[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.