or Aurichalcum, a metallic substance resembling gold in colour, but very inferior in value. It was well known to the old Romans, who often took advantage of its resemblance to gold; for some sacrilegious characters, who could not resist the temptation of taking gold from temples and other public places, chose to conceal their guilt by replacing it with orichalcum. It was thus that Julius Caesar acted when he robbed the capitol of 3000 pound weight of gold; in which he was followed by Vitellius, who defaced the ten pieces of their gifts and ornaments, and replaced them with this inferior metal. It has been a matter of dispute with philosophers and others, what this metal could be, or how it was procured or made; it is probable at least that it was greatly analogous to our bras, if not wholly the same with it. (See Brass.) The value of our bras is much less than that of gold, and the resemblance of bras to gold, in colour, is obvious at first sight. Both bras and gold, indeed, are susceptible of a variety of shades of yellow; and, if very pale bras be compared with gold, mixed with much copper, such as the foreign goldsmiths, especially, use in their toys, a disparity may be seen; but the nearness of the resemblance is sufficiently ascertained in general, from observing that substances gilded with bras, or as it is commonly called Dutch leaf, are not easily distinguished from such as are gilded with gold leaf.

The Romans were not only in possession of a metallic substance, called by them orichalcum, and resembling gold in colour, but they knew also the manner of making it, and the materials from which they made it were the very same from which we make bras. There are, indeed, authors of great repute who think very differently; and who consider the art of making bras as an invention wholly modern. Thus M. Cronstedt does not think it just to conclude from old coins and other antiquities, that it is evidently proved that the making of bras was known in the most ancient times;* and the authors of the French *Miner. Encyclopedie* affirme us, that our bras is a very recent invention (a). It appears, however, from Pliny's Nat. Hist. lib. xxxiv. § 2, and from the concurring testimony of other writers, that orichalcum was not a pure or original metal; but that its basis was copper, which the Romans changed into orichalcum by means of cadmia, a species of earth which they threw upon the copper, and which it absorbed. It has indeed been contended that the cadmia of Pliny was native arsenic, an opinion which scarcely merits consideration, but which must appear extremely groundless, when we reflect that it is impossible to make either bras or copper from arsenic, and that Pliny expressly calls it a stone from which bras was made. The testimony of Am-

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(a) Art. Orichalque—"The vessels here called brazen, after ancient authors, cannot have been of the materials our present bras is composed of; the art of making it is a modern discovery." See Laughton's Hist. of Ancient Egypt, p. 58. Orichalchium was bishop of Milan in the 4th century, and of Primatius bishop of Aduumetum in Africa, in the 6th, and of Hildorus bishop of Seville in the 7th, all seem to confirm Pliny's account. We may therefore safely conclude that the Romans knew the method of making bras by mixing cadmia or calamine with copper; yet it is probable they were not the inventors of this art, but that they borrowed it from some other country. It appears from a variety of testimonies that bras was made in Asia, in a manner very similar to that at Rome; and a variety of places are mentioned in that extensive country where it was commonly made; and it is supposed by some that in India, as well as in other parts of Asia, it was made in the remotest ages.

With respect to orichalcum, it is generally supposed that there were two sorts of it, one fictitious, the other natural. The fictitious, whether we consider its qualities or composition, appears to have been the same with our bras. As to the natural orichalcum, there is no impossibility in supposing, that copper ore may be so intimately blended with an ore of zinc, or of some other metallic substance, that the compound, when melted, may yield a mixed metal of a paler hue than copper, and resembling the colour of either gold or silver. In Du Halde's history of China, we meet with the following account of the Chinese white copper. "The most extraordinary copper is called de-tong, or white copper: it is white when dug out of the mine, and still more white within than without. It appears by a vast number of experiments made at Peking, that its colour is owing to no mixture; on the contrary all mixtures diminish its beauty; for, when it is rightly managed, it looks exactly like silver; and were there not a necessity of mixing a little tenug, or some such metal with it, to soften it and prevent its brittleness, it would be so much the more extraordinary, as this sort of copper is perhaps to be met with nowhere but in China, and that only in the province of T'um-nan." Notwithstanding what is here said of the colour of this copper being owing to no mixture, it is certain that the Chinese white copper, as brought to us, is a mixed metal; so that the ore from which it is extracted must consist of various metallic substances, and from some such ore it is possible that the natural orichalcum, if ever it existed, may have been made. But, notwithstanding that the existence of natural orichalcum cannot be shown to be impossible, yet there is some reason to doubt whether it ever had a real existence or not.

We know of no country in which it is found at present; nor was it anywhere found in the age of Pliny; nor does he seem to have known the country where it ever had been found. He admits, indeed, its having been formerly dug out of the earth; but it is remarkable that in the very passage where he is mentioning by name the countries most celebrated for the production of different kinds of copper, he only says in general, concerning orichalcum, that it had been found in other countries, without specifying any particular country. Plato acknowledges, that orichalcum was a thing only talked of even in his time; it was nowhere then to be met with, though in the island of Atlantis it had been formerly extracted from its mine. The Greeks were in possession of a metallic substance, called orichalcum, before the foundation of Rome; for it is mentioned by Homer and by Hesiod, and by both of them in such a manner as shows that it was then held in great esteem. Other ancient writers have expressed themselves in similar terms of commendation; and it is principally from the circumstance of the high reputed value of orichalcum that authors are induced to suppose the ancient orichalcum to have been a natural substance, and very different from the fictitious one in use at Rome, and probably in Asia, and which it has been shown was nothing different from our bras.

But this conclusion cannot be validly drawn from their encomiums upon it; for at whatever time the method of making it was first discovered, both its novelty and fecundity, joined to its utility, would enhance its value; at least there can be no absurdity in supposing, that when first introduced it was greatly prized, even though it be granted that it possessed no other properties than such as appertain to bras.

Reflecting the etymology of the word there is great diversity of opinions. Those who write it aurichalcum think it is composed of the Latin word aurum, "gold," and the Greek χαλκός "bras or copper." The most general opinion is, however, that it is composed of ὄρος "a mountain" and χαλκός, alluding perhaps to its being found in mountains or mountainous countries. The above account is chiefly extracted from a paper in the second volume of Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, written by the present Bishop of Landaff, Dr Watson, and communicated by Dr Percival. To this paper then we refer our readers who desire a more copious account of it. To the above two etymological meanings of the word we shall join the following, mentioned by the learned bishop, and which, in our opinion, is equally well founded, and certainly as ingenious, as the other two.

The Hebrew word Or, Aur, signifies light, fire, flame; the Latin terms uro "to burn," and aurum "gold," are derived from it, insomuch as gold resembles the colour of flame; and hence it is not improbable, that orichalcum may be composed of an Hebrew and a Greek term, and that it is rightly rendered, flame-coloured copper. In confirmation of this it may be observed, that the Latin epithet lucidum, and the Greek one σάπιος, are both applied to orichalcum by the ancients.