discovery of it supposes some accident more extraordinary than that of those metals which are commonly, or, at any rate, often found native. I cannot, however, attach much importance to this circumstance, as the ancients became acquainted with iron at an early period, though not so early as with copper. I must also admit that tin might have been more easily discovered, because it is frequently found near the surface of the earth;

seen in the Philosoph. Transact. vol. lvi. p. 35, and vol. lix. p. 47. also in Abhandl. der Schwedischen Akadem. vol. xxviii. p. 237. But the truth of this was denied by most mineralogists, such for example as Jars in Memoires de l'Acad. à Paris, année 1770, p. 540. At first it was thought that quartz and spar could be observed on the piece found; but as these, on closer examination, were declared to be arsenic, the reality of its being native tin was more confidently believed, as arsenic has little durability in the fire. I have in my possession scoriæ, from Goslar copper ore, the cavities of which contain crystallised arsenic, which of course must have several times withstood a roasting as well as a fusing heat. The crystals are foursided, but not regular pyramids. Soon after the above-mentioned piece of tin was found in Cornwall, some dealers in minerals sold similar pieces to amateurs at a very dear rate; but all these had been taken from roasting-places, where the tin exudes; and very often what is supposed to be tin is only exuded bismuth, as is proved by some specimens in my collection.

I shall here observe, that it may not be improper, in the history of tin, to show that it was believed more than two hundred years ago that this metal was found in a native state. Some instances are related by Mathesius in the ninth sermon of his Sarepta. Leipsic, 1618, 4to. p. 451 and 453. and by Pet. Albinus in Meisnischer Bergk-Chronik, Dresd. 1590, fol. 130. Native tin is mentioned also in Tollii Epist. itinerariæ, p. 98; and a piece, in a kind of yellow stone, from Malacca, was preserved in Richter's collection. See Museum Richter. p. 75.

does not require a strong heat or artificial apparatus for fusing it, and therefore can be more easily won than copper.

But if tin was known so early as has hitherto been believed, it must, on account of the circumstance here first remarked, have been scarce and therefore exceedingly dear. In this manner, the aurichalcum or Corinthian brass, according to the expression of Plautus, was auro contra carum. The metal of the ancients, however, which is believed to have been tin, was not so rare and costly. Vessels of it are not often mentioned, in general; but they never occur among valuable articles. The circumstance also, that vessels of tin have never or very seldom been found among Greek or Roman antiquities, and that when discovered the nature of the metal has been very doubtful, though tin is not apt to change from the action of the air, water, or earth, and, at any rate, far surpasses in durability copper and lead, ancient articles made of which are frequently found, appears to me worthy of attention. It It possesses also so many excellent properties, that it might be expected, that the people of every age, to whom it was known, would have employed it in a great variety of ways. It recommends itself by its superior silvery colour; its ready fusion; the ease with which it can be hammered and twisted; its lightness, and its durability. It is not soon tarnished; it is still less liable to rust or to be

come oxygenated; it retains its splendour a long time, and when it is lost easily recovers it again. It is not so soon attacked by salts as many other metals; and this till lately has been considered a proof of its being less pernicious than it possibly may be. After an accurate investigation, should every thing said by the ancients of their supposed tin be as applicable to a metallic mixture as to our tin, my assertion, that it is probable, but by no means certain, that the ancients were acquainted with our tin, will be fully justified.

The oldest mention of this metal, as generally believed, is to be found in the sacred Scriptures. In the book of Numbers, chap. xxxi. ver. 22, Moses seems to name all the metals then known; and, besides gold, silver, brass (properly copper), iron, and lead, he mentions also bedil, which all commentators and dictionaries make to be tin. When Ezekiel, chap. xxvii. ver. 12, gives an account of the commerce of Tyre, he names, among the commodities, silver, iron, copper, and bedil. In Zecharias, chap. iv. ver. 10, the plummet of the builder or architect is said to be made of the bedil stone. In Isaiah, chap. i. ver. 25, the word occurs in the plural number, and appears there to denote either scoriæ, or all those inferior metallic substances which must be separated from the noble metals. In the old Greek versions of these Hebrew books, bedil is always translated by cassiteros, except in the passage of Isaiah, where no

metal is mentioned. In Zecharias, the translator calls the bedil stone τον λίθον κασσιτερινον. There can hardly be a doubt, that for the purpose here mentioned, people would employ not the lighter metal tin, but lead, and that the plummet was called the lead-stone, because at first a stone was used.

It seems, however, probable, that in the firstquoted passage bedil is our tin; but must it not appear astonishing that the Midianites, in the time of Moses, should have possessed this metal? Is it not possible that the Hebrew word denoted a metallic mixture or artificial metal, which for merly was an article of commerce, as our brass is at present?*

* Having requested professor Tychsen, to whose profound knowledge of the Oriental history, languages, and literature I have been already indebted for much assistance, to point out the grounds on which Bedil is considered to be our tin, I received the following answer, with permission to insert it in this place.

"Bedil, 7, according to the most probable derivation, means the separated, It may therefore, consistent with etymology, be what Pliny calls stunnum, not tin, but lead from which the silver has not been sufficiently separated. The passage in Isaiah, chap. i. ver. 25, appears to afford a confirmation, because the word there is put in the plural, equivalent to scoriæ, as something separated by fusion. The Alexandrian version by its intended merely to explain the figurative expression.

ανόμους

“Others derive Bedil from the meaning of the Arabic word Ja badal, that is, substitutum, succedaneum. In this case indeed it might mean tin, which may be readily confounded with silver.

"The question, why Bedil has been translated tin, and how old

The Greek translators considered bedil to be what they called cassiteros; and as the moderns

this explanation may be, are answered by another; Is xaσσepos tin? If this be admitted, the explanation is as old as the Greek version of the seventy interpreters, who in most passages, Ezekiel, chap. xxii. ver. 18 and 20, and chap. xxvii. ver. xii, express it by the word κασσίτερος. In the last-mentioned passage tin and iron have exchanged places. The Targumists also call it tin; and some, with the Samaritan translation, use the Greek word, but corrupted into kasteren, kastira. It is also the usual Jewish explanation, that Bedil means tin, as Oferet does lead.

"In the oldest passage, however, where Bedil occurs, that is in Numbers, chap. xxxi. ver. 22, the Seventy translate it by μobos, lead, and the Vulgate by plumbum, and vice versa, the Seventy for Oferet put xσσITEpos, and the Vulgate stannum. This, as the oldest explanation which the Latin translator found already in the Septuagint, is particularly worthy of notice. According to it, one might take, poribos, stannum, for the stannum of Pliny, lead with silver; the gradation of the metals still remains; the κασσίτερος of the, Seventy may be tin or real lead. It may have denoted tin and lead together, and perhaps the Seventy placed here xaσiteρos, in order that they might have one metal more for the Hebrew Oferet. But from this explanation it would follow that Moses was not acquainted with tin.

"The East has still another name for lead and tin 78, anac, which occurs only in Amos, chap. vii. ver. 7 and 8, but is abundant in the Syriac, Chaldaic, and Armenian, and comprehends plumbum nigrum and candidum

"In the Persian tin is named Kalai, Resûș, Arziz, which are all of Arabic, or, like Kalai, of Turkish extraction. None of these have any affinity to xxσσITEρos and Bedil.

"As tin is brought from India, it occurred to me whether the oldest name, like tombak, might not be Malayan. But in the Malayan, Tima is the name for tin and lead. Relandi Dissertat. miscell. iii. p. 65. It would indeed be in vain to look for Asiatic etymologies in regard to xaσoiтepos, since, according to the express assertion of Herodotus, the Greeks did not procure tin from Asia,