Chapter XV: Part 15

The loadstone rock figures in several early charts. In Nordenskiöld's _Facsimile Atlas_ (Stockholm, 1889) is given a copy of the Map of Johan Ruysch from an edition of Ptolemy, publisht in Rome in 1508, which shows four islands within the ice-bound Arctic regions. South of these islands and at the east of the coast of Greenland is the inscription: _Hic compassus navium non tenet, nec naves quæ ferrum tenent revertere valent._ To which (on p. 63) Nordenskiöld adds the comment: _Sagan on magnetberg, som skulle draga till sig fartyg förande jern, är gamal._ And he recalls the reference of Ptolemy to the magnetic rocks in the Manioles. A second inscription is added to Ruysch's map in the ornamental margin that borders the Arctic islands. _Legere est in libro de inventione fortunati sub polo arctico rupem esse excelsam ex lapide magnete 33 miliarium germanorum ambitu._ This refers to a matter recorded in Hakluyt's _Principall Navigations_ (Lond., 1589, p. 249), namely: "A Testimonie of the learned Mathematician, maister John Dee, {14} touching the foresaid voyage of Nicholas de Linna. Anno 1360 a frier of Oxford, being a good Astronomer, went in companie with others to the most Northren islands of the world, and there leaving his company together, he travelled alone, and purposely described all the Northern islands, with the indrawing seas: and the record thereof at his return he delivered to the king of England. The name of which booke is _Inventio Fortunata_ (_aliter fortunæ_) _qui liber incipit a gradu 54 usq. ad polum_."

The situation of the alleged loadstone rock is thus described by T. Blundevile in his _Exercises_ in the chapter entitled _A plaine and full description of Peter Plancius his vniuersall Map, seruing both for sea and land, and by him lately put foorth in the yeare of our Lord, 1592_.... Written in our mother tongue by M. Blundeuill, Anno Domini 1594. The passage is quoted from p. 253 of the third edition (1606):

"Now betwixt the 72. and 86. degrees of North latitude he setteth downe two long Ilands extending from the West towardes the East somewhat beyond the first Meridian, and from the saide Meridian more Eastward he setteth downe other two long Ilandes ... and hee saith further that right under the North pole there is a certaine blacke and most high rocke which hath in circuite thirtie and three leagues, which is nintie and nine miles, and that the long Iland next to the Pole on the West is the best and most healthfull of all the North parts. Next to the foresaide Ilandes more Southward hee setteth downe the Ilandes of Crocklande and Groynelande, making them to haue a farre longer and more slender shape then all other mappes doe.... Moreouer at the East end of the last Ilande somewhat to the Southwarde, he placeth the Pole of the Lodestone which is called in Latine Magnes, euen as Mercator doth in his Mappe who supposing the first Meridian to passe through Saint Marie or Saint Michael, which are two of the outermost Ilandes of the Azores Eastwarde, placeth the Pole of the stone in the seuentie fiue degree of Latitude, but supposing the first Meridian to passe through the Ile Coruo, which is the furthest Ile of the Azores Westwarde, he placeth the Pole of the Lodestone in the seuentie seuen degree of Latitude."

Further, in the chapter on _The Arte of Nauigation_ in the same work (p. 332, _ed. citat._), Blundevile says:

"But whereas Mercator affirmeth that there should bee a mine or great rocke of Adamant, wherunto all other lesser rockes or Needles touched with the Lodestone doe incline as to their chiefe fountaine, that opinion seemeth to mee verie straunge, for truely I rather beleeue with Robert Norman that the properties of the Stone, as well in drawing steele, as in shewing the North Pole, are secret vertues given of GOD to that stone for mans necessarie vse and behoofe, of which secrete vertues no man is able to shewe the true cause."

The following is one of the inscriptions in the compartments of the great Chart of Mercator entitled _Ad Usum Navigantium_, published in 1569:

"Testatur Franciscus Diepanus peritissimus nauarchus volubiles libellas, magnetis virtute infectas recta mundi polum respicere in insulis C. Viridis, Solis, Bonauista, et Maio, cui proxime astipulantur qui in Tercera, aut S. Maria (insulæ sunt inter Açores) id fieri dicunt, pauci in earundem occidentalissima Corvi nomine id contingere opinantur. Quia vero locorum longitudinis a communi magnetis et mundi meridiano iustis de causis initium sumere oportet, plurium testimonium sequutus primum meridianum per dictas C. Viridis insulas protraxi, et quum alibi plus minusque a polo deuiante {15} magnete polum aliquum peculiarem esse oporteat quo magnetes ex omni mundi parte despiciant, euum hoc quo assignaui loco existere adhibita declinatione magnetis Ratisbonæ obseruata didici. Supputaui autem eius poli situm etiam respectu insulæ Corui, ut iuxta extremo primi meridiani positus extremi etiam termini, intra quos polum hunc inueniri necesse est, conspicui fierent, donec certius aliquod nauclerorum obseruatio attulerit."

Not all the map-makers were as frank as Paulus Merula, the author of a _Cosmographia Generalis_, printed by Plantin in 1605, at Leyden. For in the description of his _tabula universalis_ (_op. citat._ lib. iii., cap. 9) he says that he does not believe in the magnetic islands; but that he has put them into his chart lest unskilful folk should think that he had been so careless as to leave them out!

In the well-known myth of Ogier the Dane, immortalized by William Morris in the _Earthly Paradise_ (London, 1869, vol. i., p. 625), the loadstone rock is an island in the far North. But this story is not one of the Scandinavian sagas, and belongs to the Carlovingian cycle of heroic poems, of which the chief is the _Chanson de Roland_; and Ogier le Danois is really not a Dane but an _Ardennois_.

In the Middle-High German epic of Kudrun, the adventures of the fleet of Queen Hilda when attracted by the loadstone mountain at Givers, in the North Sea, are narrated at some length. (See _Kudrun, herausgegeben und erklärt von Ernst Martin_. Halle, 1872.) One stanza will serve as a sample:

1126. Ze Givers vor dem berge | lac daz Hilden her.
swie guot ir anker wæren, | an daz vinster mer.
magnêten die steine | heten si gezogen.
ir guote segelboume | stuonden alle gebogen.

which may be rendered:

1126. At Givers before the mountain | lay Hilda's ships by.
Though good their anchors were, | upon the murky sea.
Magnets the stones were | had drawn them thither.
Their good sailing masts | stood all bent together.

Recent magnetic research has shown that while there are no magnetic mountains that would account for the declination of the compass in general, yet there are minor local variations that can only be accounted for by the presence of magnetic reefs or rocks. The reader is referred to the account of the magnetic survey of Great Britain in the _Philosophical Transactions_ (1890) by Professors Rücker and Thorpe. The well-known rocky peak the Riffelhorn above Zermatt, in Switzerland, produces distinct perturbations in the direction of the compass within half a mile of its base. Such local perturbations are regularly used in Sweden for tracing out the position of underground lodes of iron ore. See Thalén, _Sur la Recherche des Mines de Fer à l'aide de Mesures magnétiques_ (Soc. Royale des Sciences d'Upsal, 1877); or B. R. Brough, _The Use of the Magnetic Needle in exploring for Iron Ore_ (_Scientific American_, Suppl. No. 608, p. 9708, Aug. 27, 1887).

Quite recently Dr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., has endeavoured to elucidate the deviations of the compass as the result of the configurations of land and sea on the globe, by means of a model globe in which the ocean areas are covered with thin sheet iron. This apparatus Dr. Wilde calls a _Magnetarium_. See _Proc. Roy. Soc._, June, 1890, Jan., 1891, and June, 1891. {16} An actual magnetic rock exists in Scandinavia, the following account of it being given in the _Electrical Review_ of New York, May 3, 1899:

"The island of Bornholm in the Baltic, which consists of a mass of magnetic iron ore, is much feared by mariners. On being sighted they discontinue steering by compass, and go instead by lighthouses. Between Bornholm and the mainland there is also a dangerous bank of rock under water. It is said that the magnetic influence of this ore bank is so powerful that a balanced magnetic needle suspended freely in a boat over the bank will take a vertical position."

[29] PAGE 5, LINE 35. Page 5, line 43. _Josephus Costa._--This is unquestionably a misprint for _Acosta_ (Joseph de), the Jesuit, whose work _Historia natural y moral de las Indias_ was publisht at Seville in 1590. An Italian edition appeared at Venice in 1596. The English edition, translated by E. Grimestone, _The Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West Indies_, was publisht in London in 1604 and 1878. There are in Gilbert's book references to two writers of the name of Costa or Costæus, Joannes Costa of Lodi, who edited Galen and Avicenna (see pp. 3 and 62), and Filippo Costa of Mantua, who wrote on antidotes and medicaments (see p. 141). The passage to which Gilbert refers is in Acosta's _Historia_ (ed. 1590, p. 64).

"Deziame a mi vn piloto muy diestro Portugues [~q] eran quatro puntos en todo el orbe, donde se afixaua el aguja con el Norte, y contaualas por sus nombres, de que no me acuerdo bien. Vno destos es el paraje de la Isla del Cueruo, en las Terceras, o Islas de Açores, como es cosa y a muy sabida. Passando di alli a mas altura, Noruestea, que es dezir, [~q] declina al Poniente ... que me digã la causa desta efecto?... Porque vn poco de hierro de fregarse cõ la piedra Iman ...

"Mejor es, como dize Gregorio Theologo, que a la Fe se sujete la razon, pues aun en su casa no sabe bien entenderse...."

[30] PAGE 5, LINE 36. Page 5, line 45. _Livius Sanutus._--Livio Sanuto publisht at Venice in 1588 a folio work, _Geografia distinta in xii Libri; ne' quali, oltre l'esplicatione di nostri luoghi di Tolomeo, della Bussola e dell' Aguglia, si dichiarono le provincie ... dell' Africa_. In this work all Liber i. (pages 1-13) deals with observations of the compass, mentioning Sebastian Cabot, and other navigators. He gives a map of Africa, showing the central lakes out of which flow the _Zaires fluvius_ and the _Zanberes fluvius_.

[31] PAGE 6, LINE 2. Page 6, line 5. _Fortunius Affaitatus._--The work of Affaytatus, _Physicæ ac astronomiæ considerationes_, was publisht in Venice in 1549.

[32] PAGE 6, LINE 3. Page 6, line 6. _Baptista Porta._--The reference is to his celebrated _Magia naturalis_, the first edition of which came out in 1558 at Naples. An English edition, _Natural Magick by John Baptista Porta, a Neapolitaine_, was printed in London, 1658. Book seven of this volume treats "Of the wonders of the Load-stone." In the proem to this book Porta says: "I knew at Venice R. M. Paulus, the Venetian, that was busied in the same study: he was Provincial of the Order of servants, but now a most worthy Advocate, from whom I not only confess, that I gained something, but I glory in it, because of all the men I ever saw, I never saw any man more learned, or more ingenious, having obtained the whole body of learning; and is not only the Splendor and Ornament of Venice or Italy, but of the whole world." The reference is to Fra Paolo Sarpi, better known as the historian of the Council of Trent. Sarpi was himself known to Gilbert. {17}

His relations with Gilbert are set forth in the memoir prefixt to the edition of his works, _Opere di Fra Paolo Sarpi, Servita_ ... in Helmstat, MDCCLXI, p. 83. "Fino a questi giorni continuava il Sarpi a raccorre osservazioni sulla declinazione dell' Ago Calamitato; e poi ch' egli, atteso il variare di tal declinazione, assurdità alcuna non trovava riguardo al pensamento dell' Inglese Guglielmo Gilberto, cioè, che l'interno del nostro Globo fosse gran Calamita...." Here follows a quotation from a letter of Sarpi to Lescasserio:

"... Unde cuspidem trahi a tanta mole terrena, quæ supereminet non absurde putavit Gullielmus Gilbertus, et in eo meridiano respicere recta polum, cave putes observatorem errasse. Est Vir accuratissimus, et interfuit omnibus observationibus, quas plures olim fecimus, et aliquas in sui gratiam, et cum arcubus vertici cupreo innitentibus, et cum innatantibus aquæ, et cum brevibus, et cum longis, quibus modis omnibus et Hierapoli usus suit."

Sarpi had correspondence with Gilbert, Bacon, Grotius, and Casaubon. He also wrote on magnetism and other topics _in materia di Fisica_, but these writings have perisht. He appears to have been the first to recognize that fire destroyed the magnetic properties. (See _Fra Paolo Sarpi, the greatest of the Venetians_ by the Rev. Alexander Robertson, London, 1894; see also the notice of Sarpi in Park Benjamin's _Intellectual Rise in Electricity_.)

[33] PAGE 6, LINE 7. Page 6, line 11.: _R. M. Paulus Venetus_. See preceding note.

[34] PAGE 6, LINE 21. Page 6, line 28.: _Franciscus Rueus_.--Francois de la Rue, author of _De Gemmis Aliquot_ ... (Paris, 1547). Amongst other fables narrated by Rueus is that if a magnet is hung on a balance, when a piece of iron is attracted and adheres to the magnet, it adds nothing to the weight!

[35] PAGE 6, LINE 25. Page 6, line 33.: _Serapio_.--This account of the magnetic mountains will be found in an early pharmacology printed in 1531 (Argentorati, G. Ulricher Andlenus), with the title "In hoc volumine continetur insignium medicorum Joan. Serapionis Arabis de Simplicibus Medicinis opus præclarum et ingens, Averrois Arabis de eisdem liber eximius, Rasis filius Zachariæ de eisdem opusculum perutile." It was edited by Otho Brunsels. Achilles P. Gasser, in his Appendix to the Augsburg edition of Peregrinus, gives a reference to Serapio Mauritanus, parte 2, cap. 394, libri _de medicinis compositis._

[36] PAGE 6, LINE 30. Page 6, line 39.: _Olaus Magnus_. See note to p. 5.

[37] PAGE 6, LINE 34. Page 6, line 44.: _Hali Abas_.--A reference is given in Gasser's (1558) edition of Peregrinus to Haliabbas Arabs, lib. 2, _practicæ_ cap. 45, _Regalis Dispositionis Medicinæ_. The passage to which Gilbert refers is found in the volume _Liber totius medicinæ necessaria c[=o]tinens ... quem Haly filius Abbas ... edidit ... et a Stephano ex arabica lingua reductus_. (Lugd., 1523, 4to.) Liber Primus. Practice, Cap xlv. _de speciebus lapidum_, § 466. "Lapis magnetes filis e [=v]tute sadenego: & aiunt q[=m] si teneat^r in manu mitigat [=q] sunt in pedib^s ipis dolores ac spasm[=u]."

Mr. A. G. Ellis identifies the noun _sadenegum_ as a Latin corruption of the Arabic name of hæmatite, _shâdanaj_.

[38] PAGE 6, LINE 36. Page 6, line 46.: _Pictorius_.--His poem was publisht at Basel, 1567. See also note on Marbodæus, p. 7, line 20, below.

[39] PAGE 6, LINE 36. Page 7, line 1.: _Albertus Magnus_.--Albertus, the celebrated Archbishop of Ratisbon, is responsible for propagating sundry of the myths of the magnet; and Gilbert never loses a chance of girding at him. {18} The following examples are taken from the treatise _De mineralibus et rebus metallicis_ (Liber II. _de lapidibus preciosis_), Venet., 1542.

p. 171. "Et quod mirabile videtur multis his lapis [adamas] quando Magneti supponitur ligat Magnetem et non permittit ipsum ferrum trahere."

p. 193. "Vnctus aut[~e] lapis alleo non trahit, si superponitur ei Adamas iterum non attrahit, ita quod paruus Adamas magn[~u] ligat Magnet[~e]. Inventus aut[~e] est nostris t[~e]poribus Magnes qui ab uno angulo traxit ferr[~u] et ab alio fugavit, et hunc Aristot. ponit aliud genus esse Magnetis. Narrauit mihi quidam ex nostris sociis experim[~e]tator quod uidit Federicum Imperatorem habere Magnetem qui non traxit ferrum, sed ferrum uiceuersa traxit lapidem."

The first edition of this work _de mineralibus_ appears to have been publisht in Venice as a folio in 1495.

[40] PAGE 7, LINE 9. Page 7, line 15. _Gaudentius Merula_.--This obscure passage is from Liber IIII., cap. xxi., _Lapides_, of the work _Memorabilium Gaudentii Merulæ..._ (Lugd., 1556), where we find:

"Qui magneti vrsæ sculpserit imaginem, quãdo Luna melius illuc aspiciat, & filo ferreo susp[~e]derit, compos fiet vrsæ cælestis virtutis: verùm cum Saturni radiis vegetetur, satius fuerit eam imaginem non habere: scribunt enim Platonici malos dæmones septentrionales esse" (p. 287).

"Trahit autem magnes ferrum ad se, quod ferro sit ordine superior apud vrsum" (p. 287).

The almost equally obscure passage in the _De triplici vita_ of Marsiglio Ficino (Basil., 1532) runs:

"Videmus in specula nautarum indice poli libratum acum affectum in extremitate Magnete moueri ad Vrsam, illuc uidelicet trahente Magnete: quoniam & in lapide hoc præualet uirtus Vrsæ, & hinc transfertur in ferrum, & ad Vrsam trahit utrunq;. Virtus autem eiusmodi tum ab initio infusa est, tum continue Vrsæ radijs uegetatur, Forsitan ita se habet Succinum ad polum alterum & ad paleas. Sed dic interea, Cur Magnes trahit ubiq; ferrum? non quia simile, alioquin & Magnetem Magnes traheret multo magis, ferrum[=q]; ferr[=u]: non quia superior in ordine corporum, imò superius est lapillo metallum ... Ego autem quum hæc explorata hactenus habuissem admodum gratulabar, cogitabam[=q]; iuuenis adhuc Magneti pro uiribus inscluperet (_sic_) coelestis Vrsæ figuram, quando Luna melius illuc aspiciat, & ferro t[=u]c filo collo suspendere. Sperabam equidem ita demum uirtutis me sideris illius compotem fore," &c. (p. 172).

[41] PAGE 7, LINE 14. Page 7, line 20. _Ruellius_.--Joannes Ruellius wrote a herbal _De Natura Stirpium_, Paris, 1536, which contains a very full account of amber, and a notice of the magnet (p. 125) and of the fable about garlic. But on p. 530 of the same work he ridicules Plutarch for recording this very matter.

[42] PAGE 7, LINE 20. Page 7, line 27. _Marbodæus Gallus_.--This rare little book is entitled _Marbodei Galli Poetæ vetustissimi de lapidibus pretiosis Enchiridion_. It was printed at Paris in 1531. The Freiburg edition, also of 1531, has the commentaries of Pictorius. The poem is in Latin hexameters. After a preface of twenty-one lines the virtues of stones are dealt with, the paragraph beginning with a statement that Evax, king of the Arabs, is said to have written to Nero an account of the species, names and colours of stones, their place of origin and their potencies; and that this work formed the basis of the poem. The alleged magical powers of the magnet are recited in Caput I., _Adamas_. Caput XLIII., _Magnes_, gives further myths. {19} The commentary of Pictorius gives references to earlier writers, Pliny, Dioscorides, Bartholomæus Anglicus, Solinus, Serapio, and to the book _de lapidibus_ erroneously ascribed to Aristotle.

The following is a specimen of the poem of Marbodeus:

_Magnetes lapis est inuentus apud Trogloditas,_
_Qu[=e] lapid[=a] genetrix nihilominus India mittit._
_Hic ferruginei cognoscitur esse coloris,_
_Et ui naturæ uicinum tollere ferrum._
_Ededon magus hoc primum ferè dic[=i]tur usus,_
_Conscius in magica nihil esse potentius arte._
_Post illum fertur famosa uenefica Circe_
_Hoc in præstigijs magicis specialiter usa._

This poem was reprinted (1854) in Migne's _Patrologia_. In 1799 Johann Beckmann issued an annotated variorum edition of Marbodeus (_Marbodi Liber Lapidvm sev de Gemmis_..., Göttingæ, 1799), in which there is a bibliography of the poem, the first edition of which appears to have been publisht in 1511, at Vienna, thirteen other editions being described. Beckmann adds many illustrative notes, and a notice of the Arabian Evax, who is supposed to have written the treatise _de lapidibus_. Not the least curious part is a French translation alleged to have been written in 1096, of which Chap. XIX. on the Magnet begins thus:

Magnete trovent Trogodite,
En Inde e precieus est ditte.
Fer resemble e si le trait,
Altresi cum laimant fait.
Dendor lama mult durement.
Qi lusoit a enchantement.
Circe lus a dot mult chere,
Cele merveillose forciere, &c.

[43] PAGE 7, LINE 21. Page 7, line 28. _echeneidis._--The _echeneis_, or sucking-fish, reputed to have magical or magnetic powers, is mentioned by many writers. As an example, see Fracastorio, _De Sympathia et Antipathia_, lib. i., cap. 8, _De Echineide, quomodo firmare nauigia possit_ (Giunta edition, Venet., 1574, p. 63). For other references to the _Echeneis_ see Gaudentius Merula (_op. citat._) p. 209. Also Dr. Walter Charleton, _Physiologia Epicuro Gassendo-Charltoniana_ (Lond., 1654), p. 375. Compare p. 63, line 3.

[44] PAGE 7, LINE 33. Page 7, line 43. _Thomas Hariotus_, etc.--The four Englishmen named were learned men who had contributed to navigation by magnetic observations. Harriot's account of his voyage to Virginia is printed in Hakluyt's _Voyages_. Robert Hues (or Hood) wrote a treatise _on Globes_, the Latin edition of which appeared in 1593 (dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh), and the English edition in 1638. It was republisht by the Hakluyt Society, 1889. Edward Wright, the mathematician and writer on navigation, also wrote the preface to Gilbert's own book. Abraham Kendall, or Abram Kendal was "Portulano," or sailing-master of Sir Robert Dudley's ship the _Bear_, and is mentioned in Dudley's _Arcano del Mare_. On the return of Dudley's expedition in 1595, he joined Drake's last expedition, which sailed that year, and died on the same day as Drake himself, 28 January, 1596. (See _Hakluyt_, ed. 1809, iv., p. 73.)

[45] PAGE 7, LINE 36. Page 8, line 1. _Guilielmus Borough._--Borough's book has the title: _A Discours of the Variation of the Cumpas, or magneticall {20} Needle. Wherein is Mathematically shewed, the manner of the obseruation, effectes, and application thereof, made by W. B._ And is to be annexed to _The Newe Attractive_ of R. N., 1581 (London).

[46] PAGE 7, LINE 37. Page 8, line 2. _Guilielmus Barlo_.--Archdeacon William Barlowe (author, in 1616, of the _Magneticall Aduertisements_) wrote in 1597 a little work called _The Navigators Supply_. It gives a description of the ordinary compass, and also one of a special form of meridian compass provided with sights for taking the bearings by the sun.

[47] PAGE 7, LINE 37. Page 8, line 3. _Robertus Normannus_. See Note to p. 5.

[48] PAGE 8, LINE 14. Page 8, line 21. _illo fabuloso Plinij bubulco_.--The following is Pliny's account from Philemon Holland's English version of 1601 (p. 586): "As for the name Magnes that it hath, it tooke it (as _Nicander_ saith) of the first inventor and deviser thereof, who found it (by his saying) upon the mountaine Ida (for now it is to be had in all other countries, like as in Spaine also;) and (by report) a Neat-heard he was: who, as he kept his beasts upon the aforesaid mountaine, might perceive as he went up and downe, both the hob-nailes which were on his shoes, and also the yron picke or graine of his staffe, to sticke unto the said stone."

[49] PAGE 9, LINE 22. Page 9, line 30. _Differentiæ priscis ex colore_.--Pliny's account of the loadstones of different colours which came from different regions is mainly taken from Sotacus. The white magnet, which was friable, like pumice, and which did not draw iron, was probably simply magnesia. The blue loadstones were the best. See p. 587 of Holland's translation of Pliny, London, 1601. St. Isidore (_Originum seu Etymologiarum_, lib. xvi., cap. 4) says: "Omnis autem magnes tanta melior est, quanto [magis] cæruleus est."

[50] PAGE 10, LINE 29. Page 10, line 42. _Suarcebergo ... Snebergum & Annæbergum_.--In the Stettin editions of 1628 and 1633 these are spelled _Swarcebergs ... Schnebergum & Annebergum_. The Cordus given as authority for these localities is Valerius Cordus, the commentator on Dioscorides.

[51] PAGE 11, LINE 3. Page 11, line 12. _Adriani Gilberti viri nobilis_.--"Adrian Gylbert of Sandridge in the Countie of Devon, Gentleman" is the description of the person to whom Queen Elizabeth granted a patent for the discovery of a North-West passage to China. See Hakluyt's _Voyages_, vol. iii., p. 96.

[52] PAGE 11, LINE 17. Page 11, line 28. _Dicitur a Græcis_ [Greek: êraklios].--The discussion of the names of the magnet in different languages by Gilbert in this place is far from complete. He gives little more than is to be found in Pliny. For more complete discussions the reader is referred to Buttmann, _Bemerkungen über die Benennungen einiger Mineralien bei den Alten, vorzüglich des Magnetes und des Basaltes_ (Musæum der Alterthumswissenschaft, Bd. II., pp. 5-52, and 102-104, 1808); G. Fournier, _Hydrographie_ (livre xi., chap. I, 1643); Ulisse Aldrovandi, _Musæum Metallicum_ (Bononiæ, 1648, lib. iv., cap. 2, p. 554); Klaproth, _Lettre à M. le Baron A. de Humboldt, sur l'invention de la Boussole_, Paris, 1834; T. S. Davies, _The History of Magnetical Discovery_ (Thomson's _British Annual_, 1837, pp. 250-257); Th. Henri Martin, _De l'Aimant, de ses noms divers et de ses variétés suivant les Anciens_ (Mémoires présentés par divers savants a l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, I^{re} série, t. vi., I^{re} partie, 1861); G. A. Palm, _Der Magnet in Alterthum_ (Programm des k. württembergischen Seminars Maulbronn, Stuttgart, {21} 1867). Of these works, those of Klaproth and of Martin are by far the most important. Klaproth states that in modern Greek, in addition to the name [Greek: magnêtis], the magnet also has the names [Greek: adamas] and [Greek: kalamita]. The former of these, in various forms, _adamas_, _adamant_, _aimant_, _yman_, and _piedramon_, has gone into many languages. Originally the word [Greek: adamas] (the unconquered) was applied by the Greeks to the hardest of the metals with which they were acquainted, that is to say, to hard-tempered iron or steel, and it was subsequently because of its root-signification also given by them to the diamond for the same reason; it was even given to the henbane because of the deadly properties of that plant. In the writings of the middle ages, in St. Augustine, St. Isidore, Marbodeus, and even in Pliny, we find some confusion between the two uses of _adamas_ to denote the loadstone as well as the diamond. Certainly the word _adamas_, without ceasing to be applied to the diamond, also designated the loadstone. At the same time (says Martin) the word _magnes_ was preserved, as Pliny records, to designate a loadstone of lesser strength than the _adamas_. On the other hand, the word _diamas_, or _deamans_, had already in the thirteenth century been introduced into Latin to signify the diamond as distinguisht from the magnet. _Adamas_ was rendered _aymant_ in the romance version of the poem of Marbodeus on stones (see Beckmann's variorum edition of 1799, p. 102), and in this form it was for a time used to denote both the magnet and the diamond. Then it gradually became restricted in use to the stone that attracts iron.

Some confusion has also arisen with respect to the Hebrew name of the magnet. Sir W. Snow Harris makes the following statement (_Magnetism_, p. 5): "In the Talmud it [the loadstone] is termed _achzhàb'th_, the stone which attracts; and in their ancient prayers it has the European name _magn[=e]s_." On this point Dr. A. Löwy has furnisht the following notes. The loadstone is termed in one of the Talmudical sections and in the Midrash, _Eben Shoebeth_ (lapis attrahens). This would of course be written [Hebrew: 'BN SHW'BT]. Omitting the [Hebrew: W] which marks the participial construction, the words would stand thus: [Hebrew: 'BN SH'BT] A person referring to Buxtorf's _Lexicon_ Talmudicum would in the index look out for "Lapis magnesius," or for "magnes." He would then, in the first instance, be referred to the two words already quoted. Not knowing the value of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, he reads [Hebrew: 'BN SH'BT] thus: [Hebrew: 'KZSH'BT] achzhab'th. It is true that Buxtorf has inserted in his _Lexicon_ the vocable [Hebrew: MAGNIYSEIS], "corruptum ex gr. [Greek: magnês, magnêtês, magnêtis], named after the Asiatic city Magnesia." He goes on to say, "Inde Achilles Statius istum lapidem vocavit [Greek: magnêsian lithon]. Hinc [Hebrew: 'BN HMGNJSS CHMSHWK HBRZL]. Lapis Magnesius trahit ferrum." Here he quotes from (Sepher) Ikkarem IV., cap. 35.

Kircher, in his _Magnes, sive de Arte magnetica_ (Coloniæ, 1643), gives several other references to Hebrew literature. Others have supposed that the word [Hebrew: CHLMYSH] _khallamish_, which signifies pebble, rock, or hard rock, to be used for the magnet.

As to the other Greek name, [Greek: sidêritis], or [Greek: lithos sidêritis] this was given not only to the loadstone but also to non-magnetic iron. In the _Etymologicum magnum_ (under the word [Greek: magnêtis]), and in Photius (_Quæst. amphiloch._, q. 131), it is stated that the name _sideritis_ was given to the loadstone either because of its action on iron, or of its resemblance in aspect to iron, _or rather_, they say, _because the loadstone was originally found in the mines of this metal_. Alexander of Aphrodisias expressly says (_Quætiones Physicæ_, II. 23) that {22} the loadstone appears to be nothing else than [Greek: gê sidêritis], the earth which yields iron, or the earth of iron.

[53] PAGE 11, LINE 19. Page 11, line 29. _ab Orpheo_.--The reference is to v. 301-328 of the [Greek: Lithika]. The passage, as given in Abel's edition (Berol., 1881), begins:

[Greek: Tolma d' athanatous kai henêei meilissethai]
[Greek: magnêssêi, tên d' exoch' ephilato thousios Arês,]
[Greek: houneken, hoppote ken pelasêi polioio sidêrou,]
[Greek: êute parthenikê terenochroa chersin helousa]
[Greek: êitheon sternôi prosptussetai himeroenti,]
[Greek: hôs hêg' harpazousa poti spheteron demas haiei]
[Greek: aps palin ouk ethelei methemen polemista sidêron.]

[54] PAGE 11, LINE 20. Page 11, line 31. _Gallis aimant_.--The French word _aimant_, or _aymant_, is generally supposed to be derived from _adamas_. Nevertheless Klaproth (_op. citat._, p. 19) suggests that the word _aimant_ is a mere literal translation into French of the Chinese word _thsu chy_, which is the common name of the magnet, and which means _loving stone_, or _stone that loves_. All through the east the names of the magnet have mostly the same signification, for example, in Sanskrit it is _thoumbaka_ (the kisser), in Hindustani _tchambak_.

[55] PAGE 11, LINE 20. Page 11, line 32. _Italis calamita_.--The name _calamita_, universal in Italian for the magnet, is also used in Roumanian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Wendish. Its supposed derivation from the Hebrew _khallamîsh_ is repudiated by Klaproth, who also points out that the use of [Greek: kalamita] in Greek is quite modern. He adds that the only reasonable explanation of the word _calamita_ is that given by Father Fournier (_op. citat._), who says:

"Ils (les marins français) la nomment aussi _calamite_, qui proprement en français signifie une _grenouille verte_, parce qu'avant qu'on ait trouvé l'invention de suspendre et de balancer sur un pivot l'aiguille aimantée, nos ancêtres l'enfermaient dans une fiole de verre demi-remplie d'eau, et la faisaient flotter, par le moyen de deux petits fétus, sur l'eau comme une grenouille." Klaproth adds that he entirely agrees with the learned Jesuit, but maintains that the word _calamite_, to designate the little green frog, called to-day _le graisset_, _la raine_, or _la rainette_, is essentially Greek. For we read in Pliny (_Hist. Nat._ lib. xxxii., ch. x.): "Ea rana quam Græci _calamiten_ vocant, quoniam inter arundines, fruticesque vivat, minima omnium est et viridissima."

[56] PAGE 11, LINE 20. Page 11, line 32. _Anglis_ loadstone & adamant stone.

The English term _loadstone_ is clearly connected with the Anglo-Saxon verb _loedan_, to lead, and with the Icelandic _leider-stein_. There is no doubt that the spelling _lodestone_ would be etymologically more correct, since it means _stone that leads_ not _stone that carries a load_. The correct form is preserved in the word _lode-star_.

The word _adamant_, from _adamas_, the mediæval word for both loadstone and diamond, also occurs in English for the loadstone, as witness Shakespeare:

"You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant
But yet you draw not iron; for my heart
Is true as steel."
_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II, Scene 1.

[57] PAGE 11, LINE 21. Page 11, {23} line 33. _Germanis magness_, & _siegelstein_. The Stettin edition of 1628 reads _Germanis_ MAGNETSTEIN, _Belgis_ SEYLSTEEN; while that of 1633 reads _Germanis_ MAGNETSTEIN, _Belgis_ SYLSTEEN.

[58] PAGE 11, LINE 26. Page 11, line 39. In this line the Greek sentence is, in every known copy of the folio of 1600, corrected in ink upon the text, [Greek: thalês] being thus altered into [Greek: Thalês], and [Greek: apomnemonuousi] into [Greek: apomnemoneuousi]. Four lines lower, brackets have been inserted around the words (lapidum specularium modo). These ink corrections must have been made at the printers', possibly by Gilbert's own hand. They have been carried out as errata in the editions of 1628 and 1633. The "facsimile" Berlin reprint of 1892 has deleted them, however. Other ink corrections on pp. 14, 22, 38, 39, 47, 130, and 200 of the folio edition of 1600 are noted in due course.

[59] PAGE 11, LINE 29. Page 11, line 45. _lapis specularis_. This is the mediæval name for _mica_, but in Elizabethan times known as talc or muscovy stone. Cardan, _De Rerum Varietate_ (Basil., 1557, p. 418), lib. xiiii., cap. lxxii., mentions the use of _lapis specularis_ for windows.

[60] PAGE 11, LINE 31. Page 11, line 46.: _Germanis Katzensilbar_ & _Talke_.--In the editions of 1628 and 1633 this is corrected to _Germanis_ KATZENSILBER & TALCKE. Goethe, in _Wilhelm Meister's Travels_, calls mica "cat-gold."

[61] PAGE 12, LINE 30. Page 12, line 35. _integtum_ appears to be a misprint for _integrum_, which is the reading of editions 1628 and 1633.

[62] PAGE 13, LINE 4. Page 13, line 3. [Greek: mikrogê] _seu Terrella_. Although rounded loadstones had been used before Gilbert's time (see Peregrinus, p. 3 of Augsburg edition of 1558, or Baptista Porta, p. 194, of English edition of 1658), Gilbert's use of the spherical loadstone as a model of the globe of the earth is distinctive. The name _Terrella_ remained in the language. In _Pepys's Diary_ we read how on October 2, 1663, he "received a letter from Mr. Barlow with a terella." John Evelyn, in his _Diary_, July, 1655, mentions a "pretty terella with the circles and showing the magnetic deviations."

A Terrella, 4½ inches in diameter, was presented in 1662 by King Charles I. to the Royal Society, and is still in its possession. It was examined in 1687 (see _Phil. Transactions_ for that year) by the Society to see whether the positions of its poles had changed.

In Grew's _Catalogue and Description of the Rarities belonging to the Royal Society and preserved at Gresham College_ (London, 1681, p. 364) is mentioned a Terrella contrived by Sir Christopher Wren, with one half immersed in the centre of a plane horizontal table, so as to be like a Globe with the poles in the horizon, having thirty-two magnet needles mounted in the margin of the table to show "the different respect of the _Needle_ to the several _Points_ of the _Loadstone_."

In Sir John Pettus's _Fleta Minor_, London, 1683, in the _Dictionary of Metallick Words_ at the end, under the word _Loadstone_ occurs the following passage:

"Another piece of Curiosity I saw in the Hands of Sir _William Persal_ (since Deceased also) _viz._, a _Terrella_ or _Load-stone_, of little more than _6 Inches Diameter_, turned into a _Globular Form_, and all the _Imaginery Lines_ of our _Terrestrial Globe_, exactly drawn upon it: _viz._ the _Artick _ and _Antartick Circles_, the _two Tropicks_, the _two Colures_, the _Zodiack_ and _Meridian_; and these _Lines_, and the several _Countryes_, artificially _Painted_ on it, and all of them with their true _Distances_, from the two _Polar Points_, and to find the truth of those _Points_, he took two _little pieces_ of a _Needle_, each of about _half_ {24} _an Inch in length_, and those he laid on the _Meridian line_, and then with _Brass Compasses_, moved one of them towards the _Artick_, which as it was moved, still raised it self at one end higher and higher, keeping the other end fixt to the _Terrella_; and when it had compleated it Journy to the very _Artick Points_, it stood upright upon that _Point_; then he moved the other piece of _Needle_ to the _Antartick Point_, which had its _Elevations_ like the other, and when it came to the _Point_, it fixt it self upon that _Point_, and stood _upright_, and then taking the _Terrella_ in my Hand, I could perfectly see that the two _pieces_ of _Needles_ stood so exactly one against the other, as if it had been one intire _long Needle_ put through the _Terrella_, which made me give credit to those who held, That there is an _Astral Influence_ that _darts_ it self through the _Globe_ of _Earth_ from _North_ to _South_ (and is as the _Axel-Tree_ to the _Wheel_, and so called the _Axis_ of the _World_) about which the _Globe_ of the _Earth_ is turned, by an _Astral Power_, so as what I thought _imaginary_, by this _Demonstration_, I found _real_."

[63] PAGE 13, LINE 20. Page 13, line 22. The editions of 1628 and 1633 give a different woodcut from this: they show the terrella lined with meridians, equator, and parallels of latitude: and they give the compass needle, at the top, _pointing in the wrong direction_.

[64] PAGE 14, LINE 3. Page 14, line 3. The Berlin "facsimile" reprint omits the asterisk here.

[65] PAGE 14, LINE 5. Page 14, line 6. _erectus_ altered in ink in the folio to _erecta_. But _erectus_ is preserved in editions 1628 and 1633. In Cap. IIII., on p. 14, both these Stettin editions insert an additional cut representing the terrella A placed in a tub or vessel B floating on water.

[66] PAGE 14, LINE 34. Page 14, line 39. _variatione quad[=a]._ The whole of Book IIII. is devoted to a discussion of the variation of the compass.

[67] PAGE 16, LINE 28. Page 16, line 34. _aquæ._--This curious use of the dative occurs also on p. 222, line 8.

[68] PAGE 17, LINE 1. Page 17, line 1. _videbis._--The reading _vibebis_ of the 1633 edition is an error.

[69] PAGE 18, LINE 24. Page 18, line 27. _Theamedem._--For the myth about the alleged _Theamedes_, or repelling magnet, see Cardan, _De Subtilitate_ (folio ed., 1550, lib. vii., p. 186).

Pliny's account, in the English version of 1601 (p. 587), runs:

"To conclude, there is another mountaine in the same Æthyopia, and not farre from the said Zimiris, which breedeth the stone Theamedes that will abide no yron, but rejecteth and driveth the same from it."

Martin Cortes, in his _Arte de Nauegar_ (Seville, 1556), wrote:

"And true it is that Tanxeades writeth, that in Ethiope is found another kinde of this stone, that putteth yron from it" (Eden's translation, London, 1609).

[70] PAGE 21, LINE 24. Page 21, line 25. _Hic segetes, &c._--The English version of these lines from Vergil's _Georgics_, Book I., is by the late Mr. R. D. Blackmore.

[71] PAGE 22, LINE 18. Page 22, line 19. _quale_, altered in ink in the folio text to _qualis_. The editions of 1628 and 1633 both read _qualis_.

[72] PAGE 22, LINE 19. Page 22, line 20. _rubrica fabrili_: in English _ruddle_ or _reddle_. See "Sir" John Hill, _A General Natural History_, 1748, p. 47. In the _De Re Metallica_ of Entzelt (Encelius), Frankfurt, 1551, p. 134, is a paragraph headed _De Rubrica Fabrili_, as follows: "Rubrica fabrilis duplex {25} est. à Germanis añt utraque dicitur rottel, röttelstein, wie die zimmerleüt vnd steynmetzen brauchen. à Græcis [Greek: miltos tektonikê]. Est enim alia nativa, alia factitia. Natiua à Germanis propriè dicitur berckrottel. haec apud nos est fossilis.... Porro factitia est rubrica fabrilis, à Germanis braunrottel, quæ fit ex ochra usta, ut Theophrastus et Dioscorides testantur."

[73] PAGE 22, LINE 19. Page 22, line 20. _In Sussexia Angliæ._--In Camden's _Britannia_ (1580) we read concerning the iron industry in the villages in Sussex: "They are full of iron mines in sundry places, where, for the making and founding thereof, there be furnaces on every side; and a huge deal of wood is yearly burnt. The heavy forge-hammers, worked by water-power, stored in hammer-ponds, ceaselessly beating upon the iron, fill the neighbourhood round about, day and night, with continual noise."

[74] PAGE 23, LINE 1. Page 22, line 44. _in libro Aristotelis de admirandis narrationibus._--The reference is to the work usually known as the _De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus_, Cap. XLVIII.: "Fertur autem peculiarissima generatio esse ferri Chalybici Amisenique, ut quod ex sabulo quod a fluviis defertur, ut perhibent certe, conflatur. Alii simpliciter lotum in fornace excoqui, alii vero, quod ex lotura subsedit, frequentius lotum comburi tradunt adjecto simul et pyrimacho dicto lapide, qui in ista regio plurimus reperiri fertur." (Ed. Didot, vol. ii., p. 87.) According to Georgius Agricola, the stone pyrimachus is simply iron pyrites.

[75] PAGE 23, LINE 22. Page 23, line 23. _vt in Italia Comi_, &c.--This is mostly taken from Pliny. Compare the following passage from Philemon Holland's translation (1601), p. 514:

"But the most varietie of yron commeth by the meanes of the water, wherein the yron red-hot is eftsoones dipped and quenched for to be hardened. And verely, water only which in some place is better, in other worse, is that which hath ennobled many places for the excellent yron that commeth from them, as namely, Bilbilis in Spaine, and Tarassio, Comus also in Italie; for none of these places have any yron mines of their owne, and yet there is no talke but of the yron and steele that commeth from thence."

Bilbilis is Bambola, and Tariassona the Tarazona of modern Spain.

[76] PAGE 24, LINE 28. Page 24, line 27. _Quare vani sunt illi Chemici._--Gilbert had no faith in the alchemists. On pp. 19 and 21 he had poked fun at them for declaring the metals to be constituted of sulphur and quicksilver, and for pronouncing the fixed earth in iron to be sulphur. On p. 20 he had denied their proposition that the differences between silver, gold, and copper could arise from proportions of their constituent materials; and he likewise denounced unsparingly the supposed relation between the seven metals and the seven planets. He now denounces the vain dreams of turning all metals into gold, and all stones into diamonds. Later he rejects as absurd the magnetic curing of wounds. His detachment from the pseudo-science of his age was unique if not complete.

[77] PAGE 25, LINE 15. Page 25, line 16. _Petro-coriis, & Cabis Biturgibus._--The Petro-corii were a tribe in the neighbourhood of Perigord; the Cubi Biturges another in that of Bourges.

[78] PAGE 25, LINE 21. Page 25, line 23. Pliny's account, as translated by P. Holland (ed. 1601, p. 515), runs thus:

"Of all mines that be, the veine of this mettall is largest, and spreadeth it selfe into most lengths every way: as we may see in that part of Biscay that coasteth along the sea, and upon which the Ocean beateth: where there {26} is a craggie mountaine very steep and high, which standeth all upon a mine or veine of yron. A wonderfull thing, and in manner incredible, howbeit, most true, according as I have shewed already in my Cosmographie, as touching the circuit of the Ocean."

[79] PAGE 26, LINE 15. Page 26, line 12. _quas Clampas nostri vocant._--The name _clamp_ for the natural kiln formed by heaping up the bricks, with ventilating spaces and fuel within the heap, is still current.

[80] PAGE 26, LINE 39. Page 26, line 38. _Pluebat in Taurinis ferrum._--The occurrence is narrated by Scaliger, _De Subtilitate_, Exercitat. cccxxiii.:

"Sed falsò lapidis pluviam creas tu ex pulvere hausto à nubibus, atque in lapidem condensato. At ferrum, quod pluit in Taurinis, cuius frustum apud nos extat, qua ex fodina sustulit nubes? Tribus circiter annis antè, quàm ab Rege provincia illa recepta esset, pluit ferro multis in locis, sed raris" (p. 434, Editio Lutetiæ, 1557).

"During the latter ages of the Roman Empire the _city_ of Augusta Taurinorum seems to have been commonly known (as was the case in many instances in Transalpine Gaul) by the name of the tribe to which it belonged, and is called simply Taurini in the Itineraries, as well as by other writers, hence its modern name of Torino or Turin" (Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geographies_, p. 1113).

There exists a considerable literature respecting falls of meteors and of meteoric iron. Livy, Plutarch, and Pliny all record examples. See also _Remarks concerning stones said to have fallen from the clouds_, by Edward King (London, 1796); Chladni, _Ueber den Ursprung der von Pallas gefundenen und anderer ihr ähnlicher Eisenmassen_ (Riga, 1794); _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. lxxviii., pp. 37 and 183; vol. lxxxv., p. 103; vol. xcii., p. 174; Humboldt's _Cosmos_, vol. i. (p. 97 of London edition, 1860); C. Rammelsberg, _Die chemische Natur der Meteoriten_ (Berlin, 1879); Maskelyne, _Some lecture-notes on Meteorites_ printed in _Nature_, vol. xii., pp. 485, 504, and 520, 1875. Maskelyne denominates as _siderites_ those meteorites which consist chiefly of iron. They usually contain from 80 to 95 per cent. of iron, often alloyed with nickel. This meteoric iron is sometimes so pure that it can at once be forged by the smith. An admirable summary of the whole subject is to be found in L. Fletcher's _An Introduction to the study of Meteorites_, publisht by the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), London, 1896.

[81] PAGE 27, LINE 3. Page 26, line 41. _vt Cardanus ... scribit._--The passage runs:

"Vidimus anno MDX cum cecidisset è coelo lapides circiter MCC in agrum fluvio Abduæ conterminum, ex his unum CXX pondo, alium sexaginta delati fuerunt ad reges Gallor[~u] satrapes, plurimi: colos ferrugineus, durities eximia, odor sulphureus" (Cardan, _De Rerum Varietate_, lib. xiiii., cap. lxxii.; Basil., 1557, p. 545).

[82] PAGE 27, LINE 9. Page 27, line 2. _aut stannum, aut plumbum album._ Although most authorities agree in translating _plumbum album_ or _plumbum candidum_ as "tin" (which is unquestionably the meaning in such examples as Pliny's _Nat. Hist._, xxxiv. 347, and iv. 16; or Strabo, iii. 147), nevertheless it is certain that here _plumbum album_ is not given as a synonym of _stannum_ and therefore is not _tin_. That Gilbert meant either spelter or pewter is pretty certain. He based his metallic terms mainly upon Encelius (Christoph Entzelt) whose _De Re Metallica_ was published at Frankfurt in 1551. From this work are taken the following passages: {27}

p. 61. _De Plumbo candido._ Cap. XXXI.

"Veluti plumbum nigr[~u] uocatur à Germanis blei simpliciter, od' schwartzblei: ita plumb[~u] candid[~u] ab his uocatur weissblei, od' ziñ. Impropriè autem plumbum hoc nostrum candidum ziñ, stannum dicitur. Et non sunt idem, ut hactenus voluerunt, stannum et plumbum candidum, unser ziñ. Aliud est stannum, de quo mox agemus: et aliud plumbum candidum nostrum, unser ziñ, quod nigro plumbo quasi est quiddã purius et perfectius...."

p. 62. _De Stanno._ Cap. XXXII.

"In præcedenti capite indicauimus aliud esse stannum, aliud esse plumb[~u] candid[~u]. Illa ergo definitio plumbi candidi, dess zinnes, etiã apud chimistas nõ de stanno, sed de plumbo candido (ut mihi uidetur) intelligenda est, cum dicunt: Stannum (es soll heyssen plumbum candidum) est metallicum album, non purum, lividum...."

p. 63. "Sic uides stannum, secundum Serapionem, metallicum esse quod reperitur in sua propria uena, ut forsitan apud nos bisemut[~u]: ecõtra nostr[~u] candid[~u] plumb[~u], est Plinij candid[~u] plumb[~u], das zin, quod cõflatur ut plumbum nigrum, ex pyrite, galena, et lapillis nigris. Deinde uides stannum Plinio esse quiddã de plumbo nigro, nempe primum fluorem plumbi nigri, als wann man vnser bley ertz schmeltzet, das erst das do fleüsset, zwäre Plinio stannum. Et hoc docet Plinius adulterari pl[~u]bo candido, mit vnserm zinn, vnd wann du ihm recht nachdenckest, daruon die kannen gemacht werden, das man halbwerck heist.... O ir losen vngelerten, vnckenbrenner. Stannum proculdubio Arabis metallum est preciosius nostro candido plumbo: sicuti apud nos bisemuthum quiddam plumbo preciosius."

[83] PAGE 27, LINE 21. Page 27, line 17. _venas ... venis._--It is impossible to give in English this play on words between veins of ore and veins of the animal body.

[84] PAGE 28, LINE 23. Page 28, line 20. _quem nos verticitatem dicimus._--See the notes on Gilbert's glossary, _ante_. The word verticity remained in the language. On p. 140 of Joseph Glanvill's _Vanity of Dogmatizing_ (Lond., 1661) we read: "We believe the _verticity_ of the _Needle_, without a Certificate from the _dayes_ of _old_."

[85] PAGE 29, LINE 15. Page 29, line 16. _Nos verò diligentiùs omnia experientes._--The method of carefully trying everything, instead of accepting statements on authority, is characteristic of Gilbert's work. The large asterisks affixed to Chapters IX. X. XI. XII. and XIII. of Book I. indicate that Gilbert considered them to announce important original magnetical discoveries. The electrical discoveries of Book II., Chapter II., are similarly distinguished. A rich crop of new magnetical experiments, marked with marginal asterisks, large and small, is to be found in Book II., from Chapter XV. to Chapter XXXIV.; while a third series of experimental magnetical discoveries extends throughout Book III.

[86] PAGE 31, LINE 30. Page 31, line 25. _verticem._--The context and the heading of the Chapter appear to require _verticitatem_. All editions, however, read _verticem_.

[87] PAGE 32, LINE 12. Page 32, line 9. _Gartias ab horto._--The passage from Gartias ab Horto runs as follows in the Italian edition of 1616, _Dell' Historia dei Semplici Aromati._... di Don Garzia dall' Horto, Medico Portughese, ... Venezia MDCXVI., p. 208.

"Nè meno è questa pietra velenosa, si come molti hanno tenuto; imperoche le genti di queste bande dicono che la Calamita presa per bocca, però in poca {28} quantità, conserva la gioventù. La onde si racconta, che il Re di Zeilan il vecchio' s'haveva fatto fare tutti i vasi, dove si cocevano le vivãde per lui, di Calamita. Et questo lo disse à me colui proprio, che fu à questo officio destinato."

[88] PAGE 32, LINE 29. Page 32, line 29. _Plutarchus & C. Ptolemæus._--The garlick myth has already been referred to in the note to p. 1. The originals are Plutarch, _Quæstiones Platonicæ_, lib. vii., cap. 7, § 1; C. Ptolemæus, _Opus Quadripartitum,_ bk. i., cap. 3. The English translation of the latter, by Whalley (London, 1701), p. 10, runs: "For if the _Loadstone_ be _Rubbed_ with _Garlick_, the _Iron will not be drawn by it_."

[89] PAGE 32, LINE 32. Page 32, line 33. _Medici nonnulli._--This is apparently a reference to the followers of Rhazes and Paracelsus. The argument of Gilbert as to the inefficacy of powdered loadstones is reproduced more fully by William Barlowe in his _Magneticall Aduertisements_ (1616, p. 7), as follows:

"It is the goodnesse of the _Loadstone_ ioyned with a fit forme that will shew great force. For as a very good forme with base substance can doe but very litle, so the substance of the _Loadstone_ bee it neuer so excellent, except it haue some conuenient forme, is not auaileable. For example, an excellent _loadstone_ of a pound waight and of a good fashion, being vsed artificially, may take vp foure pounds of Iron; beate it into small pouder, and it shall bee of no force to take vp one ounce of Iron; yea I am very well assured that halfe an ounce of a Loadstone of good fashion, and of like vertue will take vp more then that pound will doe being beaten into powder. Whence (to adde this by the way) it appeareth manifestly, that it is a great error of those Physitions and Surgeons, which to remedy ruptures, doe prescribe vnto their Patients to take the pouder of a _Loadstone_ inwardly, and the small filing of iron mingled in some plaister outwardly: supposing that herein the _magneticall_ drawing should doe great wonders."

[90] PAGE 33, LINE 11. Page 33, line 8. _Nicolaus in emplastrum divinum._...--Nicolaus Myrepsus is also known as Præpositas. In his _Liber de compositione medicamentorum_ (Ingoldstat, 1541, 4to) are numerous recipes containing loadstone: for example, Recipe No. 246, called "esdra magna," is a medicine given for inflammation of the stomach and for strangury, compounded of some forty materials including "litho demonis" and "lapis magnetis." The _emplastrum divinum_ does not, however, appear to contain loadstone. In the English tractate, _Præpositas his Practise, a worke ... for the better preservation of the Health of Man. Wherein are ... approved Medicines, Receiptes and Ointmentes. Translated out of Latin in to English by_ L. M. (London, 1588, 4to), we read on p. 35, "An Emplaister of D. N. [Doctor Nicolaus] which the Pothecaries call Divinum." This contains litharge, bdellium, and "green brasse," but no loadstone.

Luis de Oviedo in his treatise _Methodo de la Coleccion y reposicion de las Medicinas simples_, edited by Gregorio Gonçalez, Boticario (Madrid, 1622), gives (p. 502) the following: "Emplasto de la madre. _Recibe_: Nuezes moscadas, clauos, cinamono, artemisia, piedraimon. De cada uno dos onças.... Entre otras differencias que ay de piedraiman se hallan dos. Vna que por la parte que mira al Septentrion, atrae el hierro, por lo quel se llama magnes ferrugineus. Y otra que atrae la carne, a la qual llaman magnes creaginus."

An "Emplastrum sticticum" containing amber, mummy, loadstone, {29} hæmatite, and twenty other ingredients, and declared to be "vulnerum ulcerumque telo inflictorum sticticum emplastrum præstantissimum," is described on p. 267 of the _Basilica chimica_ of Oswaldus Crollius (Frankfurt, 1612).