The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-12-07
Seven Metals.

IN Ouo uloCoNeIJ VI Ine metals men
first asserted their mastery over nature;
yet the discovery is still progressing.
Before the 18th century only seven were
positively known. They were each
held sacred among the ancients to some
ruling deity. Gold - indestructible,
malleable, the richest in coloring, the
most precious of decorations-was con-
secrated to Jupiter, or the sun, and had
already assumed the supremacy which
it has never lost. 1t was coined into
the heavy diaries of Persia and the au-
reus of imperial Rome. 1t was used to
gid temples and statues, was wrought
into rich jewelry, and woven in delicate
threads that enlivened the lowered
stuffs of Babylon.
Gold mines and collaborating streams
were found in Arabia, Syria, Greece,
Italy aud Spain, and the pursuit of the
precious metal was carried on with va
riouS success by countless throngs of
miners. The richest mines, at least in
later ages, were those of Spain, and
the enormous productiveness of the
Spanish soil was slowly exhausted by
the successive labors of the Carthage
mans and the Romans. So successful
was their industry that but little gold
or silver can now be found in terri
tory where the precious metal once lay
scattered in boundless profusion on the
surface of the earth.
Silver ranked next to gold, and was
named from the soft light of the moon.
The richest silver mines were those of
Spain. 1t was wrought into cups,
vases, lamps, adorned the helmets and
shields of warriors, and formed the
costly mirrors with which the Roman
ladies shocked the austerity of Lactan-
| titus or Jerome. The beautiful silver
coins of the Greek and Roman cities
fill modern collections. Five other
metals-iron, copper, mercury, lead
and tin-were employed by the ancients
for various purposes; they made steel
by rude process, and brass without
discovering zinc.
For many ages no addition was made
to the sacred seven. Three thousand
years passed away before it was sus-
pected that the number could be in
creased-a memorable example of the
slowness of human apprehension. At
length, in 1890, antimony was added to
the metallic family; and not far off
from the period of the discovery of
New World the chemists were about to
enter upon fresh fields of science scarce
ly less boundless or inviting.
A second metal, bismuth, came in al
most with the Reformation. Zinc, per-
haps the most important of the new
family, may have preceded the others;
it was certainly described long before.
1t is, indeed quite curious to notice
how the bright metal had been con-
stantly forcing itself upon the attention
of careful observers, and had yet been
wholly overlooked; had been used by
the ancients, in the form of an earth, to
color copper into brass, and give it q
shining surface like gold; was seen
dropping from the furnaces of the Mid
die Ages, or melted in rich flakes from
their walls.
Two magicians, or philosophers, at
last detected the error of ages, and AL
bertus Magnus and Paracelsus probably
both discovered that zinc was as in
destructible and as free from foreign
substances as gold. 1t seemed a pure
element. Paracelsus, who was fond of
penetrating to the source of things,
admits that he could not tell how the
bright metal grew; not in the height of
their magic renOwn was it ever fore
seen that the rare substance the sorcer-
ers had discovered would one dav shed
knowledge in tongues of fire from Lon
don to Japan.
Two centuries followed, during which
no metallic substance was discovered.
Paracelsus found no successor; Albert
us, almost the first man of science in
Europe, was remembered only as a
sorcerer. 1t was not until 1888 that the
vast field of metallic discovery began
to open upon man. Two valuable and
well-knownm etals-platinum and nick
el-among several others, first appeared
about the middle of the eighteenth CEN
fury, The number of the metals now
rapidly enlarged; galvanism lent its
aid to dissolve the hardest earths; and
at length, in the opening of the nine
teenth century, cluster of brilliant
discoveries aroused the curiosity of sci
ence.
Each eminent philosopher seemed to
produce new metals. Berzelius discov-
covered three; Davy, the Paracelsus of
his age, is the scientific parent of five
potassium, sodium, barium, strontl-
UNI, calcium. The numbers advanced,
until already more than fifty metals of
various Importance have been given to
the arts. The new experiments in light
have added c9sium and rubidium; and
no limit can now be fixed for the metal
lie family, which for so many ages en-
braced only seven members. the en-
blems of the ruling gods. -Harper'S
Weekly.
Doctor and Patient.
"Save me doctor and I'll give you a
$1,000"