380

MILL-SAWS.

said respecting its nature and properties, of which he has lefta complete and judicious definition.

Albertus Magnus, who lived a century later, in his bookde Mineralibvs, lib. ii. tract. 2. cap. 11, in the second partof all the works of this multifarious writer, Lugduni, 1631,fol.p.234. lloger Bacon, in his Alchemia, in Manget’s Biblioth.Chemica, p. 614. Basilius Valentine, in his last Test.u.p. 133. Camillas Leonardus, Speculum Lapidum, lib. i.cap. ft, p. 31, says, Quidain lapis, ex <|uo nostri vitrarii vasadealbant. Lib. ii. cap. 7, p. 71: Alabandicus niger inpurpureum vergens lapis est a loco nomen sumens sine primseinventionis ; ab igne colliquatur ac fundidur more metalli;utilis ad vitrariaui artem cuni vitruin clarificet et albefacit.Also Mercati, in Melallotheca, p. 148; Neri, and a greatmany others, have spoken in the plainest terms of its ap-pearance and application.

The various terms employed by all these writers, de-scriptive of this substance and its uses, leave us not indoubt but the same object was intended to be described ;although the expressions they have used are various, i, e.magnesia, magnosia, magnasia, manganensis, and mangade-sttm ; yet the context is sufficiently explanatory. TheFrench call it magalaise, meganaise, and magnese. TheLatin description has also a pronomen, sidera, which hasevideut reference to the Greek term for iron. Mercatideduces it from mangonizare, because potters besmear theirware with this mineral.

The best manganese is presumed to be produced from amine in Perigord , a place in Guyenne. Wallerius, we un-derstand, gave this the preference.

MILL SAWS.

The invention of the plumb-line and saw, with otheruseful articles in mechanics and handicrafts, are usuallyascribed to that great, that universal genius, Decdalus; al-though others give the merit of the invention to one Tahis ,the nephew of Daedalus , and say, that upon this occasionthe discovery was made. Talus , they tell us, having foundthe jaw-bone of a snake, cut a piece of wood in two with theteeth ; thence, they say, he invented the saw : his maternalunde and master, they add, was so jealous of this ingeniousinvention, that he slew the young man ; and the mode ofthe discovery of the murder is this way accounted for: some