De Re Metallica Part 56

Posidonius says that there are springs of _naphtha_ in Babylonia, some of which produce white, others black _naphtha_; the first of these, I mean white _naphtha_, which attracts flame, is liquid sulphur; the second or black _naphtha_ is liquid _asphaltus_, and is burnt in lamps instead of oil." (Hamilton's Translation, Vol. III., p. 151).

Eratosthenes lived about 200 B.C., and Posidonius about 100 years later.

Dioscorides (I., 83), after discussing the usual sources of bitumen says: "It is found in a liquid state in Agrigentum in Sicily, flowing on streams; they use it for lights in lanterns in place of oil. Those who call the Sicilian kind oil are under a delusion, for it is agreed that it is a kind of liquid bitumen." Pliny adds nothing much new to the above quotations, except in regard to these same springs (x.x.xV., 51) that "The inhabitants collect it on the panicles of reeds, to which it quickly adheres and they use it for burning in lamps instead of oil."

Agricola (_De Natura Fossilium_, Book IV.) cla.s.sifies petroleum, coal, jet, and obsidian, camphor, and amber as varieties of bitumen, and devotes much s.p.a.ce to the refutation of the claims that the last two are of vegetable origin.

[15] Agricola (_De Natura Fossilium_, p. 215) in discussing substances which originate from copper, gives among them green _chrysocolla_ (as distinguished from borax, etc., see Note 8 above), and says: "Native _chrysocolla_ originates in veins and veinlets, and is found mostly by itself like sand, or adhering to metallic substances, and when sc.r.a.ped off from this appears similar to its own sand. Occasionally it is so thin that very little can be sc.r.a.ped off. Or else it occurs in waters which, as I have said, wash these minerals, and afterward it settles as a powder. At Neusohl in the Carpathians, green water flowing from an ancient tunnel wears away this _chrysocolla_ with it. The water is collected in thirty large reservoirs, where it deposits the _chrysocolla_ as a sediment, which they collect every year and sell,"--as a pigment. This description of its occurrence would apply equally well to modern _chrysocolla_ or to malachite. The solution from copper ores would deposit some sort of green incrustation, of carbonates mostly.

[16] The statement in Pliny (x.x.xVI., 66) to which Agricola refers is as follows: "Then as ingenuity was not content with the mixing of _nitrum_, they began the addition of _lapis magnes_, because of the belief that it attracts liquefied gla.s.s as well as iron. In a similar manner many kinds of brilliant stones began to be added to the melting, and then sh.e.l.ls and fossil sand. Authors tell us that the gla.s.s of India is made of broken crystal, and in consequence nothing can compare with it. Light and dry wood is used for fusing, _cyprium_ (copper?) and _nitrum_ being added, particularly _nitrum_ from Ophir etc."

A great deal of discussion has arisen over this pa.s.sage, in connection with what this _lapis magnes_ really was. Pliny (x.x.xVI., 25) describes the lodestone under this term, but also says: "There (in Ethiopia) also is _haemat.i.tes magnes_, a stone of blood colour, which shows a red colour if crushed, or of saffron. The _haemat.i.tes_ has not the same property of attracting iron as _magnes_." Relying upon this sentence for an exception to the ordinary sort of _magnes_, and upon the impossible chemical reaction involved, most commentators have endeavoured to show that lodestone was not the substance meant by Pliny, but manganese, and thus they find here the first knowledge of this mineral. There can be little doubt that Pliny a.s.sumed it to be the lodestone, and Agricola also. Whether the latter had any independent knowledge on this point in gla.s.s-making or was merely quoting Pliny--which seems probable--we do not know. In any event, Biringuccio, whose work preceded _De Re Metallica_ by fifteen years, does definitely mention manganese in this connection. He dismisses this statement of Pliny with the remark (p.

37-38): "The Ancients wrote about lodestones, as Pliny states, and they mixed it together with _nitrum_ in their first efforts to make gla.s.s."

The following pa.s.sage from this author (p. 36-37), however, is not only of interest in this connection, but also as possibly being the first specific mention of manganese under its own name. Moreover, it has been generally overlooked in the many discussions of the subject. "Of a similar nature (to _zaffir_) is also another mineral called _manganese_, which is found, besides in Germany, at the mountain of Viterbo in Tuscany ... it is the colour of _ferrigno scuro_ (iron slag?). In melting it one cannot obtain any metal ... but it gives a very fine colour to gla.s.s, so that the gla.s.s workers use it in their pigments to secure an azure colour.... It also has such a property that when put into melted gla.s.s it cleanses it and makes it white, even if it were green or yellow. In a hot fire it goes off in a vapour like lead, and turns into ashes."

To enter competently into the discussion of the early history of gla.s.s-making would employ more s.p.a.ce than can be given, and would lead but to a sterile end. It is certain that the art was pre-Grecian, and that the Egyptians were possessed of some knowledge of making and blowing it in the XI Dynasty (according to Petrie 3,500 B.C.), the wall painting at Beni Ha.s.sen, which represents gla.s.s-blowing, being attributed to that period. The remains of a gla.s.s factory at Tel el Amarna are believed to be of the XVIII Dynasty. (Petrie, 1,500 B.C.).

The art reached a very high state of development among the Greeks and Romans. No discussion of this subject omits Pliny's well-known story (x.x.xVI, 65), which we also add: "The tradition is that a merchant s.h.i.+p laden with _nitrum_ being moored at this place, the merchants were preparing their meal on the beach, and not having stones to prop up their pots, they used lumps of _nitrum_ from the s.h.i.+p, which fused and mixed with the sands of the sh.o.r.e, and there flowed streams of a new translucent liquid, and thus was the origin of gla.s.s."

APPENDIX A.

AGRICOLA'S WORKS.

Georgius Agricola was not only the author of works on Mining and allied subjects, usually a.s.sociated with his name, but he also interested himself to some extent in political and religious subjects. For convenience in discussion we may, therefore, divide his writings on the broad lines of (1) works on mining, geology, mineralogy, and allied subjects; (2) works on other subjects, medical, religious, critical, political, and historical. In respect especially to the first division, and partially with regard to the others, we find three princ.i.p.al cases: (_a_) Works which can be authenticated in European libraries to-day; (_b_) references to editions of these in bibliographies, catalogues, etc., which we have been unable to authenticate; and (_c_) references to works either unpublished or lost. The following are the short t.i.tles of all of the published works which we have been able to find on the subjects allied to mining, arranged according to their present importance:--_De Re Metallica_, first edition, 1556; _De Natura Fossilium_, first edition, 1546; _De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum_, first edition, 1546; _Bermannus_, first edition, 1530; _Rerum Metallicarum Interpretatio_, first edition, 1546; _De Mensuris et Ponderibus_, first edition, 1533; _De Precio Metallorum et Monetis_, first edition, 1550; _De Veteribus et Novis Metallis_, first edition, 1546; _De Natura eorum quae Effluunt ex Terra_, first edition, 1546; _De Animantibus Subterraneis_, first edition, 1549.

Of the "lost" or unpublished works, on which there is some evidence, the following are the most important:--_De Metallicis et Machinis_, _De Ortu Metallorum Defensio ad Jacob.u.m Scheckium_, _De Jure et Legibus Metallicis_, _De Varia Temperie sive Const.i.tutione Aeris_, _De Terrae Motu_, and _Commentariorum, Libri VI_.

The known published works upon other subjects are as follows:--Latin Grammar, first edition, 1520; Two Religious Tracts, first edition, 1522; _Galen_ (Joint Revision of Greek Text), first edition, 1525; _De Bello adversus Turcam_, first edition, 1528; _De Peste_, first edition, 1554.

The lost or partially completed works on subjects unrelated to mining, of which some trace has been found, are:--_De Medicatis Fontibus_, _De Putredine solidas partes_, etc., _Castigationes in Hippocratem_, _Typographia Mysnae et Toringiae_, _De Traditionibus Apostolicis_, _Oratio de rebus gestis Ernesti et Alberti_, _Duc.u.m Saxoniae_.

REVIEW OF PRINc.i.p.aL WORKS.

Before proceeding with the bibliographical detail, we consider it desirable to review briefly the most important of the author's works on subjects related to mining.

_De Natura Fossilium._ This is the most important work of Agricola, excepting _De Re Metallica_. It has always been printed in combination with other works, and first appeared at Basel, 1546. This edition was considerably revised by the author, the amended edition being that of 1558, which we have used in giving references. The work comprises ten "books" of a total of 217 folio pages. It is the first attempt at systematic mineralogy, the minerals[1] being cla.s.sified into (1) "earths" (clay, ochre, etc.), (2) "stones properly so-called" (gems, semi-precious and unusual stones, as distinguished from rocks), (3) "solidified juices" (salt, vitriol, alum, etc.), (4) metals, and (5) "compounds" (h.o.m.ogeneous "mixtures" of simple substances, thus forming such minerals as galena, pyrite, etc.). In this cla.s.sification Agricola endeavoured to find some fundamental basis, and therefore adopted solubility, fusibility, odour, taste, etc., but any true cla.s.sification without the atomic theory was, of course, impossible. However, he makes a very creditable performance out of their properties and obvious characteristics. All of the external characteristics which we use to-day in discrimination, such as colour, hardness, l.u.s.tre, etc., are enumerated, the origin of these being attributed to the proportions of the Peripatetic elements and their binary properties. Dana, in his great work[2], among some fourscore minerals which he identifies as having been described by Agricola and his predecessors, accredits a score to Agricola himself. It is our belief, however, that although in a few cases Agricola has been wrongly credited, there are still more of which priority in description might be a.s.signed to him. While a greater number than fourscore of so-called species are given by Agricola and his predecessors, many of these are, in our modern system, but varieties; for instance, some eight or ten of the ancient species consist of one form or another of silica.

Book I. is devoted to mineral characteristics--colour, brilliance, taste, shape, hardness, etc., and to the cla.s.sification of minerals; Book II., "earths"--clay, Lemnian earth, chalk, ochre, etc.; Book III., "solidified juices"--salt, _nitrum_ (soda and potash), saltpetre, alum, vitriol, chrysocolla, _caeruleum_ (part azurite), orpiment, realgar, and sulphur; Book IV., camphor, bitumen, coal, bituminous shales, amber; Book V., lodestone, bloodstone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, mica, calamine, various fossils, geodes, emery, touchstones, pumice, fluorspar, and quartz; Book VI., gems and precious stones; Book VII., "rocks"--marble, serpentine, onyx, alabaster, limestone, etc.; Book VIII., metals--gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, lead, tin, antimony, bis.m.u.th, iron, and alloys, such as electrum, bra.s.s, etc.; Book IX., various furnace operations, such as making bra.s.s, gilding, tinning, and products such as slags, furnace accretions, _pompholyx_ (zinc oxide), copper flowers, litharge, hearth-lead, verdigris, white-lead, red-lead, etc.; Book X., "compounds," embracing the description of a number of recognisable silver, copper, lead, quicksilver, iron, tin, antimony, and zinc minerals, many of which we set out more fully in Note 8, page 108.

_De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum._ This work also has always been published in company with others. The first edition was printed at Basel, 1546; the second at Basel, 1558, which, being the edition revised and added to by the author, has been used by us for reference.

There are five "books," and in the main they contain Agricola's philosophical views on geologic phenomena. The largest portion of the actual text is occupied with refutations of the ancient philosophers, the alchemists, and the astrologers; and these portions, while they exhibit his ability in observation and in dialectics, make but dull reading. Those sections of the book which contain his own views, however, are of the utmost importance in the history of science, and we reproduce extensively the material relating to ore deposits in the footnotes on pages 43 to 52. Briefly, Book I. is devoted to discussion of the origin and distribution of ground waters and juices. The latter part of this book and a portion of Book II. are devoted to the origin of subterranean heat, which he a.s.sumes is in the main due to burning bitumen--a genus which with him embraced coal--and also, in a minor degree, to friction of internal winds and to burning sulphur. The remainder of Book II. is mainly devoted to the discussion of subterranean "air", "vapour", and "exhalations", and he conceives that volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are due to their agency, and in these hypotheses he comes fairly close to the modern theory of eruptions from explosions of steam. "Vapour arises when the internal heat of the earth or some hidden fire burns earth which is moistened with vapour. When heat or subterranean fire meets with a great force of vapour which cold has contracted and encompa.s.sed in every direction, then the vapour, finding no outlet, tries to break through whatever is nearest to it, in order to give place to the insistent and urgent cold. Heat and cold cannot abide together in one place, but expel and drive each other out of it by turns".

As he was, we believe, the first to recognise the fundamental agencies of mountain sculpture, we consider it is of sufficient interest to warrant a reproduction of his views on this subject: "Hills and mountains are produced by two forces, one of which is the power of water, and the other the strength of the wind. There are three forces which loosen and demolish the mountains, for in this case, to the power of the water and the strength of the wind we must add the fire in the interior of the earth. Now we can plainly see that a great abundance of water produces mountains, for the torrents first of all wash out the soft earth, next carry away the harder earth, and then roll down the rocks, and thus in a few years they excavate the plains or slopes to a considerable depth; this may be noticed in mountainous regions even by unskilled observers. By such excavation to a great depth through many ages, there rises an immense eminence on each side. When an eminence has thus arisen, the earth rolls down, loosened by constant rain and split away by frost, and the rocks, unless they are exceedingly firm, since their seams are similarly softened by the damp, roll down into the excavations below. This continues until the steep eminence is changed into a slope. Each side of the excavation is said to be a mountain, just as the bottom is called a valley. Moreover, streams, and to a far greater extent rivers, effect the same results by their rus.h.i.+ng and was.h.i.+ng; for this reason they are frequently seen flowing either between very high mountains which they have created, or close by the sh.o.r.e which borders them.... Nor did the hollow places which now contain the seas all formerly exist, nor yet the mountains which check and break their advance, but in many parts there was a level plain, until the force of winds let loose upon it a tumultuous sea and a scathing tide.

By a similar process the impact of water entirely overthrows and flattens out hills and mountains. But these changes of local conditions, numerous and important as they are, are not noticed by the common people to be taking place at the very moment when they are happening, because, through their antiquity, the time, place, and manner in which they began is far prior to human memory. The wind produces hills and mountains in two ways: either when set loose and free from bonds, it violently moves and agitates the sand; or else when, after having been driven into the hidden recesses of the earth by cold, as into a prison, it struggles with a great effort to burst out. For hills and mountains are created in hot countries, whether they are situated by the sea coasts or in districts remote from the sea, by the force of winds; these no longer held in check by the valleys, but set free, heap up the sand and dust, which they gather from all sides, to one spot, and a ma.s.s arises and grows together. If time and s.p.a.ce allow, it grows together and hardens, but if it be not allowed (and in truth this is more often the case), the same force again scatters the sand far and wide.... Then, on the other hand, an earthquake either rends and tears away part of a mountain, or engulfs and devours the whole mountain in some fearful chasm. In this way it is recorded the Cybotus was destroyed, and it is believed that within the memory of man an island under the rule of Denmark disappeared. Historians tell us that Taygetus suffered a loss in this way, and that Therasia was swallowed up with the island of Thera. Thus it is clear that water and the powerful winds produce mountains, and also scatter and destroy them. Fire only consumes them, and does not produce at all, for part of the mountains--usually the inner part--takes fire."

The major portion of Book III. is devoted to the origin of ore channels, which we reproduce at some length on page 47. In the latter part of Book III., and in Books IV. and V., he discusses the princ.i.p.al divisions of the mineral kingdom given in _De Natura Fossilium_, and the origin of their characteristics. It involves a large amount of what now appears fruitless tilting at the Peripatetics and the alchemists; but nevertheless, embracing, as Agricola did, the fundamental Aristotelian elements, he must needs find in these same elements and their subordinate binary combinations cause for every variation in external character.

_Bermannus._ This, Agricola's first work in relation to mining, was apparently first published at Basel, 1530. The work is in the form of a dialogue between "Bermannus," who is described as a miner, mineralogist, and "a student of mathematics and poetry," and "Nicolaus Ancon" and "Johannes Naevius," both scholars and physicians. Ancon is supposed to be of philosophical turn of mind and a student of Moorish literature, Naevius to be particularly learned in the writings of Dioscorides, Pliny, Galen, etc. "Bermannus" was probably an adaptation by Agricola of the name of his friend Lorenz Berman, a prominent miner. The book is in the main devoted to a correlation of the minerals mentioned by the Ancients with those found in the Saxon mines. This phase is interesting as indicating the natural trend of Agricola's scholastic mind when he first comes into contact with the sciences to which he devoted himself.

The book opens with a letter of commendation from Erasmus, of Rotterdam, and with the usual dedication and preface by the author. The three conversationalists are supposed to take walks among the mines and to discuss, incidentally, matters which come to their attention; therefore the book has no systematic or logical arrangement. There are occasional statements bearing on the history, management, t.i.tles, and methods used in the mines, and on mining lore generally. The mineralogical part, while of importance from the point of view of giving the first description of several minerals, is immensely improved upon in _De Natura Fossilium_, published 15 years later. It is of interest to find here the first appearance of the names of many minerals which we have since adopted from the German into our own nomenclature. Of importance is the first description of bis.m.u.th, although, as pointed out on page 433, the metal had been mentioned before. In the revised collection of collateral works published in 1558, the author makes many important changes and adds some new material, but some of the later editions were made from the unrevised older texts.

_Rerum Metallicarum Interpretatio._ This list of German equivalents for Latin mineralogical terms was prepared by Agricola himself, and first appears in the 1546 collection of _De Ortu et Causis_, _De Natura Fossilium_, etc., being repeated in all subsequent publications of these works. It consists of some 500 Latin mineralogical and metallurgical terms, many of which are of Agricola's own coinage. It is of great help in translation and of great value in the study of mineralogic nomenclature.

_De Mensuris et Ponderibus._ This work is devoted to a discussion of the Greek and Roman weights and measures, with some correlation to those used in Saxony. It is a careful work still much referred to by students of these subjects. The first edition was published at Paris in 1533, and in the 1550 edition at Basel appears, for the first time, _De Precio Metallorum et Monetis_.

_De Veteribus et Novis Metallis._ This short work comprises 31 folio pages, and first appears in the 1546 collection of collateral works. It consists mainly of historical and geographical references to the occurrence of metals and mines, culled from the Greek and Latin cla.s.sics, together with some information as to the history of the mines in Central Europe. The latter is the only original material, and unfortunately is not very extensive. We have incorporated some of this information in the footnotes.

_De Animantibus Subterraneis._ This short work was first printed in Basel, 1549, and consists of one chapter of 23 folio pages. Practically the whole is devoted to the discussion of various animals who at least a portion of their time live underground, such as hibernating, cave-dwelling, and burrowing animals, together with cave-dwelling birds, lizards, crocodiles, serpents, etc. There are only a few lines of remote geological interest as to migration of animals imposed by geologic phenomena, such as earthquakes, floods, etc. This book also discloses an occasional vein of credulity not to be expected from the author's other works, in that he apparently believes Aristotle's story of the flies which were born and lived only in the smelting furnace; and further, the last paragraph in the book is devoted to underground gnomes. This we reproduce in the footnote on page 217.

_De Natura eorum quae Effluunt ex Terra._ This work of four books, comprising 83 folio pages, first appears in the 1546 collection. As the t.i.tle indicates, the discussion is upon the substances which flow from the earth, such as water, bitumen, gases, etc. Altogether it is of microscopic value and wholly uninteresting. The major part refers to colour, taste, temperature, medicinal uses of water, descriptions of rivers, lakes, swamps, and aqueducts.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

For the following we have mainly to thank Miss Kathleen Schlesinger, who has been employed many months in following up every clue, and although the results display very considerable literary activity on the part of the author, they do not by any means indicate Miss Schlesinger's labours. Agricola's works were many of them published at various times in combination, and therefore to set out the t.i.tle and the publication of each work separately would involve much repet.i.tion of t.i.tles, and we consequently give the t.i.tles of the various volumes arranged according to dates. For instance, _De Natura Fossilium_, _De Ortu et Causis_, _De Veteribus et Novis Metallis_, _De Natura eorum quae Effluunt ex Terra_, and _Interpretatio_ have always been published together, and the Latin and Italian editions of these works always include _Bermannus_ as well.

Moreover, the Latin _De Re Metallica_ of 1657 includes all of these works.

We mark with an asterisk the t.i.tles to editions which we have been able to authenticate by various means from actual books. Those unmarked are editions which we are satisfied do exist, but the t.i.tles of which are possibly incomplete, as they are taken from library catalogues, etc.

Other editions to which we find reference and of which we are not certain are noted separately in the discussion later on.[3]

*1530 (8vo):

_Georgii Agricolae Medici, Bermannus sive de re Metallica._

(Froben's mark).

_Basileae in aedibus Frobenianis Anno. MDx.x.x._

Bound with this edition is (p. 131-135), at least occasionally, _Rerum metallicarum appellationes juxta vernaculam Germanorum linguam, autori Plateano_.

_Basileae in officina Frobeniana_, Anno. MDx.x.x.

*1533 (8vo):

_Georgii Agricolae Medici libri quinque de Mensuris et Ponderibus: in quibus plaeraque a Budaeo et Portio parum animadversa diligenter excutiuntur. Opus nunc primum in lucem aeditum._

(Wechelus's Mark).

_Parisiis. Excudebat Christia.n.u.s Wechelus, in vico Iacobaeo, sub scuto Basileiensi, Anno MDx.x.xIII._

261 pages and index of 5 pages.

*1533 (4to):

_Georgii Agricolae Medici Libri quinque. De Mensuris et Ponderibus: In quibus pleraque a Budaeo et Portio parum animadversa diligenter excutiuntur._

(Froben's Mark).

_Basileae ex Officina Frobeniana Anno MDx.x.xIII. c.u.m gratia et privilegio Caesareo ad s.e.x annos._