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THE

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8.

PART the

Third.

BOOK

II.

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MET ALL A. METALS.

T?0 S SILE bodies, fusible by fire , concreting again in the cold, and malleable , ordifienfible and ductile under the hammer.

This is the distinguishing characters of these bodies in their pure state, but manyof them are not found in this pure state in the earth, being reduced by admixturesof Sulphur y and other bodies to the state of ores.

Of this Series of Fostils, there are only fix bodies, all naturally comprehended inthe fame Class, but each making a separate and distinct Genus.

These are Tin , Iron, Copper , Silver, Lead and Gold.

Genus I.

M E T A L L A.

Stannum.

Tin.

Tin is the lightest of all Metals, yet in many of its properties very much approachesto Silver; this metal is never found native, but always in the state of ore in the re-ducing it, to which Arsenic very often supplies the place of Sulphur, and maybe separated pure in the roasting the ore.

There is no metal which affords a greater variety in the appearances of its ores thanTin, as it takes in among its matter not only various other Fossils of the Spar, Crystaland Marcasite kind, but even very large quantities of the other metals not in the Mar-castte state particularly iron; the Tin ores of most parts of the world contain a largequantity of iron, which vastly debases them in value; and the great advantage and su-periority of those of England over those of other countries is, that ours are free fromiron; the richest Tin ore is what we call Tin grains, which is the ore in tolerablylarge Moleculæ in a pure state ; in the other ores, which are greatly more impure,these grains or Moleculæ are much smaller, and blended with other matter ; so thatthey require great labour and care to separate them, by pounding the substances which

they