"Veluti plumbum nigr[~u] uocatur a Germanis blei simpliciter, od'

schwartzblei: ita plumb[~u] candid[~u] ab his uocatur weissblei, od' zin.

Improprie autem plumbum hoc nostrum candidum zin, stannum dicitur. Et non sunt idem, ut hactenus voluerunt, stannum et plumbum candidum, unser zin.

Aliud est stannum, de quo mox agemus: et aliud plumbum candidum nostrum, unser zin, quod nigro plumbo quasi est quidd purius et perfectius...."

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

"In praecedenti capite indicauimus aliud esse stannum, aliud esse plumb[~u]

candid[~u]. Illa ergo definitio plumbi candidi, dess zinnes, eti apud chimistas n 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]: ectra nostr[~u] candid[~u] plumb[~u], est Plinij candid[~u] plumb[~u], das zin, quod cflatur ut plumbum nigrum, ex pyrite, galena, et lapillis nigris.

Deinde uides stannum Plinio esse quidd de plumbo nigro, nempe primum fluorem plumbi nigri, als wann man vnser bley ertz schmeltzet, das erst das do fleusset, zware 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 ver diligentius 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.

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

[88] PAGE 32, LINE 29. Page 32, line 29. _Plutarchus & C. Ptolemaeus._--The garlick myth has already been referred to in the note to p. 1. The originals are Plutarch, _Quaestiones Platonicae_, lib. vii., cap. 7, -- 1; C.

Ptolemaeus, _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 Praepositas. 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, _Praepositas 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 Goncalez, Boticario (Madrid, 1622), gives (p. 502) the following: "Emplasto de la madre. _Recibe_: Nuezes moscadas, clauos, cinamono, artemisia, piedraimon. De cada uno dos oncas.... 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} haematite, and twenty other ingredients, and declared to be "vulnerum ulcerumque telo inflictorum sticticum emplastrum praestantissimum," is described on p. 267 of the _Basilica chimica_ of Oswaldus Crollius (Frankfurt, 1612).

[91] PAGE 33, LINE 12. Page 33, line 9. _Augustani ... in emplastrum nigrum_....--Amongst the physicians of the Augsburg school the most celebrated were Adolphus Occo, Ambrosio Jung, and Gereone Seyler. This particular reference is to the _Pharmacopoeia Augustana_ ... _a Collegio Medico recognita_, published at Augsburg, and which ran through many editions. The recipe for the "_emplastrum nigrum vulgo Stichpflaster_" will be found on p. 182 of the seventh edition (1621-2). The recipe begins with oil of roses, colophony, wax, and includes some twenty-two ingredients, amongst them mummy, dried earthworms, and two ounces _lapidis magnetis praeparati_. The recipe concludes: "Fiat Emplastrum secundum artem. Perquam efficax ad recentia vulnera et puncturas, vnde denominationem habet." The volume is a handsome folio not unlike Gilbert's own book, and bears at the end of the prefatory address _ad Lectorem_ identically the same _cul de lampe_ as is found on p. 44 of _De Magnete_.

The contradictions as to the alleged medicinal virtues of loadstone are well illustrated by Galen, who in his _De facultatibus_ says that loadstone is like haematite, which is astringent, while in his _De simplici medicina_ he says it is purgative.

[92] PAGE 33, LINE 14. Page 33, line 12. _Paracelsus in fodicationum emplastrum_.--Paracelsus's recipe for a plaster against stab-wounds is to be found in _Wundt vund Leibartznei_ ... D. Theoph. Paracelsus (Frankf., 1555, pp. 63-67).

[93] PAGE 33, LINE 17. Page 33, line 15. _Ferri vis medicinalis_.--This chapter on the medicinal virtues of iron is a summary of the views held down to that time. Those curious to pursue the subject should consult Waring's _Bibliotheca Therapeutica_ (London, 1878). Nor should they miss the rare black-letter quarto by Dr. Nicholas Monardus, of Seville, _Joyfull Newes out of the New-found Worlde_, translated by John Frampton (London, 1596), in which are recited the opinions of Galen, Rhazes, Avicenna, and others, on the medicinal properties of iron. In addition to the views of the Arabic authors, against whom his arguments are directed, Gilbert discusses those of Joannes Manardus, Curtius, and Fallopius. The treatise of Manardus, _Epistolarum medicinalium libri viginti_ (Basil., 1549), is a _resume_ of the works of Galen and the Arabic physicians, but gives little respecting iron. Curtius (Nicolaus) was the author of a book, _Libellus de medicamentis praeparatibus et purgantibus_ (Giessae Cattorum, 1614). The works of Fallopius are _De Simplicibus Medicamentis purgentibus tractatus_ (Venet., 1566, 4to), and _Tractatus de Compositione Medicamentorum_ (Venet., 1570, 4to).

[94] PAGE 34, LINE 7. Page 34, line 3. _quorund Arabum opiniones_.--The Arabian authorities referred to here or elsewhere by Gilbert are:

_Albategnius_ (otherwise known as Machometes Aractensis), Muhammad Ibn J[=a]bir, _Al-Batt[=a]n[=i]_.

_Avicenna_ (otherwise Abohali). Abou-'Ali al-'Hosein ben-'Abd-Allah Ibn-Sina, or, shortly, _Ibn Sina._

_Averroes._ Muhammad Ibn Ahmed Ibn-Roschd, _Abou Al-Walid._

_Geber._ Ab[=u] M[=u]s[=a] J[=a]bir Ibn Haiy[=a]n, _Al-Tars[=u]si._

_Hali Abas._ 'Ali Ibn Al-'Abbas, _Al Majusi_. {30}

_Rhazes_, or _Rasis_. Muhammad Ibn Zakar[=i]y[=a].

_Serapio._ Yuhanna Ibn Sarapion.

_Thebit Ben-Kora_ (otherwise Thabit Ibn Corrah). Ab[=u] Thabit Ibn Kurrah, _Al Harrani._

[95] PAGE 34, LINE 38.: Page 34, line 40. _electuarium de scoria ferri descriptum a Raze._--Rhazes or Rasis, whose Arabic name was Muhammad Ibn Zakar[=i]y[=a], wrote _De Simplicibus, ad Almansorem._ In Chap. 63 of this work he gives a recipe for a stomachic, which includes fennel, anise, origanum, black pepper, cinammon, ginger, and iron slag. In the splendid folio work of Rhazes publisht at Venice in 1542, with the title _Habes candide lector Contin[~e]tem Rasis_, Libri ultimi, cap. 295, under the heading _De Ferro,_ are set forth the virtues of iron slag: "Virtus scorie est sicut virtus scorie [a]eris sed debilior in purgdo: et erugo ferri est stiptica: et c[~u] superpositur retinet fluxus menstruor[~u].... Ait Paulus: aqua in qua extinguitur ferr[~u] calens.... Dico: certificatus sum experientia [~q] valet contra emorryodas diabetem et fluxum menstruorum."

[96] PAGE 35, LINE 16.: Page 35, line 13. _Paulus._--This is not Fra Paolo Sarpi, nor Marco Polo, nor Paulus Jovius the historian, nor Paulus Nicolettus Venetus, but Paulus Aeginae.

[97] PAGE 35, LINE 29.: Page 35, line 28. _Sed male Avicenna._--The advice of Avicenna to administer a draught containing powdered loadstone, reads as follows in the Giunta edition (Venice, 1608):

Lib. ii., cap. 470, p. 356. "Magnes quid est? Est lapis qui attrahit ferrum, quum ergo aduritur, fit haematites, & virtus ejus est sicut virtus illius.... Datur in potu [ad bibitionem limaturae ferri, quum retinetur in ventre scoria ferri. Ipse enim extrahit] ipsam, & associatur ei apud exitum. Et dicitur, quando in potu sumuntur ex eo tres anulusat cum mellicrato, educit solutione humorem grossum malum."

The passage is identical with that in the Venetian edition of 1486, in both of which the liquid prescribed is mellicratus--mead. Gilbert says that the iron is to be given in juice of _mercurialis_. Here he only follows Matthiolus, who, in his _Commentaries on Dioscorides_, says (p. 998 of the Basil. edition of 1598): "Sed (vt idem Auicenna scribit) proprium hujusce ferrei pharmaci antidotum, est lapis magnes drachmae pondere potus, ex mercurialis, vel betae succo."

Serapio, in his _De Simplicibus Medicinis_ (Brunfels' edition, Argentorati, 1531), p. 264, refers to Galen's prescription of iron scoriae, and under the article _de lapide magnetis_, p. 260, quotes Dioscorides as follows: "Et uirtus huius lapidis est, ut qudo dantur in potu duo onolosat ex eo c[~u]

melicrato, laxat humores grossos."

The original passage in Dioscorides, _De Materia Medica,_ ch. 147 (Spengel's edition of 1829) runs: "[Greek: Tou de magnetou lithou aristos estin ho ton sideron eucheros helkon, kai ten chroan kuanizon, puknos te kai ouk agan barus. Dunamin de echei pachous agogon didomenos meta melikratou triobolou baros; enioi de touton kaiontes anti haimatitou pipraskousin.]."

In the Frankfurt edition of Dioscorides, translated by Ruellius (1543), the passage is:

"Magnes lapis optimus est, qui ferrum facile trahit, colore ad coeruleum uergente, densus, nec admodum gravis. Datur cum aqua mulsa, trium obolorum pondere, ut crassos humores eliciat. Sunt qui magnetem cremat[=u] pro haematite vendant...."

In the _Scholia_ of Joannes Lonicerus upon Dioscorides _In Dioscoridae {31} Anazarbei de re medica libros a Virgilio Marcello versos, Scholia nova, Ioanne Lonicero autore_ (Marburgi, 1543, p. 77), occurs the following:

"_De recremento ferri._ Cap. XLIX.

"[Greek: Skoria siderou]. scoria vel recrementum ferri. Quae per ignem a ferro et cupro sordes separantur ac reijciuntur, et ab aliis metallis [Greek: skoria] uocantur. Omnis scoria, maxime uero ferri exiccat. Acerrimo aceto macerauit Galenus ferri scoriam, ac deinde excocto, pharmacum efficax confecit ad purulentas quae multo tempore uexatae erant, aures, admirando spectantium effectu. Ardenti scoria uel recrementum [Greek: helkusma], inquit Galenus."

See also the _Enarrationes eruditissimae_ of Amatus Lusitanus (Venet., 1597), pp. 482 and 507, upon iron and the loadstone.

[98] PAGE 36, LINE 27. Page 36, line 29. _eijcitur_ for _ejicitur_.

[99] PAGE 37, LINE 18. Page 37, line 22. _ut Cardanus philosophatur._--Cardan's nonsense about the magnet feeding on iron is to be found in _De Subtilitate_, lib. vii. (Basil., 1611, p. 381).

[100] PAGE 38, LINE 4. Page 38, line 7. _ferramenta ... in usum navigantium._--Compare Marke Ridley's _A Short Treatise of Magneticall Bodies and Motions_ (Lond., 1613), p. _a2_ in the _Preface Magneticall_, where he speaks of the "iron-workes" used in building ships. The phraseology of Marke Ridley throws much light on the Latin terms used by Gilbert.