into flames as soon as she approached the fire of the altar. The
blood of Nessus, wherein the dress of Hercules, which took fire likewise,
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had been dipped, was undoubtedly naphtha also ; and this oil must have
been always employed when offerings caught fire in an imperceptible
292
manner . In all periods of the world priests have acted as jugglers to
simple and ignorant people.
In modern times, persons who could walk over burning coals or red-hot
iron, or who could hold them in their hands and their teeth, have often
excited wonder. In the end of the seventeenth century, an Englishman,
named Richardson, who, as we are assured, could chew burning coals, pour
melted lead upon his tongue, swallow melted glass, &c., rendered himself
293 294
very famous by these extraordinary feats . Laying aside the deception
practised on the spectators, the whole of this secret consists in rendering the
skin of the soles of the feet and hands so callous and insensible, that the
nerves under them are secured from all hurt, in the same manner as by
shoes and gloves. Such callosity will be produced if the skin is continually
compressed, singed, pricked, or injured in any other manner. Thus do the
fingers of the industrious sempstress become horny by being frequently
pricked; and the case is the same with the hands of fire-workers, and the
295
feet of those who walk bare-footed over scorching sand .
In the month of September, 1765, when I visited the copper-works at
Awestad, one of the workmen, for a little drink-money, took some of the
melted copper in his hand, and after showing it to us, threw it against a
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wall . He then squeezed the fingers of his horny hand close to each other;
put it a few minutes under his armpit, to make it sweat, as he said; and,
taking it again out, drew it over a ladle filled with melted copper, some of
which he skimmed off, and moved his hand backwards and forwards, very
quickly, by way of ostentation. While I was viewing this performance, I
remarked a smell like that of singed horn or leather, though his hand was

not burnt. The workmen at the Swedish melting-houses showed the same
thing to some travellers in the seventeenth century; for Regnard saw it in
1681, at the copper-works in Lapland. It is highly probable that the people
who hold in their hands red-hot iron, or who walk upon it, as I saw done at
Amsterdam, but at a distance, make their skin callous before, in the like
manner. This may be accomplished by frequently moistening it with oil of
vitriol; according to some the juice of certain plants will produce the same
effect; and we are assured by others that the skin must be very frequently
rubbed, for a long time, with oil, by which means, indeed, leather also will
become horny.
Of this art, traces may be found also in the works of the ancients. A
festival was held annually on Mount Soracte, in Etruria, at which the Hirpi,
who lived not far from Rome, jumped through burning coals; and on this
account they were indulged with peculiar privileges by the Roman
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senate . Women also, we are told, were accustomed to walk over burning
298
coals at Castabala in Cappadocia, near the temple dedicated to Diana .
Servius remarks, from a work of Varro now lost, that the Hirpi trusted not
so much to their own sanctity as to the care which they had taken to prepare
their feet for that operation.
I am not acquainted with everything that concerns the trial by ordeal,
when persons accused were obliged to prove their innocence by holding in
their hands red-hot iron; but I am almost convinced that this also was a
juggling trick of the priests, which they employed as might best suit their
views. It is well known that this mode of exculpation was allowed only to
weak persons, who were unfit to wield arms, and particularly to monks and
ecclesiastics, to whom, for the sake of their security, that by single combat
was forbidden. The trial itself took place in the church entirely under the
inspection of the clergy; mass was celebrated at the same time; the
defendant and the iron were consecrated by being sprinkled with holy
water; the clergy made the iron hot themselves; and they used all these
preparatives, as jugglers do many motions, only to divert the attention of
the spectators. It was necessary that the accused persons should remain at
least three days and three nights under their immediate care, and continue as
long after. They covered their hands both before and after the proof; sealed
and unsealed the covering: the former, as they pretended, to prevent the

hands from being prepared any how by art; and the latter to see if they were
burnt.
Some artificial preparation was therefore known, else no precautions
would have been necessary. It is highly probable that during the first three
days the preventive was applied to those persons whom they wished to
appear innocent; and that the three days after the trial were requisite to let
the hands resume their natural state. The sacred sealing secured them from
the examination of presumptuous unbelievers; for to determine whether the
hands were burnt, the last three days were certainly not wanted. When the
ordeal was abolished, and this art rendered useless, the clergy no longer
kept it a secret. In the thirteenth century an account of it was published by
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Albertus Magnus, a Dominican monk . If his receipt be genuine, it seems
to have consisted rather in covering the hands with a kind of paste than in
hardening them. The sap of the Althæa (marsh-mallow), the slimy seeds of
the flea-bane, which is still used for stiffening by the hat-makers and silk-
weavers, together with the white of an egg, were employed to make the
paste adhere; and by these means the hands were as safe as if they had been
secured by gloves. The use of this juggling trick is very old, and may be
traced back to a pagan origin. In the Antigone of Sophocles, the guards
placed over the body of Polynices, which had been carried away and buried
contrary to the orders of Creon, offered, in order to prove their innocence,
to submit to any trial: “We will,” said they, “take up red-hot iron in our
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hands, or walk through fire .”
The exhibition of balls and cups, which is often mentioned in the works
of the ancients as the most common art of jugglers, is also of great
antiquity. It consists in conveying speedily and with great dexterity, while
the performer endeavours by various motions and cant phrases to divert the
attention of the simple spectators from observing his movements too
narrowly, several light balls, according to the pleasure of any person in
company, under one or more cups; removing them sometimes from the
whole; and conveying them again back in an imperceptible manner. In
general, three leaden cups are used, and as many balls of cork; and to
prevent all discovery by their slipping from the thumbs of the juggler, or
making a noise, as he must lay hold of them with much quickness, the table
before which he sits is covered with a cloth.

These small balls were by the ancients called calculi; and the cups
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acetabula, or paropsides. Casaubon has already quoted most of those
passages in ancient authors which relate to this subject; and they have been
302
repeated by Bulenger ; but neither of these writers makes mention of the
303
fullest and clearest description given in the letters of Alciphron . We have
there an account of a countryman who came to town, and was conducted by
a merchant to the theatre, where he saw with great astonishment the
exhibition of cups and balls. “Such an animal,” says he, “as the performer I
would not wish to have near me in the country; for in his hands my property
would soon disappear.” The art of oratory, because it deceives the auditors,
is frequently compared to that of balls and cups. From the Latin word
gabata, mentioned by Martial, together with paropsides, the French have
made gobelets and hence their common expressions jouer des gobelets, and
joueur des gobelets, which they use when speaking of jugglers.
In all ages of the world there have been men who excited great wonder
by extraordinary strength. Instances of this have been already collected; but
304
they do not belong to my present subject . I can, however, prove that
above fifteen hundred years ago there were people who, by applying a
knowledge of the mechanical powers to their bodies, performed feats which
astonished every ignorant spectator; though it is certain that any sound man
of common strength could perform the same by employing the like means.
Of these one may say with Celsus, “Neque hercule scientiam præcipuam
habent hi, sed audaciam usu ipso confirmatam.”
About the beginning of the last century, such a strong man, or Samson,
as he called himself, a native of Germany, travelled over almost all Europe;
and his pretended art has been mentioned by so many writers, that we may
conclude it had not been often exhibited before; and that it was then
considered as new. His name was John Charles von Eckeberg; he was born
at Harzgerode in Anhalt; and at that time was thirty-three years of age.
When he fixed himself between a couple of posts, on any level place, two
or more horses were not able to draw him from his position; he could break
ropes asunder, and lift a man up on his knee while he lay extended on the
ground. But what excited the greatest astonishment was, that he suffered

large stones to be broke on his breast with a hammer, or a smith to forge
iron on an anvil placed above it.
This last feat was exhibited even in the third century, by Firmus or
Firmius, who, in the time of Aurelian, endeavoured to make himself
emperor in Egypt. He was a native of Seleucia in Syria; espoused the cause
of Zenobia, the celebrated queen of Palmyra; and was at length executed
publicly by order of the emperor Aurelian. It is of this Firmus, and not of
another, who a century after was overcome in Africa by the father of the
emperor Theodosius, that Vopiscus speaks where he relates that he could
suffer iron to be forged on an anvil placed on his breast. For this purpose he
lay on his back; but he put himself in such a position, by resting with his
feet and shoulders against some support, that his whole body formed an
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arch; so that he seemed rather to be suspended than to lie at full length .
306
This art, which is explained and illustrated by Desaguliers and Professor
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Kuhn of Dantzic, has now become so common that it is often exhibited
without occasioning much surprise.
In the works of the ancients, rope-dancers are frequently mentioned.
The passages where they occur have been collected by various authors,
though never completely; and I am inclined to think that those who have
seen many performers of this kind would be able to clear up some that are
obscure. I have seen many myself; but I have forgot the greater part of what
I observed; and there are other reasons also which prevent me from
undertaking that task: I dread the reproach of “multum agendo nihil agis.”
That I may not, however, pass over this subject entirely, I shall present the
308
reader with what follows . We meet with various appellations given to
rope-dancers, which do not, as some have imagined, point out different
kinds, but allude only to new-invented arts, leaps, or dexterities, which,
while recommended by novelty, were much wondered at, though they were
afterwards imitated by all. To these belong the schœnobatæ, oribatæ,
neurobatæ, petaminarii, funambuli, &c. Some of the ancient rope-dancers
seem to have used a balancing-pole, or at least to have had weights in their
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hands to preserve an equipoise . It is certain also that rope-dancers were
not wanting in the middle ages. In the year 1237 they were very common in

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Italy ; and in 1393 there were some of them at Augsburg, who exhibited
their dexterity on the rope, and received from each spectator three German
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halfpence .
To place men upon the shoulders of each other in such a manner that
every row consists of a man fewer, till they form a pyramid ending in a
single person, upon whose head a boy often stands with his feet upwards, is
likewise an ancient piece of dexterity. This exhibition is varied many ways;
and on that account it is difficult to form even conjectures respecting it,
especially as the description given of it by a Roman poet is very
312
unintelligible .
I am however still less acquainted with an art in which hoops and
wheels were employed by the petauristæ, who excited great astonishment
among the populace. The first part of the art may have consisted in nothing
more than the varied contortions and tumbling which we still see practised
by children trained for that purpose. Cilano explains a well-known passage
of Manilius, as if the performers had darted through suspended iron hoops,
made often red-hot. Of this I entertain less doubt than how we ought to
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understand the corpora jactata petauro of Juvenal ; and the corpora
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valido excussa petauro of Manilius , which many have attempted to
explain already. At any rate this wheel was different from that upon which a
female dancer, as mentioned by Xenophon, wrote and read while it turned
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round with great velocity .
The art of exhibiting various feats of horsemanship, which has been
practised so much in modern times, seems to have come first from the East.
At any rate, those performers in that way who, in the thirteenth century,
were at the Byzantine court, and who travelled all over Europe, came from
Egypt. They could stand on the horses when at a gallop; mount and
dismount while on full speed at the chase; tumble on horseback, and do
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many other things equally extraordinary . At the end of the sixteenth
century, an Italian, who had learned this art while a slave in Turkey, went
about exhibiting his dexterity in various parts of Europe. Montagne saw

317 318
him at Rome in 1581 ; and the year following he was at Paris . Some of
these feats were performed by the ancient desultores.
Whether the ancients taught horses, dogs, birds, and other animals, to
perform various tricks which are frequently exhibited at present for money,
I do not know; but it is certain that what they made the elephant, which
undoubtedly is the most sagacious and tractable of all animals, perform,
exceeds everything yet known of the kind. Without repeating what has been
so often related, I shall only mention the elephant which walked upon a
rope backwards and forwards, as well as up and down; and which Galba
first caused to be shown to the Roman people. After this, so much
confidence was placed in the dexterity of the animal, that a person sat on an
elephant’s back while he walked across the theatre upon a rope extended
from the one side to the other. Lipsius, who has collected the testimonies,
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thinks they are so strong that they cannot be doubted .
The training of horses to obey a private signal, imperceptible to the
most attentive spectator, and to perform actions which appear, to those
unacquainted with the art, to display rational faculties, I have never found
mentioned in the works of the ancients. That the Sybarites however taught
their horses to dance to the sound of music, is asserted by a variety of
320
authors . In the sixteenth century, dogs trained in the like manner excited
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great wonder .
In the year 1766, an Englishman, named Wildman, made himself much
known by taming or training bees, in such a manner that they not only
followed him wherever he went, but settled even on his face and hands
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without stinging him, and seemed as if obedient to his orders . Some
years after, a person who practised the like art, travelled about through
Germany, and gave himself out to be Wildman; but M. Riem proved that he
was not Wildman, and published the secret by which he acquired so much
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power over these insects . I cannot say whether the ancients were
acquainted with this art; but I shall here remark, that it was known in the
kingdom of Galam, at Senegal, a hundred years before Wildman; for when
Brue, a Frenchman, was there in 1698, he was visited by a man who called
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himself the king of the bees . “Let his secret,” says that traveller, “consist

in what it may, this much is certain; that they followed him wherever he
went, as sheep do their shepherd. His whole body, and particularly his cap,
was so covered with them that they appeared like a swarm just settled.
When he departed they went along with him; for besides those on his body,
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he was surrounded by thousands which always attended him .”
In modern times, persons destitute of arms and hands, or who have
these limbs formed very imperfectly, but who possess the art of supplying
that want by the use of their feet and toes, show themselves sometimes for
money; and as they entertain the spectators by exciting their wonder, they
deserve from them that support which they are not able to obtain in any
other manner. Instances of such people who had acquired this art, have been
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very common within the last two centuries ; but in the works of the
ancients I have found only one. An Indian king, named Porus, sent to the
emperor Augustus an embassy with presents, among which were some rare
animals, and a man without arms, who with his feet, however, could bend a
bow; discharge arrows; and put a trumpet to his mouth and blow it. Dio
Cassius confesses that he did not know how this was possible; but Strabo
refers for his authority to Nicolaus of Damascus, who saw all the presents
327
as they passed through Antioch . Had this deformed person, whom Strabo
compares to a Hermes, travelled about, according to the modern practice, as
a show, he would have been better known, and in all probability his
328
example would have induced others to imitate his art . Manilius says,
however, that there were people, who, in playing at ball, could use their feet
with as much dexterity as their hands, who could catch the ball with them,
and again throw it back; but the poet, perhaps, did not allude to the small
hand-ball, but to the large one which is struck with the fist, and which may
be stopped also by the foot. Besides, the passage is read and explained
329
different ways .
Figures or puppets, which appear to move of themselves, were
employed formerly to work miracles; but they could hardly be used for that
purpose at present in any catholic country of Europe, though they still serve
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to amuse the vulgar. Among these are the marionettes , as they are called,
the different parts of which are put in motion imperceptibly by a thread. Of

a still more ingenious construction are those which are moved by the
turning of a cylinder, as is the case in the machines with which some of the
old miners in Germany earn a livelihood; but the most ingenious of all are
those which are kept in continual movement for a certain time, by the help
of wheels with a weight or spring. The latter are called automata; and, when
they represent human figures, androides. Under the former general name
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are comprehended our watches, the most useful of all, and also jacks ,
with many others. The latter appellation is given to small puppets, which,
when their inner works have been wound up, run upon the table or
pavement, and as they advance move their head, eyes, and hands. They
have been exhibited sometimes under the name of courrante Margarethe,
which gave rise perhaps to the word marionette.
The proper marionettes are very old. They were common among the
Greeks, and from them they were brought to the Romans. They were known
by the name of neurospasta, and were much used at their shows. Aristotle
speaks of some which moved their head, eyes, hands and limbs in a very
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natural manner . They are mentioned with equal precision by Galen,
Xenophon, Antoninus, Horace, Gellius, and others. To these belong the
phalli, which were carried round during the festivals of Osiris and Bacchus,
and of which one member only, that properly meant by the name, and which
was almost as large as the whole body, moved upon certain threads being
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pulled . Count Caylus has given an engraving of the body of a small
puppet, made of ivory or bone; but he requires too much when he desires us
to consider that fragment, merely on his word, as a piece of Greek or
Roman antiquity. He at least ought to have informed us where it was found,
and by what means he procured it. In regard to such articles, it is as easy to
deceive as to be led into an error; and objects of bone are certainly of no
334
great duration .
The question concerning the antiquity of automata, properly so called,
which are moved by wheels, weights and springs, I shall leave to those who
have read the works of the ancient mathematicians, and who may be
desirous of writing on the history of mechanics. As far as I know, the
ancients were not acquainted with the art of making them, unless some
propositions of Ctesibius, mentioned by Vitruvius, allude to that subject.

When clocks were brought to perfection, some artists added to them figures,
which at the time of striking performed various movements; and as they
succeeded in these, some attempted to make, detached from clocks, single
figures, which either moved certain limbs, or advanced forward and ran. In
335
the middle of the sixteenth century, when Hans Bullmann , a padlock-
maker at Nuremberg, constructed figures of men and women which moved
backwards and forwards by clock-work, beat a drum, and played on the lute
according to musical time, they excited universal astonishment as a new
invention. It was about the same period that watches came into use. The
accounts however which speak of much older automata deserve to be
examined with more attention.
The most ancient of all are undoubtedly the tripods constructed by
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Vulcan , which being furnished with wheels, advanced forwards to be
used, and again returned to their places. But what was impossible to the
gods of Homer? An unbeliever might conjecture that these tripods, which
337
are mentioned also by Aristotle , and which perhaps were only a kind of
small tables or dumb-waiters, had wheels so contrived that they could be
put in motion and driven to a distance on the smallest impulse, like the fire-
pans in our country beer-houses, at which the boors light their pipes.
That Dædalus made statues which could not only walk, but which it
was necessary to tie, in order that they might not move, is related by
338
Plato , Aristotle, and others. The latter speaks of a wooden Venus, and
remarks that the secret of its motion consisted in quicksilver having been
poured into it. What the author here means I cannot comprehend; but I do
not imagine that this Venus threw itself topsy-turvy backwards, like the
Chinese puppets. However this may be, it is astonishing that the Chinese
should have fallen upon the invention of giving motion to puppets by means
339
of quicksilver, and in so ingenious a manner, that Muschenbroek thought
it worth his while to describe their whole construction, and to illustrate it by
figures. But before this method was known in Europe, Kircher had an idea
of putting a small waggon in motion by adding to it a pipe filled with
340
quicksilver, and heating it with a candle placed below it . The account of

Aristotle is more mysterious, for he does not inform us how the quicksilver
acted.
Callistratus, another writer, who was the tutor of Demosthenes, gives us
to understand that the statues of Dædalus were made to move by the
341
mechanical powers . But what has been asserted by Palæphatus, and by
342
Gedoyn , Banier, Goguet, and others among the moderns, is most
probable. The first statues of the Greeks were imitations of those of the
Egyptians, for the most part clumsy figures, with their eyes shut, their arms
hanging down close to the body on each side, and their feet joined together.
Those made by Dædalus had their eyes open, as well as their feet and hands
free; and the artist gave them such a posture, that they seemed either
343
reclining, or appeared as if ready to walk or to run. As Anacreon , struck
with wonder, exclaimed when he saw a waxen image of his favourite
object, “Begone, wax, thou wilt soon speak!” the astonished Greeks in like
manner cried out, when they beheld the statues of Dædalus, “They will
soon walk.” The next generation affirmed that they really walked; and their
posterity, adding still to what was told them, asserted that they would have
run had they not been bound.
Equally imperfect is the account given of the wooden pigeon
constructed by Archytas of Tarentum. We are informed that it flew; but
when it had once settled, it could not again take flight. The latter is not
incredible; but even if we allow that aërostatic machines were then known,
it is impossible to believe the former. At present one cannot determine with
344
any probability, what piece of mechanism gave rise to this relation . The
head of Albertus Magnus, which is said not only to have moved, but to have
spoken, is too little known for any opinion to be formed concerning it. The
construction of it must have been very ingenious and complex, if it be true
345
that he was employed upon it thirty years .
In the fourteenth and following centuries, automata, as I have said,
were frequently made. Among these was the iron fly of John Müller or
Molitor, or, as he is sometimes called, Regiomontanus, which is said to
have flown about; and his artificial eagle, which flew to meet the Emperor
Maximilian on his arrival at Nuremberg, June the 7th, 1470. None of the

contemporary writers, however, though they often speak of this very
learned man, make the least mention of these pieces of mechanism; and it is
346
probable that the whole tale originated with Peter Ramus , who never was
347
at Nuremberg till the year 1571. J. W. Baier endeavours to prove that the
above-mentioned fly, moved by wheel-work, leaped about upon a table; and
that the eagle perched upon the town-gate, stretched out its wings on the
emperor’s approach, and saluted him by an inclination of its body. We know
that Charles V., after his abdication, amused himself during the latter period
348
of his life with automata of various kinds .
The most ingenious, or at least the most celebrated automata, were
those made by Vaucanson, which he exhibited publicly at Paris, for the first
time, in 1738. One of them, which represented a flute-player sitting,
performed twelve tunes, and, as we are assured, by wind issuing from its
mouth into a German-flute, the holes of which it opened and shut with its
fingers. The second was a standing figure, which in the like manner played
on the Provençal shepherd’s pipe, held in its left hand, and with the right
beat upon a drum or tambour de Basque. The third was a duck, of the
natural size, which moved its wings, exhibited all the gestures of that
animal, quacked like a duck, drank water, ate corn, and then after a little
time let drop behind it something that resembled the excrement of a
349
duck . These pieces must have been often imitated. I saw some of the like
kind in the year 1764, at the palace of Zarsko-Selo, near Petersburg, and
350
was told that they had been purchased from Vaucanson . As far as I can
remember, the tambourin was damaged. I saw there also a regiment of
351
soldiers, which went through their exercise, moved by wheel-work .
In the year 1752, one Du Moulin, a silversmith, travelled about through
Germany with automata like those of Vaucanson. In 1754, he wished to
dispose of them to the margrave of Bayreuth; but he was obliged to pawn
them in Nuremberg, at the house of Pfluger, who offered to sell them for
3000 florins, the sum lent upon them. They were afterwards purchased by
counsellor Beireis, at Helmstadt, who kindly showed them to me. It is much
to be regretted that the machinery of them is greatly deranged; the flute-
player emits only some very faint tones; but the duck eats, drinks, and

moves still. The ribs, which are of wire, had been covered with duck’s
feathers, so as to imitate nature; and as these are now lost, one can see
better the interior construction; respecting which I shall only observe, that
the motion is communicated by means of a cylinder and fine chains, like
that of a watch, all proceeding through the feet of the duck, which are of the
352
usual size. Nicolai says that Du Moulin came to Petersburg in 1755, and
died at Moscow in 1765. It is probable that he made the automata which I
saw in Russia. Those which he left behind him at Nuremberg seem either
not to have been completed, or to have been designedly spoiled by him; for
they appeared to have defects which could not be ascribed to any accident.
M. Beireis however has begun to cause them to be repaired.
Of all these automata, the duck I confess appeared to me the most
ingenious; but I can prove that like pieces of mechanism were made before
353
the time of Vaucanson. We are told by Labat , that the French general De
Gennes, who, about the year 1688, defended the colony of St. Christopher
against the English, constructed a peacock which could walk about, pick up
from the ground corn thrown before it, digest it, according to appearance,
and afterwards drop something that resembled excrement. This man was of
an ancient noble family in Brittany, which had however been so reduced,
that the father carried on a handicraft. The son became acquainted with the
marquis de Vivonne, who, on account of his promising talents, bred him to
the sea. He rose to be commander of a vessel, conducted a squadron to the
Straits of Magellan, where it was intended to form a colony, and obtained in
Cayenne a tract of land, which he got erected into a county, under the name
of Oyac. He invented machines of various kinds useful in navigation and
gunnery, and, as we are told, constructed clocks that moved without weights
or springs.
The flute-player also of Vaucanson was not the first of its kind. In the
beginning of the sixteenth century, the anonymous author of that well-
known poem Zodiacus Vitæ, saw at Rome a figure made in the like manner
by a potter. It is much to be regretted that no account is given of its
construction.

Vidi ego dum Romæ, decimo regnante Leone,
Essem, opus a figulo factum, juvenisque figuram,
354
Efflantem angusto validum ventum oris hiatu .

I shall here beg leave to say a few words respecting an object of
juggling, which, however old it may be, still excites astonishment, and has
355
often imposed upon the credulity of men of learning : I mean those
speaking machines, which, according to appearance, answer various
questions proposed to them, sometimes in different languages, sing, and
even blow a huntsman’s horn. The figure, or only a head, is often placed
upon a box, the forepart of which, for the better deception, is filled with a
pair of bellows, a sounding-board, cylinder, and pipes, supposed to
represent the organs of speech. At other times the machine is only like a
peruke-maker’s block, hung round with a Turkish dress, furnished with a
pair of arms, and placed before a table, and sometimes the puppet stands
upon the table, or against a wall. The sounds are heard through a speaking-
trumpet, which the figure holds in its mouth.
Many jugglers are so impudent as to assert that the voice does not
proceed from a man, but is produced by machinery, in the same manner as
the music of an organ. Some, like the last whom I saw, are more modest or
timorous, and give evasive answers to the questions asked them respecting
the cause of the voice, with as much art as those who exhibit with balls and
cups. Concerning these speaking machines, however, different opinions are
entertained. Some affirm that the voice issues from the machine; others, that
the juggler answers himself, by speaking as ventriloquists do, or by having
the power to alter his voice; and some believe that the answers are given by
a man somewhere concealed. The violence with which these opinions are
maintained exposes the juggler often to the danger of losing his life; for,
when the illusion is detected, the populace, who in part suffer themselves
willingly to be deceived, and who even pay the juggler for his deception,
imagine that they have a right to avenge themselves for being imposed on.
The machines are sometimes broken; and the owners of them are harshly
treated as impostors. For my part, I do not see why a juggler, with a
speaking machine, is a more culpable impostor than he who pretends to
breathe out flames and to swallow boiling oil, or to make puppets speak, as

in the Chinese shadows. The spectators pay for the pleasure which they
receive from a well-concealed deception, and with greater satisfaction the
more difficult it is for them to discover it. But the person who speaks or
sings through a puppet, is so well hid, that people of considerable
penetration have imagined that such concealment was impossible. At
present this art is well known.
Either a child or a woman is concealed in the juggler’s box; or some
person, placed in a neighbouring apartment, speaks into the end of a pipe
which proceeds through the wall to the puppet, and which conveys the
answers to the spectators. The juggler gives every necessary assistance to
the person by signs previously agreed on. I was once shown, in company
with M. Stock, upon promising secrecy, the assistant in another apartment,
standing before the pipe, with a card in his hand on which the signs were
marked; and he had been brought into the house so privately that the
landlady was ignorant of the circumstance. The juggler, however,
acknowledged that he did not exhibit without fear; and that he would not
venture to stay long at a place like Göttingen, or to return with his Turks,
though the populace were so civil as to permit him to depart peaceably with
what he had gained.
The invention of causing statues to speak by this method seems so
simple, that one can scarcely help conjecturing that it was employed in the
earliest periods to support superstition; and many have imagined that the
356
greater part of the oracles spoke in the same manner . This, however, is
false, as has been proved by the Jesuit Baltus, and the anonymous author of
357
a Reply to Fontenelle’s History of Oracles . It appears that the pagan
priests, like our jugglers, were afraid that their deceptions, if long practised,
might be discovered. They considered it therefore as more secure to deliver
the answers themselves; or cause them to be delivered by women instructed
for that purpose, or by writing, or by any other means. We read,
358
nevertheless, that idols and the images of saints once spoke; for at
present the latter will not venture to open their mouths. If their votaries ever
really heard a voice proceed from the statue, it may have been produced in
the before-mentioned manner.

Whether the head of Orpheus spoke in the island of Lesbos, or, what is
more probable, the answers were conveyed to it by the priests, as was the
case with the tripod at Delphi, cannot with certainty be determined. That the
impostor Alexander, however, caused his Æsculapius to speak in this
359
manner, is expressly related by Lucian . He took, says that author, instead
of a pipe, the gullet of a crane, and transmitted the voice through it to the
mouth of the statue. In the fourth century, when bishop Theophilus broke to
pieces the statues at Alexandria, he found some which were hollow, and
placed in such a manner against a wall that a priest could slip unperceived
360
behind them, and speak to the ignorant populace through their mouths . I
am acquainted with a passage which seems to imply that Cassiodorus, who,
it is well known, constructed various pieces of mechanism, made also
speaking machines; but I must confess that I do not think I understand the
361
words perfectly .
That people ventured more than a hundred years ago to exhibit
speaking machines for money, has been proved by Reitz in his annotations
to Lucian, where he produces the instance of one Thomas Irson, an
Englishman, whom he himself knew, and whose art excited much wonder in
king Charles II. and his whole court. When the astonishment, however,
became general, one of the pages discovered, in the adjoining chamber, a
popish priest who answered in the same language, through a pipe, the
questions proposed to the wooden head by whispering into its ear. This
362
deception Irson often related himself .
I shall now add only a few observations respecting the Chinese
shadows, which I have occasionally mentioned before. This ingenious
amusement consists in moving, by pegs fastened to them, small figures cut
out of pasteboard, the joints of which are all pliable, behind a piece of fine
painted gauze placed before an opening in a curtain, in such a manner as to
exhibit various scenes, according to pleasure; while the opening covered
with gauze is illuminated, towards the apartment where the spectators sit,
by means of light reflected back from a mirror; so that the shadows of the
pegs are concealed. When it is requisite to cause a figure to perform a
variety of movements, it is necessary to have several persons, who must be

exceedingly expert. When a snake is to be represented gliding, the figure,
which consists of delicate rings, must be directed at least by three assistants.
This amusement, which one can hardly see the first time without
pleasure, is really a Chinese invention. Many years ago, I have seen
Chinese boxes on which such moveable figures were apparent only when
the box was held against the light. In China, these shadows are used at the
well-known feast of lanterns; and a description of them may be found in the
works of some travellers. That they were common also in Egypt, we are
363
informed by Prosper Alpinus , who admired them much; but he was not
able to discover the method by which they were produced, as it was kept a
secret. I was told by an Italian, who exhibited them at Göttingen some years
ago, that they were first imitated, from the Chinese, at Bologna.

FOOTNOTES
281
Essais, i. 54.
282
The juggler mentioned in Xenophon requested the gods to allow
him to remain only in places where there was much money and
abundance of simpletons.
283
Le Siècle de Louis XIV. Berlin, 1751, 12mo, i. p. 44. This horse
was seen in the above-mentioned year by Casaubon, to whom the
owner, an Englishman, discovered the whole art by which he had
been trained. See Casauboniana, p. 56. We are assured by
Jablonski, in his Lexicon der Künste und Wissenschaften, p. 547,
that he was condemned to the flames at Lisbon. In the year 1739, a
juggler in Poland was tortured till he confessed that he was a
sorcerer, and without further proof he was hanged. The whole
account of this circumstance may be found in the Schlesischen
gelehrten Neuigkeiten for the year 1739.
284
See Luciani Opera, ed. Bipont. v. pp. 388, 407.

285
Florus, iii. 19, 4.
286
Directions for performing this trick may be found in various works,
such as Joh. Wallbergen’s Zauberkünste, Stuttgard, 1754, 8vo, and
Natürliches Zauberbuch, Nurnberg, 1740, 8vo.
287
See Bayle’s Diction. i. p. 450, art. Barchochebas.
288
Philostorgii Hist. Eccles. vii. 7, p. 93.
289
Vita Alexandri, p. 687.
290
Galen, l. c.
291
Ovid. Met. lib. ix. 160.
292
Instances may be found collected in Huetii Alnetanæ Quæstion. lib.
ii. and in Bayle’s Dictionary, art. Egnatia.
293
Journal des Sçavans, 1667, pp. 54, 222; and 1680, p. 292.
Deslandes, Mémoires de Physique, ii. and Bremenscher Magazin,
i. p. 665. See also Busbequii Omnia, Basil, 1740, 8vo, p. 314.
294
[Deception might have been easily practised in this case. Fusible
metal, as suggested by Sir David Brewster, Nat. Magic, p. 301,
which consists of mercury, tin and bismuth, and which melts at a
low temperature, might easily have been substituted in place of
lead; and fluids, the boiling-point of which is lower than water,
might easily have been substituted for that liquid.
A solution of spermaceti in sulphuric æther, tinged with alkanet
root, which solidifies at 50° F., and melts and boils with the heat of
the hand, is supposed to be the substance which is used at Naples,
when the dried blood of St. Januarius melts spontaneously and
boils over the vessel which contains it.
The experiments of M. Tillet, Dr. Fordyce and Sir Charles
Blagden, will show the great heat which may be endured by the
human body. Some of these gentlemen remained in a room where

the heat was one or two degrees above 260° F. for eight minutes; a
beaf-steak was cooked in the same atmosphere, and was overdone
in thirty-three minutes; when the steak was blown upon with a pair
of bellows, it was found to be pretty well done in thirteen minutes.
But Sir F. Chantry exposed himself to a still greater heat in the
furnace used for drying his moulds. When raised to its highest
temperature, the thermometer indicated 350° F., and the iron floor
was red-hot. The workmen often entered it at 340°. On one
occasion Sir F., accompanied by five or six of his friends, entered
the furnace, and after remaining two minutes, they brought out a
thermometer which indicated 320°. Some of the party experienced
sharp pains in the tips of their ears, and in the septum of the nose,
whilst others felt a pain in their eyes.—Brewster, l. c.]
295
[The peculiar property of minerals and various salts, as alum, in
forming and protecting articles of dress, &c. from the effects of
fire, has long been known. But the art of practically applying it, is
due to the ingenuity of the Chevalier Aldini of Milan. His dress
consisted of a strong cloth covering which had been steeped in a
solution of alum, for the body, arms and legs; whilst the head-dress
was a large cap enveloping the whole head down to the neck, with
holes for the nose, eyes and mouth; the covering for the feet was
composed of asbestos, or amianthus cloth. The stockings and cap
were single, but the gloves were double, to enable the fireman to
take burning or red-hot bodies into his hands. A metallic dress was
added to this, consisting of a cap, with a mask, leaving a space
between it and the asbestos cap; a cuirass; a piece of armour for
the trunk and thighs; a pair of boots of double wire-gauze; and an
oval shield five feet long by two and a half wide, made by
stretching the wire-gauze over a slender frame of iron. All these
pieces were made of wire-gauze.
It was found, that when armed with this apparatus, a man could
walk upon hot iron, in the midst of high flames, keep his head over
a pan of flaming fire, &c. for several minutes, and this in some
cases where the heat was so intense that bystanders were obliged
to stand at the distance of eight or ten yards. This was remarkably
shown in 1829, in the yard of the barracks of St. Jervais. Two

towers were erected, two stories high, and were surrounded with
heaps of inflamed faggots and straw. One of the firemen, with a
child on his back, in a wicker basket covered with metallic gauze,
and having a cap of amiantheric cloth, rushed into a narrow place,
where the flames were raging eight yards high. The violence of the
fire was so great that he could not be seen, while a thick black
smoke spread around, throwing out a heat which was
insupportable to the spectators. The man remained so long
invisible that serious doubts were entertained of his safety. He at
length, however, issued from the fiery gulf uninjured.]
296
The same thing was performed by Schreber in 1760.
297
Plin. vii. 11.—Virg. Æn. xi.—Silius Ital. v.—Strabo, v.
298
Strabo, xii.
299
In his work De Mirabilibus Mundi, at the end of his book De
Secretis Mulierum, Amstelod. 1702, 12mo, p. 100.
300
Antigone, 270.
301
Animad. in Athen. lib. i. 15.
302
De Theatro, lib. i. 40, in Grævii Thes. Ant. Rom. ix.
303
Lib. iii. epist. 20.—Seneca, Epist. 45. Compare Suidas, Pollux, and
Athenæi Deipn. 4. It is probable that Quintilian alludes to this art
in his Institut. x. 7, 11.
304
Plin. vii. 20, p. 385.—Martial. v. 12.—Suidas, speaking of
Theogenes Thasius.—Haller, Elem. Physiol. iv. p. 486.
305
Vopiscus, Vita Firmi. See the figure in Desaguliers, tab. xix. fig. 5.
He describes the position thus:—The pretended Samson puts his
shoulders (not his head, as he used to give out) upon one chair, and
his heels upon another (the chairs being made fast), and supports
one or two men standing on his belly, raising them up and down as

he breathes, making with his backbone, thighs and legs, an arch
whose abutments are the chairs.
306
A course of Experimental Philosophy. Lond. 1745, 4to, i. p. 266.
[A popular account of these extraordinary feats, with illustrations
and explanations of the principles on which they depend, is given
by Sir David Brewster in his interesting volume on Natural Magic,
p. 246.]
307
Versuche und Abhandl. der Naturforsch. Geselsch. in Danzig.
308
A great many of these passages of the ancients have been collected
by Bulenger, in his work De Theatro, i. cap. 41. See also Des
Camps in a dissertation contained in Recherches Curieuses
d’Antiquité, par Spon. A Lyon 1683.—Mercurialis De Arte
Gymnast. and Fabricii Biblioth. Antiq. p. 995.
309
An epigram, ascribed to Petronius, at page 542 of the edition of
Hadrianides, belongs to this subject.
310
Muratori Antiquit. Ital. Med. Ævi, ii. p. 846.
311
Von Stetten, Kunstgeschichte von Augsburg, ii. p. 177.
312
Claudian. de Mallii Consul. 320. In Cilano’s Römischen
Alterthümer, ii. fig. 8, there is a representation like what I have
often seen exhibited. But the most dangerous and the most curious
is that of which an engraving is given in Splendor Urbis
Venetiarum, to be found in Grævii Thesaurus Antiquit. Italiæ, v. 3.
p. 374.
313
Sat. xiv. 265.
314
Lib. v. 433.
315
Symposium, p. 655, edition of Basle, 1555. fol. Εἰσεφέρετο τῇ
ὀρχηστρίδι τροχὸς τῶν κεραμεικῶν ἐφ’ οὗ ἔμελλε
θαυμασιουργήσειν. In the old edition of J. Ribittus, this passage is

thus translated: “Allata est saltatrici orbis saltatorius, in quo
admiranda erat editura.” The first question that arises is, what was
τροχὸς τῶν κεραμεικῶν. The last word alluded to a place at Athens
where wrestling was exhibited every year; and on that account
Aristophanes uses the expression πληγαὶ κεραμεικαί. This however
affords no explanation. Bulenger, who quotes the same passage,
translates it in the following manner: “Illata est saltatrici figularis
rota, per quam se trajiceret, et miracula patraret.” He means here
therefore a potter’s wheel, the invention of Anacharsis, but that
was always called κεραμικὸς τροχὸς, and not τροχὸς τῶν
κεραμεικῶν. But even allowing that a potter’s wheel is meant, it is
wrong to add per quam se trajiceret; for the potter’s wheel is not
like a hoop, but like a plate or dish; and when turned round
revolves not vertically, but horizontally. Besides, how the
performer could write or read on a wheel that she jumped through,
he has not thought proper to explain. “Scribere et legere in rota
dum versatur, mirabile quiddam est.” If a potter’s wheel be meant,
I consider it as certainly possible for a person to stand upon it
whilst it revolves with the greatest velocity, and even to read or
write; but it would be necessary to lift up the legs, in turn, with the
utmost quickness.
316
Nicephorus Gregor. viii. 10. p. 215. This company of rope-dancers
came from Egypt. They travelled through the greater part of Asia,
and all Europe, as far as the extremity of Spain. At Constantinople
they extended the ropes, on which they first exhibited their art,
between the masts of ships. One is almost induced to believe that
stupid superstition did not then prevail so much in Europe as at the
beginning of the last century. The historian says that the company
at first consisted of forty persons; but that the half of them were
cast away on their passage to Constantinople. He does not,
however, tell us that they or their horses were anywhere burnt as
conjurors, or possessed with the devil.
317
See the German translation of his Travels, ii. p. 238.

318
Journal du Règne de Henri III. p. 57.—Recueil de Pièces servant à
l’Hist. de Henri III. Cologne, 1666, 12mo.
319
Epistolarum Selectarum Centuria. Antverpiæ, 1605, 4to, i. epist.
50. p. 59.—Plin. viii. 1 and 3.—Seneca, epist. 86.—Suetonii Vit.
Galbæ.—Dio Cassius. A great many also may be found collected
in Hartenfels Elephantographia, Erfordiæ, 1715, 4to. It appears
that in the thirteenth century some ventured to ride a horse upon a
rope. See the Chronicle Alberichi Monachi Trium-Fontium,
inserted by Leibnitz in Accessiones Historicæ, vol. ii., where a
description is given of the solemnities at the wedding of Robert,
brother to the king of France, in the year 1237.
Several instances of the dexterity of the elephant may be found
in Lipsii Laus Elephantis, inserted in Dissertat. Ludicrarum et
Amœnitatum Scriptores varii, Lugd. Bat. 1638.—Trans.
320
Æliani Hist. An. xvi. 23. vi. 10.—Athenæus, lib. xii.—Plinius.
321
One instance may be found in Theophanis Chronographia, which
was printed at Paris 1655, fol. It occurred in the seventeenth year
of the reign of Justinian, or 543.
322
Universal Magazine, 1766, October, p. 217.
323
Der entlarvte Wildman, Betrüger grosser Höfe. Berlin, 1774, 8vo.
See also Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeig. 1775, p. 816. The name of
impostor given to Wildman was, however, too harsh; for I do not
think that he who performs anything extraordinary, never done by
any one before, becomes an impostor when another discovers his
art.
324
The voyage of Brue is in Labat’s Afrique Occidentale, iv.
325
[A curious exhibition of this kind has been made public for several
years in the Strand, viz. the “industrious fleas.” These noxious
animals are here seen to draw and drive a coach and four; fire off a
small cannon; and various other performances of a similar kind.]

326
Several instances of the like kind may be found also in
Monstrorum Historia Memorabilis a J. G. Schenkio a Grafenberg
filio, Francof. 1609, 4to, p. 28 et seq. One of the most curious is
that of Thomas Schweicker, born at Halle in Prussian Saxony, in
the year 1586. Camerarius saw him not only write, but even make
a pen with his feet.—Trans.
327
Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1048. ed. Almel.—Dio Cassius, lib. liv. p. 739.
Suetonius, Eutropius, Eusebius and Orosius, speak of this embassy,
but make no mention of the presents.
328
[In modern times the idle portion of the public has been gratified
by the exhibition of the Siamese twins; the diminutive monster
Tom Thumb; and quite recently a child with three legs. The birth
of such monsters is equivalent to a legacy or fortune to the parents,
who by their exhibitions realise large sums: the morbid taste of the
public, especially the weaker portion, for such sights is truly
deplorable.]
329
Man. Astron. lib. v. 165.
330
Frisch derives this word from morio, a fool or buffoon.
331
This piece of kitchen furniture was known in the middle of the
sixteenth century. Montagne saw one at Brixen, in Tyrol, in the
year 1580, and wrote a description of it in his Journal, as a new
invention. He says it consisted entirely of wheels; that it was kept
in motion by a heavy piece of iron, as clocks are by a weight, and
that when wound up in the like manner, it turned the meat for a
whole hour. He had before seen, in some other place, another
driven by smoke.—Reise, i. pp. 155, 249. The latter kind seem to
be somewhat older. Scappi, cook to pope Pius V., gave a figure of
one in his book Opera di M. Bartolomeo Scappi, printed at Venice
1570, which is exceedingly scarce. I lately saw a copy, which,
instead of eighteen, had twenty-four engravings. It was printed
twice afterwards at the same place, viz. in 1571 and 1605, in
quarto. The third edition says, “con due aggiunte, cio é il

Trinciante et il Maestro di casa.” Bayle seems to confound this
book with that of Platina De Honesta Voluptate, or to think that the
latter was the real author of it. This however cannot be, as there
were more than a hundred years between the periods when Scappi
and Platina lived. Platina died in 1481, and not in 1581, as we read
in Bayle.
332
De Mundo. cap. vi.
333
Herodot. ii. 48. p. 127.—Lucian. de Syria Dea, 16, ed. Bipont. ix.
p. 99.
334
Recueil des Antiquit. iv. p. 259.
335
Doppelmayer, p. 285.
336
Iliad, xviii. 373. It deserves to be remarked, that there were also
such τρίποδες αὐτόματοι at the banquet of Iarchas. See Philostrat.
Opera, ed. Olearii, pp. 117, 240.
337
Polit. i. 3.
338
In his Menon, p. 426.—Euthyphron, pp. 8, 11.
339
Introd. in Philos. Nat. i. p. 143.
340
Physiologia Kircheriana, fol. p. 69.
341
In Philostrati Opera, ed. Olearii, p. 899.
342
In Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscr. xiii. p. 274.
343
Ode xxvii.
344
Aulus Gellius, x. 12.
345
See Naudé’s Apology, Bayle’s Dictionary, &c. Thomas Aquinas is
said to have been so frightened when he saw this head, that he

broke it to pieces, and Albertus thereupon exclaimed, “Periit opus
triginta annorum!”
346
Schol. Mathemat. lib. ii. p. 65.
347
Dissertat. de Regiomontani Aquila et Musca Ferrea. Altorfi, 1709.
—See Mémoires de Trevoux, 1710, Juillet, p. 1283.—
Doppelmayer, p. 23.—Fabricii Bibl. Med. Ætat. iv. p. 355.—
Heilbronner Hist. Math. p. 504.
348
Strada De Bello Belgico. Mogunt. 1651, 4to, p. 8. He calls the
artist Jannellus Turrianus Cremonensis.
349
In the year 1738, Le Méchanisme du Fluteur Automate, par
Vaucanson, was printed at Paris, in a thin 4to. It contains only a
short description of the flute-player, which is copied into the
Encyclopédie, i. p. 448, under the article Androide. The duck, as
far as I know, has been nowhere described.
350
Vaucanson died at Paris in 1782.
351
[The publisher is in possession of an elegantly formed mechanical
bird-cage, in which two artificial bullfinches wheel about on a
perch, flutter their wings, and move their beaks, while emitting
musical sounds in imitation of their natural note. A fountain
constructed of spiral glass plays in the centre. Beneath the cage is a
clock which sets the whole in motion hourly, for three or four
minutes; but it may be set going independently, like a musical
snuff-box. It is presumed to have been made by Vaucanson about a
hundred years ago, and was at one time a principal attraction at
Weeks’s celebrated Museum, where that singular piece of
mechanism the Tarantula spider was first exhibited.]
352
Nicolai, Reise, i. p. 287.
353
Nouveau Voyage aux Iles de l’Amerique. A la Haye 1724, 2 vols.
4to, ii. pp. 298, 384. From his county he was called Count de
Gennes.

354
Zodiacus Vitæ, xi. 846.
355
See a small treatise Ueber H. D. Muller’s Redende Maschine, und
über redende Maschinen überhaupt. Nurnberg, 1788, 8vo.—
Algem. Teutsches Biblioth. vol. lxxxvii. p. 473. The Speaking
Figure and the Automaton Chess-player exposed and detected.
London, 1784, 8vo.—[This celebrated chess-playing automaton,
invented by M. Vankempelin, was repaired and exhibited in
London in 1820, by the ingenious mechanician Maelzel, with
considerable success. The figure and machinery were always
submitted to the inspection of the visitors, and shifted along the
floor in various directions before the game commenced, and the
deception was so adroitly managed as to escape the detection of
the most scrutinizing. The proprietor always took care to secure
the best chess-player in the town before he commenced operations,
the wonder therefore was greatly increased by the superiority of
the automaton’s play. Mr. Lewis directed it in London. It is now
generally admitted that a boy was concealed inside.]
356
Van Dale De Oraculis. Amstelod. 1700, 4to, i. 10, p. 222.
357
Réponse à l’Histoire des Oracles de M. de Fontenelle.
358
A few instances are related by Livy, Valerius Maximus, and
Plutarch. Among the fables of the Christian church they are more
numerous.
359
Vol. v. p. 90. editio Bipont.
360
Theodoreti Hist. Eccles. v. 22.
361
Cassiodori Variar. i. ep. 45.
362
[Speaking Automaton.—There is a piece of mechanism now
exhibiting to the public at the Egyptian Hall—the work of
Professor Faber, of Vienna, and the result, as he states, of twenty-
five years of labour and preparation. The name which he has given

to this product of his ingenuity is the Euphonia; and the work, as
that name implies, is another of those many combinations which
have attempted, by the anatomical and physiological study of the
structures that contribute to the human voice, to attain to an
imitation of that organ as regards both sound and articulation. As
an example of inductive and mechanical skill this exhibition is
well deserving of attention. The professor himself, by an
arrangement of bellows-pipes, pedal and keys, which he plays
somewhat like the keys of a piano, prompts the discourse of his
automaton; which certainly does enunciate both sounds and words.
When we entered the room we found it singing to a select society.
It requires all our sense of the ingenuity and perseverance which
have been bestowed on the work to induce our assent to the
proposition which calls the voice human; but undoubtedly it is a
remarkable result of contriving skill and scientific patience.—
Athæneum.]
363
Historia Ægypti Natural. Lugd. Bat. 1735, 4to, p. 60.

ARTIFICIAL ICE. COOLING LIQUORS.
The art of preserving snow for cooling liquors during the summer, in
warm countries, was known in the earliest ages. This practice is mentioned
364
by Solomon , and proofs of it are so numerous in the works of the Greeks
and the Romans, that it is unnecessary for me to quote them, especially as
365
they have been collected by others . How the repositories for keeping it
were constructed, we are not expressly told; but what I know on the subject
I shall here lay before the reader.
366
That the snow was preserved in pits or trenches, is asserted by many .
When Alexander the Great besieged the city of Petra, he caused thirty
trenches to be dug and filled with snow, which was covered with oak
367
branches, and which kept in that manner for a long time . Plutarch says
368
that a covering of chaff and coarse cloth is sufficient ; and at present a
like method is pursued in Portugal. Where the snow has been collected in a
deep gulf, some grass or green sods, covered with dung from the sheep-
pens, is thrown over it; and under these it is so well preserved, that the
whole summer through it is sent the distance of sixty Spanish miles to
369
Lisbon .
When the ancients therefore wished to have cooling liquors, they either
drank the melted snow or put some of it in their wine, or they placed jars
filled with wine in the snow, and suffered it to cool there as long as they
thought proper. It appears that in these trenches it could not remain long
clean; on the contrary, it was generally so full of chaff, that the snow-water
was somewhat coloured with it, and had a taste of it, and for this reason it
370
was necessary to strain either it or the wine that had been cooled by it .

That ice also was preserved for the like purpose, is probable from the
371
testimony of various authors ; but it appears not to have been used so
much in warm countries as in the northern. Even at present snow is
372
employed in Italy, Spain, and Portugal; but in Persia, ice . I have never
anywhere found an account of Grecian or Roman ice-houses. By the writers
on agriculture they are not mentioned.
Mankind however soon conceived the idea of cooling water without
snow or ice, from having remarked that it became cold more speedily when
it had been previously boiled, or at least warmed, and then put in a vessel
among snow, or in a place much exposed to the air. Pliny seems to give this
373 374
as an invention of Nero ; and a jocular expression in Suetonius makes
it at any rate probable that he was fond of water cooled by this method; but
it appears to be much older. It seems to have been known even to
375 376
Hippocrates: at least Galen believes so. And Aristotle was
undoubtedly acquainted with it; for he says that some were accustomed,
when they wished water to become soon cold, to place it first in the sun and
suffer it to grow warm. He relates also that, the fishermen near the Black
Sea poured boiling water over the reeds which they used in fishing on the
377
ice to cause them to freeze sooner. Galen on this subject is still more
precise. He informs us that the above practice was not so much used in Italy
and Greece, where snow could be procured, as in Egypt and other warm
countries, where neither snow nor cool springs were to be found. The water
after it had been boiled was put into earthen vessels or jars, and exposed in
the evening on the upper part of the house to the night air. In the morning
these vessels were put into the earth (perhaps in a pit), moistened on the
outside with water, and then bound round with fresh or green plants, by
which means the water could be preserved cool throughout the whole day.
378
Athenæus , who gives a like account from a book of Protagorides,
remarks, that the pitchers filled with water, which had become warm by
standing all day long in the sun, were kept continually wet during the night,
by servants destined to that office, and in the morning were bound round
379
with straw. In the island of Cimolus , water which had become warm in
the day-time was put into earthen jars, and deposited in a cool cellar, where

it grew as cold as snow. It was generally believed therefore, that water
which had been warmed or boiled, was soonest cooled, as well as acquired
a greater degree of refrigeration; and on this account boiled water is
380
mentioned so often in the works of the ancients .
The same opinion prevails at present in the southern countries of Asia,
and people there still let their water boil before they expose it to the air to
381
cool . The experiments however which have been made on this subject by
philosophers, have proved very different in the result. When one indeed
places boiling and cold water, all other circumstances being equal, in frosty
air, the latter will become ice before the former has cooled; but when one
exposes to the cold, water that has been boiled, and unboiled water of equal
temperatures, the former will be converted into ice somewhat sooner.
382 383
The experiments made by Mariotte , Perrault , the Academy del
384 385
Cimento , Marian and others, showed no perceptible difference in the
time of freezing, between boiled and unboiled water; but the former
produced ice harder and clearer, the latter ice more full of blisters. In later
times, Dr. Black of Edinburgh has, from his experiments, asserted the
contrary. Boiled water, he says, becomes ice sooner than unboiled, if the
latter be left at perfect rest; but if the latter be stirred sometimes with a
chocolate stick, it is converted into ice as soon as the former. This
difference he explains in the following manner:—Some motion promotes
congelation; this arises in the boiled water through its re-imbibing air; and
therefore it must necessarily freeze before the unboiled, provided the latter
be kept at perfect rest. Fahrenheit had before remarked that water not
moved, would show a cold several degrees below the freezing-point,
386
without becoming ice .
M. Lichtenberg, with whom I conversed on these contradictory results,
assured me that he was not surprised at this difference in the experiments.
The time of congelation is regulated by circumstances, with which
philosophers are not yet sufficiently acquainted. A certain, but not every
degree of stirring hastens it; so that every icy particle which is formed on
the side of the vessel, or which falls from the atmosphere, may convert the
water sufficiently cooled into ice instantaneously; and such unavoidable

accidents must, where all other circumstances are equal, cause a great
difference in the period of freezing.
I am inclined to think that the cooling of water, in ancient times, of
which I have already spoken, is not to be ascribed so much to the boiling as
to the jars being kept continually wet, and to the air to which it was
exposed. A false opinion seems therefore to have prevailed respecting the
cause; and because it was considered to be the boiling, many have not
mentioned the real cause, which appeared to them only to afford a trifling
assistance, though it has been remarked both by Galen and Athenæus. We
know at present that coolness is produced by evaporation. A thermometer
387
kept wet in the open air falls as long as evaporation continues . With
sulphuric æther, and still better with that of nitre, which evaporates very
rapidly, water may be made to freeze even in the middle of summer; and
Cavallo saw in summer a Fahrenheit’s thermometer, which stood at 64°, fall
in two minutes, by means of æther, to +3, that is to 29° below the
388
freezing-point .
On this principle depends the art of making ice at Calcutta and other
parts of India, between 25° 30′ and 23° 30′ of north latitude, where natural
ice is never seen unless imported. Trenches two feet deep, dug in an open
plain, are strewed over with dry straw; and in these are placed small
shallow unglazed earthen pans, filled with water at sunset. The ice which is
produced in them is carried away before sunrise next morning, and
conveyed to an ice-cellar fifteen feet deep; where it is carefully covered
with straw to be preserved from the external heat and air. A great deal, in
this process, depends upon the state of the atmosphere. When calm, pure
and serene, it is most favourable to the congelation; but when the winds are
variable, or the weather heavy and cloudy, no ice is formed; and the same is
389
often the case when the nights are raw and cold .
It was once believed that this freezing was occasioned principally by
the water having been boiled; but it seems to be owing much rather to
390
evaporation . It is not however said that the vessels are kept continually
wet on the outside, but that they are unglazed, and so porous or little burnt,
that the water oozes through them; and on that account their exterior surface

391
appears always moist . By vessels of this kind the trouble of wetting is
saved. What has been said respecting the influence of the weather serves, in
some measure, to confirm my conjecture. The more it favours evaporation,
the ice is not only formed more easily, but it is better; and when evaporation
is prevented by the wind or the weather, no ice is produced. The latest
accounts how ice is made at Benares, say expressly that boiled water is not
employed; and that all those vessels, the pores of which are stopped by
having been used, do not yield ice so soon or so good. In porcelain vessels
392
none is produced; and this is the case also when the straw is wet .
Another method of cooling water also seems to have been known to
393
Plutarch. It consisted in throwing into it small pebbles or plates of lead .
The author refers to the testimony of Aristotle; but this circumstance I
cannot find in the works of that philosopher which have been preserved. It
seems to be too unintelligible to admit of any opinion being formed upon it;
and the explanation given by Plutarch conveys still less information than
the proposition itself. This is the case, in general, with almost all the
propositions of the ancients. We indeed learn from the questions that they
were acquainted with many phænomena; but the answers scarcely ever
repay the trouble which one must employ in order to understand them. They
seldom contain any further illustration; and never a satisfactory explanation.
It appears that the practice of cooling liquors, at the tables of the great,
was not usual in any country besides Italy and the neighbouring states,
before the end of the sixteenth century. In the middle of that century there
were no ice-cellars in France; for when Bellon relates, in the Account of his
travels, in 1553, how snow and ice were preserved at Constantinople
throughout the whole summer, for the purpose of cooling sherbet, he
assures us that the like method might be adopted by his countrymen;
because he had found ice-cellars in countries warmer than France. The word
glacière also is not to be met with in the older dictionaries; and it does not
394
occur even in that of Monet, printed in 1635 . Champier, the physician
who attended Francis I. when he had a conference with the emperor Charles
V. and pope Paul III. at Nice, saw the Spaniards and Italians put snow,
which they caused to be brought from the neighbouring mountains, into
their wine in order to cool it. That practice, which excited his astonishment,

he declared to be unhealthful; and this proves that in his time it had not
395
been introduced at the French court .
Grand d’Aussy quotes an anecdote, related by Brantome, from which
he forms the same conclusion. The dauphin, son of Francis I., being
accustomed to drink a great deal of water at table, even when he was
overheated, Donna Agnes Beatrix Pacheco, one of the ladies of the court, by
way of precaution, sent to Portugal for earthen vessels, which would render
the water cooler and more healthful; and from which all the water used at
the court of Portugal was drunk. As these vessels are still used in Spain and
Portugal, where the wine is cooled also with snow, both methods might
have been followed in France. I have in my collection of curiosities,
fragments of these Portuguese vessels; they are made of red bole; are not
glazed, though they are smooth, and have a faint gloss on the surface like
the Etruscan vases. They are so little burnt that one can easily break them
with the teeth; and the bits readily dissolve to a paste in the mouth. If water
be poured into such vessels, it penetrates their substance; so that, when in
the least stirred, many air-bubbles are produced; and it at length oozes
396
entirely through them . The water that has stood in them acquires a taste
which many consider as agreeable; and it is probable that it proceeds from
the bark of the fir-tree, with which, as we read, they are burnt. When the
vessels are new, they perform their service better; and they must then also
have a more pleasant smell. If they really render water cold, or retain it
cool, that effect, in my opinion, is to be ascribed to the evaporation. Their
similarity to those in which the Indians make ice is very apparent.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century, under the reign of Henry III.,
the use of snow must have been well known at the French court, though it
appears that it was considered by the people as a mark of excessive and
effeminate luxury. In the witty and severe satire on the voluptuous life of
that sovereign and his favourites, known under the title of L’Isle des
397
Hermaphrodites , a work highly worthy of notice but which is
exceedingly scarce, we find an order of the Hermaphrodites that large
quantities of ice and snow should everywhere be preserved, in order that
people might cool their liquors with them, even though they might occasion
extraordinary maladies, which, it seems, were then apprehended. In the
description of an entertainment we are told that snow and ice were placed

upon the table before the king; and that he threw some of them into his
wine; for the art of cooling it without weakening it was not then known.
The same method was practised even during the whole first quarter of the
398
seventeenth century .
Towards the end of the above century this luxury must have been very
common in France. At that period there were a great many who dealt in
snow and ice; and this was a free trade which every person might carry on.
Government, however, which could never extort from the people money
enough to supply the wants of an extravagant court, farmed out, towards the
end of the century, a monopoly of these cooling wares. The farmers,
therefore, raised the price from time to time; but the consumption and
revenue decreased so much that it was not thought worth while to continue
the restriction; and the trade was again rendered free. The price immediately
fell; and was never raised afterwards but by mild winters or hot summers.
The method of cooling liquors by placing them in water in which
saltpetre has been dissolved, could not be known to the ancients, because
they were unacquainted with that salt. They might however, have produced
the same coolness by other salts which they knew, and which would have
had a better effect; but this, as far as I have been able to learn, they never
attempted. The above property of saltpetre was first discovered in the first
half of the sixteenth century; and it was not remarked till a long period
afterwards, that it belongs to other salts also.
The Italians at any rate were the first people by whom it was employed;
and about the year 1550, all the water, as well as the wine, drunk at the
tables of the great and rich families at Rome, was cooled in this manner.
Blasius Villafranca, a Spaniard, who practised physic in that capital, and
attended many of the nobility, published, in the before-mentioned year, an
account of it, in which he asserts, more than once, that he was the first
person who had made the discovery publicly known. In his opinion it was
occasioned by the remark that salt water in summer was always cooler than
fresh water. According to his directions, which are illustrated by a figure,
the liquor must be put into a bottle or globular vessel with a long neck, that
it may be held with more convenience; and this vessel must be immersed in
another wide one filled with cold water. Saltpetre must then be thrown
gradually into the water; and while it is dissolving, the bottle must be driven

round with a quick motion on its axis, in one direction. Villafranca thinks
that the quantity of saltpetre should be equal to a fourth or fifth part of the
water; and he assures us, that when again crystallized, it may be employed
several times for the same use, though this, before that period, had by many
been denied. Whether other salts would not produce the like effect, the
author did not think of trying; but he attempts to explain this of saltpetre
from the principles of Aristotle; and he tells his noble patrons what rules
they should observe for the preservation of their health, in regard to cooling
liquors.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century this method of cooling liquors
was well known, though no mention is made of it by Scappi, in his book on
399
cookery. Marcus Antonius Zimara, however, speaks of it in his Problems .
I do not know at what time this Appulian physician lived. In a list of the
professors of Padua, his name is to be found under the year 1525, as
Explicator philosophiæ ordinariæ; and because another is named under the
year 1532, we have reason to conjecture that he died about that time. But in
that case the physician Villafranca would probably have been acquainted
with the Problemata of Zimara; and would not have said that no one had
spoken of this use of saltpetre before him.
400
Levinus Lemnius also mentions the art of cooling wine by this
method so much, that the teeth can scarcely endure it. We are informed by
Bayle that the earliest edition of his work, which has been often reprinted,
was published at Antwerp, in the year 1559, in octavo. It contains only the
first two books; but as the above account occurs in the second book, it must
be found in this edition.
Nicolaus Monardes, a Spanish physician, who died about the year
1578, mentions this use of saltpetre likewise. It was invented, as he says, by
the galley-slaves; but he condemns it as prejudicial to health. From some
expressions which he uses, I am inclined to think that he was not
sufficiently acquainted with it; and that he imagined that the salt itself was
put into the liquor. At a later period we find some account of it in various
books of receipts; such as that written by Mizaldus in 1566, and which was
401
printed for the first time the year following .

In the Mineralogy of Aldrovandi, first printed in 1648, this process is
described after Villafranca; but where the editor, Bartholomæus
Ambrosianus, speaks of common salt, he relates that it was usual in
countries where fresh water was scarce to make deep pits in the earth; to
throw rock-salt into them; and to place in them vessels filled with water, in
order that it might be cooled. This remark proves that the latter salt was
then employed for the same purpose; but it has led the editor into a very
gross error. He thinks he can conclude from it, that the intention of potters,
when they mix common salt with their clay, is not only to render the vessel
more compact, but also to make it more cooling for liquors. But the former
only is true. The addition of salt produces in clay, otherwise difficult to be
fused, the faintest commencement of vitrification; a cohesion by which the
vessel becomes so solid that it can contain fluids, even when unglazed; but
for this very reason it would be most improper for cooling, which is
promoted by the evaporation of the water that oozes through.
The Jesuit Cabeus, who wrote a voluminous commentary on the
Meteorologica of Aristotle, which were printed at Rome in 1646, assures us
that with thirty-five pounds of saltpetre one can not only cool a hundred
pounds of water, by quickly stirring it, but convert it also into solid ice; and
for the truth of this assertion he refers to an experiment which he made.
402
Bartholin says that for the above account he can give him full credit ; but
the truth of it is denied by Duhamel, who suspects that this Jesuit took the
403
shooting crystals of the salt to be ice .
Who first conceived the idea of mixing snow or ice with saltpetre and
other salts, which increases the cold so much, that a vessel filled with water,
placed in that mixture, is congealed into a solid mass of ice that may be
used on the table, I cannot with certainty determine; but I shall mention the
earliest account of it that I have been able to find. Latinus Tancredus, a
physician and professor at Naples, whose book De Fame et Siti was
published in 1607, speaks of this experiment; and assures us that the cold
was so much strengthened by saltpetre, that a glass filled with water, when
404
quickly moved in the above mixture, became solid ice .
In the year 1626, the well-known commentary on the works of
Avicenna, by Sanct. Sanctorius, was published at Venice. The author in this

work relates, that in the presence of many spectators, he had converted wine
into ice, not by a mixture of snow and saltpetre, but of snow and common
405
salt . When the salt was equal to a third part of the snow, the cold was
three times as strong as when snow was used alone.
Lord Bacon, who died in 1626, says that a new method had been found
out of bringing snow and ice to such a degree of cold, by means of saltpetre,
as to make water freeze. This, he tells us, can be done also with common
salt; by which it is probable he meant unpurified rock-salt; and, he adds,
that in warm countries, where snow was not to be found, people made ice
406
with saltpetre alone; but that he himself had never tried the experiment .
Boyle, who died in 1691, made experiments with various kinds of salts; and
he describes how, by means of salt, a piece of ice may be frozen to another
407
solid body . Descartes says that in his time this was a well-known
408
phænomenon, but highly worthy of attention .
Since that period the art of making ice has been spoken of in the
writings of all philosophers where they treated on heat and cold, and with
many other experiments has been introduced into various books of receipts.
409
It was then employed merely for amusement ; and no one suspected that
it would ever form an important item of luxury. In the like manner Fugger’s
first bills of exchange were said to be useful only for gambling, and
gunpowder was called a trifling discovery.
In the beginning of the seventeenth century, drinking-cups made of ice
and iced fruit were first brought to the table; but towards the end of that
century it appears that the French began to congeal in this manner all kinds
of well-tasted juices, which were served up as refreshments at the tables of
410
the great and wealthy . This was a grand invention for the art of cookery;
which became common among the German cooks, both male and female,
about the middle of the last century; and since that time our confectioners
sell single glasses of iced articles at balls and in the theatres.
I am acquainted with no older information respecting this invention
than what is contained in Barclay’s Argenis, which is, indeed, a romance;
but the author’s account makes the possibility of its being used so clear, that
we may certainly conclude it was then employed; especially as he mentions

it several times. Arsidas finds in the middle of summer, at the table of Juba,
fresh apples, one-half of which was encrusted with transparent ice. A basin,
made also of ice and filled with wine, was handed to him; and he was
informed that to prepare all these things in summer was a new art. Snow
was preserved throughout the whole year in pits lined with straw. Two cups
made of copper were placed the one within the other, so as to leave a small
space between them, which was filled with water; the cups were then put
into a pail, amidst a mixture of snow and unpurified salt coarsely pounded,
and the water in three hours was converted into a cup of solid ice, as well-
formed as if it had come from the hands of a pewterer. In the like manner
apples just pulled from the tree were covered with a coat of ice.
The first edition of the Argenis was printed at Paris in 1621, and in that
year the author died at the age of thirty-nine.
After brandy, from being a medicine, came into general use as a liquor
at table, and was drunk in common by the populace, the Italians, above all,
endeavoured to render it weaker and more pleasant by various mixtures;
and by raising its value to make it more respectable, and at the same time
more useful to people of the first rank. That their wares might be
distinguished with more certainty, they gave them the name of liquori; and
under that appellation sold them to foreign nations. The French were the
first who adopted the use of these articles; particularly after the marriage of
Henry II., when duke of Orleans, with Catharine de Medici, in the year
1533. This event brought to France great numbers of Italians, who made the
French acquainted with these delicacies of their native country; and who
taught them to prepare and to use them. They were the first, therefore, who
made and sold the fine liqueurs at Paris; and in order to serve those who
could not bear heating liquors, or rather to serve themselves by filling their
pockets with money, their successors in this business invented about the
year 1630 or 1633 that beverage called lemonade, because the juice of
lemons or oranges was its chief component part. This liquor soon came into
high repute, as it not only served for cooling and refreshing people during
the sultry heats of summer, but was even recommended by physicians
against putrid diseases.
The limonadiers, or venders of lemonade, endeavoured to increase the
first property, which occasioned the far greatest consumption, by the means
of ice; and one of them, Procope Couteaux, an Italian from Florence, about

the year 1660, conceived the happy idea of converting such beverage
entirely into ice, by a process which had been before employed only by
jugglers. The ready sale which he found for his invention induced others to
make articles of the like kind. His example, therefore, was followed by Le
Fevre and Foi; and these three for some years enjoyed a monopoly of this
new-fashioned commodity. About the year 1676, liquors cooled by, or
changed into ice, must however have been the principal things sold by the
limonadiers; for being then formed into a company, the following delicacies
were mentioned in the patent which they received on that occasion: “Eaux
de gelée et glaces de fruits et de fleurs, d’anis et de canelle, franchipanne,
d’aigre de cetre, du sorbec,” &c. There were at that time in Paris two
hundred and fifty masters in this employment. In 1690, when De la
411
Quintiny wrote, iced liquors were extremely common .
People, however, long imagined that such articles could be used only
during the hot months of summer. In the year 1750, Dubuisson, successor to
the celebrated Procope, au café de la rue des Fossés de S. Germain des
Près, and author of the Art du Déstillateur, began to keep ready prepared,
the whole year through, ices of every kind for the use of those who were
fond of them. At first they were little called for, except in the dog-days; but
some physicians recommended them in certain disorders. Have the
physicians then, by their opinion, done most service to the venders of
liqueurs and to cooks, or the latter to the physicians? This would make a
fine subject for an inaugural dissertation. It is, however, certain, for we are
told so by Dubuisson himself, that after two cures, in which ices had been
of the greatest service, the more discerning part of the public made use of
them in every season of the year. That this part of the public might never
lose their conceit, the venders of liqueurs always employed their thoughts
upon new inventions. Among the latest is that of iced butter, which acquired
its name on account of some likeness to that substance. It was first known at
the Parisian coffee-house (caveau) in 1774. The Duke de Chartres often
went thither to enjoy a glass of iced liquor; and the landlord, to his great
satisfaction and surprise, having one day presented him with his arms
formed of eatable ice, articles of a similar kind immediately became
fashionable.
[Ice is now used extensively for a variety of œconomical purposes,
such as packing salmon, cooling liquors, &c. Of late years it has become a

regular article of commerce. In September 1833, a cargo of ice, shipped at
Boston, was discharged at Calcutta. It was sold at threepence per pound,
while the native ice fetched sixpence. It was packed in solid masses, within
chambers of double planking, with a layer of refuse tan or bark between
them. The quantity shipped was 180 tons, of which about 60 wasted on the
voyage, and 20 on the passage up the river to Calcutta. Thousands of tons
are now annually shipped from Boston (United States) to our East Indies, to
the West Indian Archipelago, and to the Continent of South America, and
quite recently ‘The Wenham Lake Ice Company’ have erected extensive ice-
houses in London and at Liverpool, and arranged for the transportation to
this country of thousands of tons of ice. One surprising circumstance
connected with the trade, is the fact that their ice, though transported to this
country in the heat of summer, is scarcely reduced in bulk. The masses are
so large that they expose a very small surface to atmospheric action in
proportion to their weight, and therefore do not suffer from exposure to it,
as the smaller and thinner fragments do, which are obtained in our own or
other warmer climates. It appears, also, that ice frozen upon very deep
water, is more hard and solid than ice of the same thickness obtained from
shallow water; and even when an equal surface is exposed, melts more
slowly. In this country, the collection of ice, even by those largely engaged
in the trade, is an occasional and fitful undertaking; depending, both as to
time and quantity, upon the accidental occurrence of severe frost; and when
the process of collection is carried on, it is with very few artificial aids. In
America, on the other hand, this labour can be regularly carried on through
the whole winter; while the adjuncts of machinery for cutting and storing,
and of steam for transporting it, are brought extensively into action.
The details connected with this trade, as carried on in America, are so
novel and so interesting, that we lay them before our readers with the
confident belief that the result of our labours will prove attractive to them.
Wenham Lake, whence a large proportion of the ice now imported to this
country is obtained, is eighteen miles from Boston, in the State of
Massachusets; it occupies a very elevated position, and lies embosomed in
hills of majestic height and bold rugged character. The lake has no inlet
whatever, but is fed solely by the springs which issue from the rocks at its
bottom, a depth of 200 feet from its surface. The ice-house, which is
capable of storing 20,000 tons of ice, is built of wood, with double walls,
two feet apart, all around; the space between which is filled with sawdust;

thus interposing a medium, that is a non-conductor of heat, between the ice
and the external air; the consequence of which is, that the ice is scarcely
affected by any condition or temperature of the external atmosphere, and
can be preserved without waste for an indefinite time.
The machinery employed for cutting the ice is very curious, and was
invented for that express purpose. It is worked by men and horses in the
following manner:—From the time when the ice first forms, it is carefully
kept free from snow until it is thick enough to be cut; that process
commences when the ice is a foot thick. A surface of some two acres is then
selected, which at that thickness will furnish about 2000 tons, and a straight
line is then drawn through its centre from side to side each way. A small
hand-plough is pushed along one of these lines, until the groove is about
three inches deep and a quarter of an inch in width, when the ‘Marker’ is
introduced. This implement is drawn by two horses, and makes two new
grooves, parallel with the first, twenty-one inches apart; the gauge
remaining in the original groove. The marker is then shifted to the outside
groove, and makes two more. Having drawn these lines over the whole
surface in one direction, the same process is repeated in a transverse
direction, marking all the ice out into squares of 21 inches. In the meantime,
the ‘Plough,’ drawn by a single horse, is following in these grooves, cutting
the ice to a depth of 6 inches. One entire range of blocks is then sawn out,
and the remainder are split off toward the opening thus made with an iron
bar. This bar is shaped like a spade and of a wedge-like form. When it is
dropped into the groove, the block splits off; a very slight blow being
sufficient to produce that effect, especially in very cold weather. The labour
of ‘splitting’ is slight or otherwise, according to the temperature of the
atmosphere. ‘Platforms,’ or low tables of frame-work, are placed near the
opening made in the ice, with iron slides extending into the water, and a
man stands on each side of this slide, armed with an ice-hook. With this
hook the ice is caught and by a sudden jerk thrown up the ‘slide’ on to the
‘platform.’ In a cold day everything is speedily covered with ice by the
freezing of the water on the platforms, slides, &c., and the enormous blocks
of ice, weighing some of them more than two cwt., are hurled along these
slippery surfaces, as if they were without weight. Beside this platform,
stands a ‘sled’ of the same height, capable of containing about three tons;
which, when loaded, is drawn upon the ice to the front of the store-house,
where a large stationary platform of exactly the same height, is ready to

receive its load; which, as soon as discharged, is hoisted block by block,
into the house.
Forty men and twelve horses will cut and stow away 400 tons a day. In
favourable weather 100 men are sometimes employed at once. When a thaw
or a fall of rain occurs, it entirely unfits the ice for market, by rendering it
opake and porous; and occasionally snow is immediately followed by rain,
and that again by frost, forming snow-ice, which is valueless, and must be
removed by the ‘plane.’ The operation of ‘planing’ is somewhat similar to
that of ‘cutting.’ A plane gauged to run in the grooves made by the ‘marker,’
and which shaves the ice to the depth of three inches, is drawn by a horse,
until the whole surface of the ice is planed. The chips thus produced are
then scraped off; and if the clear ice is not reached, the process is repeated.
If this makes the ice too thin for cutting, it is left in statu quo, and a few
nights of hard frost will add below as much as has been taken off above. In
addition to filling their ice-houses at the lake and in the large towns, the
company fill a large number of private ice-houses during the winter, all the
ice for these purposes being transported by railway. It will easily be
believed, that the expense of providing tools, building houses, furnishing
labour, and constructing and keeping up the railway, is very great; but the
traffic is so extensive, and the management of the trade so good, that the ice
412
can be furnished, even in England, at a very trifling cost (it is retailed at
twopence per pound).]

FOOTNOTES
364
Proverbs, xxv. ver. 13.
365
Bartholini de Nivis Usu Medico Observationes, Hafn. 1661.
366
Seneca, Quæst. Natur. iv. 13.
367
Athenæus, iii. p. 124.
368
Sympos. vi. quæst. 6.—Augustinus De Civitate Dei, xxi. 4, p. 610.

369
Mémoires Instructifs pour un Voyageur. How the snow repositories
at Constantinople are constructed, is related by Bellon in his
Observat. iii. 22.
370
The dissipated Heliogabalus caused whole mounts of snow to be
heaped up in summer in order to cool the air. See Lampridius, Vita
Heliogab. cap. 23.
371
Plin. xix. 4.—Latinus Pacatus in Panegyr. Theodos.
372
De la Valle, iii. p. 60, where the Persian ice-pits are described, as
well as in Chardin, iv. p. 195.
373
Hist. Nat. xxxi. 3, 23, p. 552.
374
Vita Neronis, cap. 48: Hæc est Neronis decocta.
375
In lib. vi. Hippocrat. de Morbis Vulgar. comment. 4, 10.
376
Meteorol. i. cap. 12.
377
In the place before quoted.
378
Deipnos. iii. p. 124.
379
Ibid. p. 123.
380
See Pitisci Lex. Antiq. Rom. under the word Decocta.
381
Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxv. part i. p. 126.
382
Traité du Mouvement des Eaux.
383
Du Hamel, Hist. de l’Academ. l. i. c. 3, p. 99.
384
Tentamina Experimentorum Acad. del Cim. p. 183.
385
Dissertation sur la Glace. Paris, 1749, 12mo, p. 187.

386
Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxv. part i. p. 124.
387
[In India, one mode of cooling wines, is to suspend the bottle in a
thick flannel bag, or folds of blotting-paper, kept constantly
wetted, and placed in the sun’s rays, or a current of air, or both; by
which means the evaporation, and therewith intense coldness, is
produced.]
388
Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxxi. part ii. p. 511. [M. Boutigny’s
beautiful experiment of making ice in a red-hot crucible is a
striking phænomenon of this kind. It is thus performed:—A deep
crucible of platinum is heated to a glowing red heat; liquid
sulphurous acid, which has been preserved in the fluid state by a
freezing mixture, and some water are then at the same instant
poured into the crucible. The rapid evaporation of the volatile
sulphurous acid, which boils below the freezing-point of water,
produces such an intense degree of cold as to freeze the water,
which is then thrown out of the crucible as a solid lump.]
389
Philosoph. Transact. vol. lxxi. part ii. p. 252: the process of making
ice in the East Indies; by Robert Barker.
390
[There is no question that this refrigeration is caused by the
evaporation of a portion of the water, whereby a very large
quantity of heat becomes latent in the vapour. A clear serene sky
being necessary for the success of the production of the ice, would
tend to show that the further loss of heat by radiation, which
always ensues to a great extent at nights, when the sky is clear, is
necessary.]
391
... a number of small, shallow, earthen pans. These are unglazed,
scarce a quarter of an inch thick, about an inch and a quarter in
depth, and made of an earth so porous, that it was visible from the
exterior part of the pans, the water had penetrated the whole
substance. [Our ordinary wine-coolers, which consist of extremely
porous vessels, act from evaporation. A portion of the water, which
is placed in the interior of the cooler, evaporates through its pores,

and produces cold by rendering a considerable amount of heat
latent.]
392
See the account of Lloyd Williams, in the Universal Magazine,
June 1793, p. 410. Thin unglazed vessels are employed at present
in Egypt also for cooling water, as we are told in several books of
travels.
393
Sympos. vi. 5, p. 690.
394
The word however may be found in Dictionnaire par Richelet,
Genève 1680, 4to.
395
J. B. Campegii Libri xxii. de re cibaria, xvi. 9, p. 669.
396
Most vessels of this kind in Portugal are made at Estremos, in the
province of Alentejo. The description given of them by Brantome
is as follows:—“Cette terre étoit tannée, si subtile et si fine qu’on
diroit proprement que c’est une terre sigillée; et porte telle vertu,
que quelque eau froide que vous y mettiez dedans, vous la verrez
bouillis et faire de petits bouillons, comme si elle estoit sur le feu;
et si pourtant elle n’en perd sa froideur, mais l’entretient, et jamais
l’eau ne fait mal à qui la boit, quelque chaud qu’il fasse, ou
quelque exercice violent qu’il fasse.” This clay seems to be the
same as that which the ladies in Spain and Portugal chew for the
sake of its pleasant taste, though to the prejudice of their health.
They are so fond of it that their confessors make them abstain from
the use of it some days by way of penance for their transgressions.
See Madame D’Aunoi, Voy. en Espagne, ii. pp. 92, 109. Mémoires
Instructifs pour un Voyageur. A vessel of the above kind is called
bucaro and barro. See Diccion. de la Lengua Castellana, Madrid,
1783, fol.
397
This curious work contains so much valuable information
respecting the French manners in the sixteenth century, that some
account of it may not prove unacceptable to my readers. The title
is, Déscription de L’Isle des Hermaphrodites, nouvellement
découverte ... pour servir de Supplement au Journal de Henri III.

The preface, to which there is no signature, says that the book was
printed for the first time in 1605. In the first editions neither date
nor place is mentioned; but one edition is dated 1612. It appears to
have been written in the reign of Henry IV., after the peace of
Vervins, concluded in 1598, which the author mentions in the
beginning. Henry IV. would not suffer any inquiry to be made
respecting the author that he might be punished, because, he said,
though he had taken great liberty in his writing, he had written
truth. He is not therefore known. Some have conjectured that it
was the production of cardinal Perron, and others of sieur d’Emery,
Thomas Artus. But the former would not have chosen to lash vices
such as those mentioned in this satire, with so much wit and
severity; and the latter could not have done it. The one was too
vicious, and the other too vehement. The cardinal must have
delineated his own picture; and Artus have exceeded what he was
capable of. The same opinion respecting Artus is entertained by
Marchand, in his Dict. Historique. The frontispiece, which in many
editions is wanting, represents an effeminate voluptuary with a
womanish face, dressed half in men’s and half in women’s
clothing. Marchand says the inscription is Les Hermaphrodites. In
some editions however it is much more cutting: “Pars est una
patris; cætera matris habet.” This pentameter is taken from Martial,
lib. xiv. ep. 174. The whole work is inserted also in Journal de
Henri III., par Pierre de l’Estoiles, à la Haye 1744, 8vo, iv. p. 1.
For further information on this subject see Le Long, Bibliothèque
Historique de la France, ii. p. 326, n. 19128.
398
In the Contes de Gaillard, printed in 1620, it is said, “Il alla un jour
d’esté souper chez un voluptueux, qui lui fit mettre de la glace en
son vin.”
399
Problema 102. These Problemata are often printed with the
Problemata Aristotelis, Alexandri Aphrodis. and others. The
collection which I have was printed at Amsterdam, 1685, 12mo.
400
De Miraculis, libri iv. Colon. 1581, 8vo, p. 288.

401
Centuriæ ix Memorabilium. Francof. 1599, 12mo, p. 67.
402
De Nive, p. 38.
403
J. B. Du Hamel, Opera Philosophica, Norimb. 1681, 4to.
404
L. Tancredi de Fame et Siti libri tres. Ven. 1607, 4to, lib. iii.
405
When snow or ice is mixed with salt, both begin to be liquid. This
process is employed in Russia to clean windows covered with
frost. They are rubbed with a sponge dipped in salt, and by these
means they become immediately transparent. [The rationale of this
appears to consist in the salt absorbing water and deliquescing, and
in this fluid the snow subsequently dissolves, the mixture requiring
a much lower temperature for its assuming the solid state.]
406
Historia Vitæ et Mortis, § 44.—De Augmentis Scient. v. 2.—Silva
Silvarum, cent. i.
407
History of Cold, title i. 17; title v. 3; title xv. 7. [The method of
making one or two freezing or cooling mixtures will not perhaps
be without interest here. Where snow is not at hand, a mixture of 5
parts of powdered nitre and 5 of powdered sal-ammoniac may be
mixed with 16 parts of water. This reduces the thermometer from
+50° to about +10° F., or, 9 parts of phosphate of soda, 6 of nitrate
of ammonia, and 4 of dilute nitric acid, reduce the thermometer
from +50° to -21°; 5 parts of common salt, 5 of nitrate of ammonia
and 12 of snow, reduce it from the ordinary temperature to -28°.
The most intense degree of cold, probably known, has been
produced by Dr. Faraday in his experiments upon the liquefaction
of gases. This was effected by placing solid carbonic acid mixed
with æther, under the air-pump, and exhausting.]
408
Des Cartes Specimina Philosophiæ. Amst. 1650, 4to, p. 216.
409
Von Hohberg says, in his Adliches Landleben, “The following,
which serves more for amusement than use, is well-known to

children. If one put snow and saltpetre into a jug, and place it on a
table, over which water has been poured, and stir the snow and salt
well round in the jug with a stick, the jug will be soon frozen to the
table.” This baron, therefore, who, after he had sold his property in
Austria on account of the persecution against the Protestants,
wrote at Regensburg (Ratisbon), where he died in 1688, at the age
of seventy-six, was not acquainted with iced delicacies. Had they
been known to him, he would have certainly mentioned them
where, in his Book of Cookery, he gives ample directions for
laying out a table of the first rank.
410
[The application of ice to the purposes of confectionary, has, within
the last few years, become much more extensive; encouraged, no
doubt, by the facility with which it is now procurable at all seasons
of the year, and in any quantity. Imitations of peaches, nectarines,
apricots, and other fruits, are now produced in ice paste in such
perfection, as at first sight to deceive the most practised eye; and
such elegances are no longer confined to the tables of the wealthy.]
411
Instruction pour les Jardins. Paris, 1730, 4to, i. p. 263. The author
says that ice in summer is indeed useful; but, as a gardener, he
wishes that frost could be prevented; and that ice might be
imported from the North, as olives and oranges are from the South.
Some years ago, as no ice could be procured on account of the
great mildness of the preceding winter, the merchants at Hamburg
sent a ship to Greenland for a load of it, by which they acquired
considerable profit.
412
For the above account of the mode of collecting the ice at Wenham
Lake, we are indebted to the ‘Illustrated London News’ for May
17, 1845.

HYDROMETER.
This instrument, called in Latin hydrometrum, hygroscopium,
hygrobaroscopium, hydroscopium, areometrum, and baryllion, serves to
determine the weight or specific gravity of different fluid masses, by the
depth to which it sinks in them.
The laws respecting the comparative specific gravity of fluids and solid
bodies immersed in them were discovered by Archimedes, when he tried
the well-known experiment, by order of Hiero king of Sicily, to find the
content of a golden crown, made for that sovereign. Upon these is founded
the construction of the hydrometer; and it is not improbable that
Archimedes, who was killed in the year 212 before the Christian æra, was
the inventor of it, though no proofs to warrant this conjecture are to be
found in the writings of that great man, or in those of any other author.
The oldest mention of the hydrometer occurs in the fifth century, and
may be found in the letters of Synesius to Hypatia. Of the lives of these two
persons I must here give some anecdotes, as they deserve to be known on
account of the singular fate which attended them. Hypatia was the daughter
of Theon, a well-known mathematician of Alexandria, some of whose
writings are still extant. By her father she was instructed in mathematics,
and from other great men, who at that time abounded in Alexandria, she
learned the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, and acquired such a
complete knowledge of these sciences, that she taught them publicly with
the greatest applause. She was young and beautiful, had a personable figure,
was sprightly and agreeable in conversation, though at the same time
modest; and she possessed the most rigid virtue, which was proof against
every temptation. She conducted herself with so much propriety towards
her lovers, that they never could obtain more than the pleasure of her
company and of hearing her discourse; and with this, which they considered
as an honour, they were contented. Those who wished to intrude further
were dismissed; and she destroyed the appetite of one who would not suffer

her to philosophise, by means of some strong preparation, which, as far as I
know, remained a secret. She was not baptized, and with all her knowledge,
adopted the blind superstition of paganism. Had she been a Christian, and
suffered a cruel death from heathen persecution, she would have merited a
place in the martyrology of the saints: but the case was reversed; for, by the
conduct of the Christians towards her, she became entitled to have her name
enrolled in the martyrology of the philosophers.
The patriarch of Alexandria, at the time when she lived, was Cyril,
whose family for a hundred years before had produced bishops, who were
of more service to their relations than to the church. This prelate was a
proud, litigious, vindictive and intolerant man, who thought every thing
lawful which he conceived to be for the glory of God; and who, as
prosecutor and judge, condemned Nestorius without hearing his defence. In
the city of Alexandria, which was then very flourishing on account of its
commerce, the emperor allowed greater toleration than he imagined could
be justified to the clergy in any other place; and it contained a great many
Jews, who carried on an extensive trade, as well as a number of pagan
families who were of service to the city, or at least did it no harm. This, in
the eyes of Cyril, was not proper; he would have the sheep-fold clean, and
the Jews must be banished. Orestes, however, the governor, who was a man
of prudence, and better acquainted with the interests of the city, opposed a
measure that was likely to be attended with mischief, and he even caused to
be condemned to death a Christian profligate, who had done some injury to
the Jews. This malefactor was, by the order of Cyril, buried in the church as
a martyr; and he immediately collected five hundred monks, who ill-treated
Orestes in the streets, and excited an insurrection among the people, who
plundered the unfortunate Jews, and expelled them from a city in which
they had lived since the time of Alexander the Great.
Cyril, observing one day a great number of horses and servants
belonging to persons of the first rank, before a certain house in the city,
inquired the cause of their being assembled in that manner. He was
informed that the house was the habitation of the celebrated female
philosopher Hypatia, who, on account of her extensive learning and
eminent talents, was visited not only by people of the highest distinction,
but even by the governor himself. This was sufficient to excite the bishop’s
jealousy against the unbelieving Hypatia, and he resolved to effect her ruin.

As he had instigated the people against the Jews, he in like manner
encouraged them to attack Hypatia. They seized her in the street, hurried
her to the church, stripped off her clothes, tore her flesh to pieces with
potsherds, dragged her mangled limbs about through the city, and at length
burned them. This bloody tragedy, which took place in the year 415, could
tend only to inspire the heathens with a greater hatred to Christianity, and to
make sensible Christians ashamed of the conduct of their brethren. To Cyril,
however, it occasioned no shame; on the contrary, he endeavoured to divert
the emperor from punishing those who had been guilty of so gross a
violation of the principles of justice, and in this he was assisted by his
numerous adherents and friends. In some circumstances of this relation
historians are not agreed, but they all concur in bestowing praise on
Hypatia, whose memory was honoured and preserved by her grateful and
413
affectionate scholars .
Among these was Synesius, of a noble pagan family, who cultivated
philosophy and the mathematics with the utmost ardour, and who had been
one of her most intimate friends and followers. On account of his learning,
talents, and open disposition, he was universally esteemed, and he had been
employed with great success on public occasions of importance. The church
at Ptolemais at length wished to have him for their bishop. After much
reluctance he accepted the office, but on condition that they should not
require him to acknowledge the resurrection of the dead, which he doubted.
The people having consented to allow him this indulgence, he suffered
himself to be baptized, and became their bishop. He was confirmed by the
orthodox patriarch Theophilus, the predecessor of Cyril, to whose
jurisdiction Ptolemais belonged; and he afterwards renounced his errors,
and declared himself convinced of the truth of the resurrection. This learned
man showed his gratitude to Hypatia, by the honourable mention which he
made of her in some letters that are still preserved among his writings.
In his fifteenth letter, he tells Hypatia that he was so unfortunate, or
found himself so ill, that he wished to use a hydroscopium, and he requests
that she would cause one to be constructed for him. “It is a cylindrical
tube,” adds he, “of the size of a reed or pipe. A line is drawn upon it
lengthwise, which is intersected by others, and these point out the weight of
water. At the end of the tube is a cone, the base of which is joined to that of
the tube, so that they have both only one base. This part of the instrument is

called baryllion. If it be placed in water, it remains in a perpendicular
direction, so that one can discover by it the weight of the fluid.”
Petavius, who published the works of Synesius in the year 1640,
acknowledges in his annotations, that this passage he did not understand.
An old scholiast, he says, who had added some illegible words, seemed to
think that it referred to a water-clock; but this he considers improbable, as a
clepsydra was not immersed in water, but filled with it. He conjectures,
therefore, that it may allude to some such instrument as that which
Vitruvius calls chorobates. The latter however was employed for leveling;
and it appears that Synesius, who complains of the bad state of his health,
could not think of leveling. Besides, no part of the description in Vitruvius
agrees with that which is given in so clear a manner by Synesius.
Petau published his edition of the works of this philosopher in the time
of Peter de Fermat, conseiller au parlement de Toulouse, a man of great
learning, who was an excellent mathematician, and well-acquainted with
antiquities and the works of the ancients. We have by the latter a
commentary upon some obscure passages of Athenæus, annotations on the
writings of Theon of Smyrna, and emendations from a manuscript to the
Stratagemata of Polyænus, which may be found also in his Miscellanies.
Mursinna, in his edition of the same author, has added them to the end of
the preface. As Fermat was often consulted respecting difficult passages of
the ancients, he could not be unacquainted with that in the new edition of
Synesius. He drew up an explanation of it, and gave it to a friend who was
then about to publish a French translation of Bened. Castelli’s book, Della
Misura dell’Acque Correnti, and who caused it to be printed along with that
work. Fermat died in the year 1665. After his death his son published some
414
of his writings under the title of Varia Opera Mathematica ; and in this
collection is inserted his short treatise on the hydroscopium, from which I
have extracted the following explanation.
It is impossible, says he, that the hydroscopium could be the level or
chorobates of Vitruvius, for the lines on the latter were perpendicular to the
horizon, whereas the lines on the former were parallel to it. The
hydroscopium was undoubtedly a hydrometer of the simplest construction.
The tube may be made of copper, and open at the top; but at the other end,
which, when used, is the lowest, it must terminate with a cone, the base of

which is soldered to that of the tube. Lengthwise, along the tube, are drawn
two lines, which are intersected by others, and the more numerous these
divisions are, the instrument will be so much more correct. When placed in
water, it sinks to a certain depth, which will be marked by the cross lines,
and which will be greater in proportion to the lightness of the water. A
figure, which is added, illustrates this explanation more than was necessary.
When a common friend of Fermat and Petavius showed it to the latter, he
considered it to be so just, that he wished to have an opportunity of
introducing it in a new edition.
415
Mersenne, on the other hand, entertains some doubt respecting this
instrument, though he does not mention Fermat, with whom he was well-
acquainted; for in the dispute which the latter had with Descartes, Mersenne
was the bearer of the letters that passed between them, as we learn from the
Life of Descartes, by Baillet. His objections however are of little weight.
Why should Synesius, asks Mersenne, consider himself unfortunate,
because he had not a hydrometer? It may be here replied, that he was in an
infirm state, and that the physicians seem to have ordered him to drink no
water but what was pure and light. We know that in former times, when so
many artificial liquors were not in use, people were accustomed, more than
at present, to good water. We read in the works of the ancient physicians,
such as Galen and Celsus, directions how to examine the lightness and
purity of water. He might have tried it, says Mersenne, with a common
balance. He indeed might, but not so conveniently. That Synesius was in a
bad state of health is apparent from several of his letters; otherwise one
might say that in a letter many expressions may be only jocular, respecting
some circumstance known to the friend to whom one writes; and that every
expression is not to be taken according to its literal meaning. One might
confess also, without weakening a received explanation, not to know what
Synesius alludes to in the first line of his letter. But even if we allow that
the instrument was not a hydrometer, but a water-clock, or a level; it may be
asked how the want of these could make him unfortunate? Mersenne thinks
further, that the cone, added to the end of the tube, would have been
unnecessary in a hydrometer; but it serves to keep the instrument with more
ease in a perpendicular direction in the water. Such is the opinion of H.
Klugel, whom I shall soon have occasion to quote.

For the explanation of Fermat one may produce a still stronger
testimony, with which he seems not to have been acquainted. It can be
proved that this instrument was used in the next, or at least in the sixth
century. Of that period, we have a Latin poem on weights and measures,
which contains a very just description of a hydrometer. The author, in
manuscripts, is called sometimes Priscianus, and sometimes Rhemnius
Fannius Palæmon; but we know, from grounds which do not belong to this
subject, that the former was his real name. Two persons of that name are
known at present. The one, Theodore Priscian, was a physician, and lived in
the time of the emperor Valentinian, towards the end of the fourth century.
As more physicians have written on weights and measures, with which it is
indispensably necessary they should be acquainted, one might conjecture
that this Priscian was the author of the above poem. The rest of his writings,
however, still preserved, are in so coarse and heavy a style, that one can
scarcely ascribe to him a work which is far from being ill-written;
especially as it is nowhere said that he was a poet. With much more
probability may we consider as the author the well-known grammarian
Priscian, who died about the year 528.
This poem has been often printed, and not unfrequently at the end of Q.
Sereni Samonici De Medicina Præcepta. The best edition is that inserted by
Wernsdorf in the fifth part of the first volume of his Poetæ Minores, where
an account may be found of the other editions.
Be the author who he may, this much is evident, that he was acquainted
with the hydrometer of Synesius, and has described it in a very clear
manner.
“Fluids,” says he, “are different in weight, as may be proved by the
specific gravity of oil and honey compared with that of pure water;” and the
given proportion agrees almost with that found by modern experiments.
“This,” adds he, “may be discovered by an instrument,” which he thus
describes:—“It consists of a thin metallic cylinder made of silver or copper,
about as large as the joint of a reed between two knots, to the end of which
is added a cone. This cone makes the lower end so heavy, that the
instrument, without sinking or floating on the surface, remains suspended
perpendicularly in the water. Lengthwise, upon the cylinder, is drawn a line,
which is divided by cross lines into as many parts as are equal to the weight
of the instrument in scripla. If placed in light fluids, more of the divisions

will be covered than when put into heavy fluids; or it sinks deeper into
those which are light than into those which are heavy. This difference of
gravity may be found also,” continues he, “by filling vessels of equal size
with the fluids and weighing them; for the heavier must then weigh most;
but when one takes an equal weight of two fluids, the lighter will occupy
more space than the heavier. If twenty-one divisions of the instrument are
covered in water, and twenty-four in oil, and if one take twenty-four scripla
of water, twenty-one scripla of oil only can be contained in the space
occupied by the water.” Such is the manner in which Professor Klugel has
conjectured the meaning of the author from hydrostatic principles; though
neither he nor Wernsdorf has ventured to give a literal translation of the
words which ought to convey this explanation. But however obscure they
may be, it evidently appears that they allude to a hydrometer.
This poem was once published together with Celsus De Re Medica, in
1566, by Robert Constantin, who died at an advanced age in 1605, and who
added a few, but excellent notes, which have been inserted by Wernsdorf in
his edition. This Constantin seems to have known that the instrument of
Priscian and the hydroscopium of Synesius were the same; and that they
were used for determining the weight of fluids. He explains the use of them
very properly; but is mistaken in supposing the cone to have been of wood,
though it served to render the lower part of the instrument heavier, as the
poet himself says: “cui cono interius modico pars ima gravatur.” I am
almost induced to think that interius implies that additional weight was
given to the cone by throwing some small heavy bodies into it, through the
opening above; and at present grains of leaden shot are employed for that
purpose. It appears therefore that the honour of having first given a good
explanation of the before-quoted passage of Synesius belongs rather to
Constantin than to Fermat; but I can readily believe that the latter was not
acquainted with the observations made on it by the former. Before I
conclude the history of this instrument among the ancients, I shall add two
remarks further. It is evidently wrong when one, with Muschenbroek and
others, whose opinion I adopted before I engaged in this research, considers
Hypatia as the inventress of the hydrometer. It was known at her time, and
was made at Alexandria; but it seems not to have been very common, as
Synesius wrote to Hypatia to procure him one, and even thought it
necessary to give her a description of it.

Those are mistaken likewise, who say that this instrument was called
also baryllium. That word, as far as I have been able to learn, occurs only in
Synesius, who expressly tells us that the small heavy cone alone was meant
by it. In the same manner has it been understood by Constantin. In the
Dictionary of Basle it is said to be hydroscopii pars; and in Stephen’s
Dictionary it is explained by pondusculum, as well as in that of Ernest,
where it is given as the diminutive of baros. It signified therefore the heavy
part of the hydrometer only.
It is equally erroneous when one says, with Muschenbroek and others,
that those who among the Romans made it their employment to examine the
quality of water with the hydrometer, were called baryllistæ or barynilæ.
These words do not occur in the works of the ancient Latin authors, nor in
any of the completest dictionaries. We read only the following passage in
some editions of the Commentary of Servius upon Virgil: “Scrutatores et
416
repertores aquarum (aquilices dicuntur) barinulas dixerunt .” If these
words were really written by Servius, who lived in the fifth century, he
either confounded the water-searchers, aquilices, those who sought for
springs, with those who examined the nature of water when found, as the
hydrometer was of no service to the former in their business; or both
employments must at that time have been followed by the same people, and
these must have acquired their name from a part only of one instrument
they used, which is not at all probable.
I think we may with certainty believe that the hydrometer was not
known to Seneca, Pliny, or Galen, who died about the end of the second
century. Were not this the case, it would certainly have been mentioned by
the first, where he speaks so minutely of the specific gravity of hard and
417
fluid bodies ; by the second, where he says that the weight of water was
418
ascertained by a common balance ; and by the last, where he gives
directions how to discover its lightness. Galen adds, that in his time a
method had been invented of determining the quality of salt-lye by placing
419
an egg in it, and observing whether it floated . Have we not reason to
think that on this occasion the hydrometer must have occurred to him had it
been then used?

But however well-known it may have been in the fifth century, it seems
that it was afterwards entirely forgotten, and that towards the end of the
sixteenth it was again for the first time revived or invented anew. To George
Agricola it was scarcely known; for where he speaks of the weight of
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different kinds of water, and particularly of that of salt springs , he does
not mention it. Constantin, however, who lived at the same time, must have
been acquainted with it, else he could not have explained the before-
mentioned passages of Synesius and Priscian.
I am inclined to think that the first account of the hydrometer being
again brought into use must be found in the oldest German books on salt-
works. It is at any rate certain that from these the modern philosophers
became first acquainted with it. One of the earliest who has described it is
421
the Jesuit Cabeus, who wrote about the year 1644 ; but he confesses that
he acquired his information from a German treatise by Tholden, whom
422
Kircher calls a German artist. He was however not properly an artist. He
was a native of Hesse; a good chemist for his time; and resided about the
year 1600 or 1614 as overseer of the salt-works at Frankenhausen in
Thuringia. His treatise, which Cabeus had in his possession, was entitled
Tholden’s Haligraphia, printed at Leipsic in 1603. Another edition, printed
at the same place in 1613, is mentioned by Draudius; but at present I have
not been able to find it; and can say only from Cabeus and Leupold, that
Tholden’s hydrometer had a weight suspended to it; and that he speaks of
the instrument not as a new but a well-known invention, and on that
account has described it only imperfectly.
Kircher, whose works were generally read, seems to have principally
423 424
contributed towards making it publicly known; and Schott , Sturm and
others, in their account of it, refer to his writings. The artists at Nuremberg,
who worked in glass, and who constructed a great many hydrometers which
were everywhere sold, assisted in this likewise. One, above all, made by
Michael Sigismund Hack, was highly valued about the beginning of the last
century, as we are told by J. Henry Muller, professor at Altorf. Of this artist,
often mentioned by Sturm and other philosophers, an account has been
given by Doppelmayer. He died in 1724.

Many improvements, or perhaps only alterations, have been made in
this instrument in later times by a variety of artists. The task of collecting
these completely in chronological order with explanations, I shall leave to
others; and only mention a few of them. One of the first who endeavoured
to adapt the hydrometer for determining the specific gravity and purity of
metals was Monconys. Almost about the same period Cornelius Mayer and
Boyle seem to have conceived the idea of facilitating the weighing of solid
bodies by a weighing-scale added to the instrument. The former affirms that
425
this improvement was invented by him as early as the year 1668 ;
426
whereas Boyle did not make his known till 1675 . Besides these the
427 428
following also are worthy of notice: Feuille , Fahrenheit, Clark , and
429 430
Leutmann , whose improvements have been described by Wolf ,
431
Leupold , Gesner, Weigel and others.
[The principal hydrometer now in use is that of Sykes, this is adopted
in estimating excise duties on liquids. That of Baumé is principally
employed abroad. Those of Beck or Cartier are but rarely used. These
instruments differ merely in their graduation. Sykes’s plan of increasing the
extent of the indications without enlarging the instrument is ingenious. It is
effected by means of a number of weights which may be appended as
collars to the stem of the instrument.
A useful method of ascertaining specific gravities for commercial
purposes, consists in using a series of glass beads, previously adjusted and
numbered. When thrown into any liquid, the heavier ones sink and the
lighter float on the surface; but the one which has the same density as the
liquid will remain indifferent, or perhaps slightly below the surface. The
specific gravity is then found by the number with which it is marked.]

FOOTNOTES
413
A fuller account of Hypatia may be found in Menagii Histor.
Mulier. Philosoph. Lugd. 1690; Bruckeri Hist. Crit. Philos. ii. p.

351; and Wolfii Fragmenta Mulierum Græc. Gott. 1739, 4to.
414
Varia Opera Mathematica D. Petri de Fermat, Tolosæ, 1679, folio.
415
Cogitata Physico-Mathem. Par., 1644, and in Phænomena
Hydraulica.
416
On Georg. i. 109. These words are quoted by Emmenessius, the
editor of the Variorum edition of Virgil, but in the edition of
Servius, Venetiis, 1562, fol., they are not to be found. The
Commentary of Servius may at present be no longer indispensable
for explaining Virgil; but it deserves to be printed once more as
completely and accurately as possible. It contains much useful
information, as well as many fragments of works now lost; and on
this account cannot well be entirely dispensed with.
417
Quæst. Nat. iii. 25, p. 726.
418
Hist. Nat. xxxi. 3, sect. 23, p. 552.—Athen. ii. p. 46.—Plutarchi
Quæst. Nat. 7.
419
De Simplic. Med. Facultatibus, iv. 20.
420
De Natura eorum quæ effluunt ex Terra, lib. ii. p. 124.
421
Philosophia Experimentalis, sive Commentaria in Aristotelis
Meteorolog. lib. ii. textus 26, quæst. 2, tom. ii. p. 158, b.
422
Mundus Subterraneus, vol. i. p. 254.
423
Cursus Mathemat. p. 455, icon. 20.
424
Collegii Experiment. pars ii. Norimb. 1715, 4to.
425
Nuovi Ritrovamenti. Roma, 1696, fol.
426
Philosoph. Transact. 1675: where an engraving is given of all the
parts.

427
Journal des Observations Physiques et Math. Par. 1714, 4to.
428
Philosoph. Transact. No. 384, p. 140; and No. 413, p. 277.
429
Comment. Acad. Petrop. v. p. 274.
430
In his Versuchen. Halle, 1737, 8vo, i. p. 556.
431
Theatrum Hydrostaticum.

LIGHTING OF STREETS.
The lighting of streets, while it greatly contributes to ornament our
principal cities, adds considerably also to the convenience and security of
the inhabitants. But of whatever benefit it may be, it is generally considered
as a modern invention. M. St. Evremond says, “The invention of lighting
the streets of Paris during the night, by a multitude of lamps, deserves that
the most distant nations should go to see what neither the Greeks nor the
Romans ever thought of for the police of their republics.” This opinion
appears to be well-founded; for I have never yet met with any information
which proves that the streets of Rome were lighted. Some passages, indeed,
in ancient authors rather indicate the contrary; and according to my ideas,
the Romans would not have considered the use of flambeaux and lanterns
so necessary on their return from their nocturnal visits, as they seem to have
done, had their streets been lighted; though I will allow that the public
lighting of the streets in our cities does not render links or lanterns
altogether superfluous. Whoever walked the streets of Rome at night
without a lantern, was under the necessity of creeping home in perfect
432
darkness, and in great danger , like Alexis in Athenæus. Meursius
endeavours to make it appear that the streets of Rome were lighted; and in
support of this opinion quotes Ammianus Marcellinus, and the Life of
Julius Cæsar in Suetonius; but his arguments to me are far from being
433
convincing . That Naples was not lighted, appears from the return of Gito
434
in the night-time, mentioned by Petronius . Some circumstances however
related by ancient authors make it probable that Antioch, Rome and a few
other cities had public lanterns, if not in all the streets, at least in those
which were most frequented.
Libanius, who lived in the beginning of the fourth century, says in his
435
Panegyric , where he praises his native city Antioch, “The light of the sun
is succeeded by other lights, which are far superior to the lamps lighted by