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 thePhilosophical 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 aMagnetarium. SeeProc. Roy. Soc., June, 1890, Jan., 1891, and June, 1891.An actual magnetic rock exists in Scandinavia, the following account of it being given in theElectrical Reviewof 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 forAcosta(Joseph de), the Jesuit, whose workHistoria natural y moral de las Indiaswas 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.3and62), and Filippo Costa of Mantua, who wrote on antidotes and medicaments (see p.141). The passage to which Gilbert refers is in Acosta'sHistoria(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 theZaires fluviusand theZanberes 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 celebratedMagia 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.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 topicsin materia di Fisica, but these writings have perisht. He appears to have been the first to recognize that fire destroyed the magnetic properties. (SeeFra Paolo Sarpi, the greatest of the Venetiansby the Rev. Alexander Robertson, London, 1894; see also the notice of Sarpi in Park Benjamin'sIntellectual 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 ofDe 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, libride medicinis compositis.[36]Page 6, line 30.Page 6, line 39.:Olaus Magnus. Seenoteto 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,practicæcap. 45,Regalis Dispositionis Medicinæ. The passage to which Gilbert refers is found in the volumeLiber totius medicinæ necessaria cōtinens ... 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 evtute sadenego: & aiunt qmsi teneatrin manu mitigatqsunt in pedibsipis dolores ac spasmū."Mr. A. G. Ellis identifies the nounsadenegumas 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 alsonoteon 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.The following examples are taken from the treatiseDe 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 autẽ lapis alleo non trahit, si superponitur ei Adamas iterum non attrahit, ita quod paruus Adamas magnũ ligat Magnetẽ. Inventus autẽ est nostris tẽporibus Magnes qui ab uno angulo traxit ferrũ et ab alio fugavit, et hunc Aristot. ponit aliud genus esse Magnetis. Narrauit mihi quidam ex nostris sociis experimẽtator quod uidit Federicum Imperatorem habere Magnetem qui non traxit ferrum, sed ferrum uiceuersa traxit lapidem."The first edition of this workde mineralibusappears 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 workMemorabilium Gaudentii Merulæ...(Lugd., 1556), where we find:"Qui magneti vrsæ sculpserit imaginem, quãdo Luna melius illuc aspiciat, & filo ferreo suspẽderit, 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 theDe triplici vitaof 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, ferrumq; ferrū: non quia superior in ordine corporum, imò superius est lapillo metallum ... Ego autem quum hæc explorata hactenus habuissem admodum gratulabar, cogitabamq; iuuenis adhuc Magneti pro uiribus inscluperet (sic) coelestis Vrsæ figuram, quando Luna melius illuc aspiciat, & ferro tūc 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 herbalDe 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 entitledMarbodei 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.The commentary of Pictorius gives references to earlier writers, Pliny, Dioscorides, Bartholomæus Anglicus, Solinus, Serapio, and to the bookde lapidibuserroneously ascribed to Aristotle.The following is a specimen of the poem of Marbodeus:Magnetes lapis est inuentus apud Trogloditas,Quē lapidā genetrix nihilominus India mittit.Hic ferruginei cognoscitur esse coloris,Et ui naturæ uicinum tollere ferrum.Ededon magus hoc primum ferè dicītur usus,Conscius in magica nihil esse potentius arte.Post illum fertur famosa uenefica CirceHoc in præstigijs magicis specialiter usa.This poem was reprinted (1854) in Migne'sPatrologia. 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 treatisede 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.—Theecheneis, 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 theEcheneissee Gaudentius Merula (op. citat.) p. 209. Also Dr. Walter Charleton,Physiologia Epicuro Gassendo-Charltoniana(Lond., 1654), p. 375. Compare p.63, line3.[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'sVoyages. Robert Hues (or Hood) wrote a treatiseon 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 theBear, and is mentioned in Dudley'sArcano 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. (SeeHakluyt, 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 magneticallNeedle. Wherein is Mathematically shewed, the manner of the obseruation, effectes, and application thereof, made by W. B.And is to be annexed toThe Newe Attractiveof R. N., 1581 (London).[46]Page 7, line 37.Page 8, line 2.Guilielmus Barlo.—Archdeacon William Barlowe (author, in 1616, of theMagneticall Aduertisements) wrote in 1597 a little work calledThe 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. SeeNoteto 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 (asNicandersaith) 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 spelledSwarcebergs ... 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'sVoyages, vol. iii., p. 96.[52]Page 11, line 17.Page 11, line 28.Dicitur a Græcisηρακλιος.—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'sBritish 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, Iresérie, t. vi., Irepartie, 1861); G. A. Palm,Der Magnet in Alterthum(Programm des k. württembergischen Seminars Maulbronn, Stuttgart,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 nameμαγνῆτις, the magnet also has the namesἀδάμαςandκαλαμίτα. The former of these, in various forms,adamas,adamant,aimant,yman, andpiedramon, has gone into many languages. Originally the wordἀδάμας(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 ofadamasto denote the loadstone as well as the diamond. Certainly the wordadamas, without ceasing to be applied to the diamond, also designated the loadstone. At the same time (says Martin) the wordmagneswas preserved, as Pliny records, to designate a loadstone of lesser strength than theadamas. On the other hand, the worddiamas, ordeamans, had already in the thirteenth century been introduced into Latin to signify the diamond as distinguisht from the magnet.Adamaswas renderedaymantin 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 termedachzhàb'th, the stone which attracts; and in their ancient prayers it has the European namemagnēs." 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 writtenאבן שואבת. Omitting theו which marks the participial construction, the words would stand thus:אבן שאבת A person referring to Buxtorf'sLexiconTalmudicum 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 readsאבן שאבת thus:אכזשאבת achzhab'th. It is true that Buxtorf has inserted in hisLexiconthe vocableמַגְנִיסֵס, "corruptum ex gr.μάγνης, μαγνήτης, μαγνῆτις, named after the Asiatic city Magnesia." He goes on to say, "Inde Achilles Statius istum lapidem vocavitμαγνήσιαν λίθον. Hincאבן המגניסס חמשוך הברזל. Lapis Magnesius trahit ferrum." Here he quotes from (Sepher) Ikkarem IV., cap. 35.Kircher, in hisMagnes, sive de Arte magnetica(Coloniæ, 1643), gives several other references to Hebrew literature. Others have supposed that the wordחלמישkhallamish, which signifies pebble, rock, or hard rock, to be used for the magnet.As to the other Greek name,σιδηρῖτις, orλίθος σιδηρῖτιςthis was given not only to the loadstone but also to non-magnetic iron. In theEtymologicum magnum(under the wordμαγνῆτις), and in Photius (Quæst. amphiloch., q. 131), it is stated that the namesideritiswas 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) thatthe loadstone appears to be nothing else thanγῆ σιδηρῖτις, 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 theΛιθικά. The passage, as given in Abel's edition (Berol., 1881), begins:Τόλμα δ' ἀθανάτους καὶ ἑνήεϊ μειλίσσεθαιμαγνήσσῃ, τὴν δ' ἔξοχ' ἐφίλατο θούσιος Ἄρης,οὕνεκεν, ὁππότε κεν πελάσῃ πολιοῖο σιδήρου,ἠύτε παρθενικὴ τερενόχροα χερσὶν ἑλοῦσαἠΐθεον στέρνῳ προσπτύσσεται ἱμεροέντι,ὥς ἥγ' ἁρπάζουσα ποτὶ σφετερὸν δέμας αἱεὶἂψ πάλιν οὐκ ἐθέλει μεθέμεν πολεμιστὰ σὶδηρον.[54]Page 11, line 20.Page 11, line 31.Gallis aimant.—The French wordaimant, oraymant, is generally supposed to be derived fromadamas. Nevertheless Klaproth (op. citat., p. 19) suggests that the wordaimantis a mere literal translation into French of the Chinese wordthsu chy, which is the common name of the magnet, and which meansloving stone, orstone that loves. All through the east the names of the magnet have mostly the same signification, for example, in Sanskrit it isthoumbaka(the kisser), in Hindustanitchambak.[55]Page 11, line 20.Page 11, line 32.Italis calamita.—The namecalamita, universal in Italian for the magnet, is also used in Roumanian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Wendish. Its supposed derivation from the Hebrewkhallamîshis repudiated by Klaproth, who also points out that the use ofκαλαμιταin Greek is quite modern. He adds that the only reasonable explanation of the wordcalamitais that given by Father Fournier (op. citat.), who says:"Ils (les marins français) la nomment aussicalamite, qui proprement en français signifie unegrenouille 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 wordcalamite, to designate the little green frog, called to-dayle graisset,la raine, orla rainette, is essentially Greek. For we read in Pliny (Hist. Nat.lib. xxxii., ch. x.): "Ea rana quam Græcicalamitenvocant, quoniam inter arundines, fruticesque vivat, minima omnium est et viridissima."[56]Page 11, line 20.Page 11, line 32.Anglisloadstone & adamant stone.The English termloadstoneis clearly connected with the Anglo-Saxon verblœdan, to lead, and with the Icelandicleider-stein. There is no doubt that the spellinglodestonewould be etymologically more correct, since it meansstone that leadsnotstone that carries a load. The correct form is preserved in the wordlode-star.The wordadamant, fromadamas, the mediæval word for both loadstone and diamond, also occurs in English for the loadstone, as witness Shakespeare:"You draw me, you hard-hearted adamantBut yet you draw not iron; for my heartIs true as steel."Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1.[57]Page 11, line 21.Page 11,line 33.Germanis magness, &siegelstein. The Stettin edition of 1628 readsGermanisMagnetstein,BelgisSeylsteen; while that of 1633 readsGermanisMagnetstein,BelgisSylsteen.[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,θαλῆςbeing thus altered intoΘαλῆς, andαπομνεμονύουσιintoαπομνεμονεύουσι. 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, and200of 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 formica, 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 oflapis specularisfor windows.[60]Page 11, line 31.Page 11, line 46.:Germanis Katzensilbar&Talke.—In the editions of 1628 and 1633 this is corrected toGermanisKatzensilber & Talcke. Goethe, inWilhelm Meister's Travels, calls mica "cat-gold."[61]Page 12, line 30.Page 12, line 35.integtumappears to be a misprint forintegrum, which is the reading of editions 1628 and 1633.[62]Page 13, line 4.Page 13, line 3.μικρόγηseu 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 nameTerrellaremained in the language. InPepys's Diarywe read how on October 2, 1663, he "received a letter from Mr. Barlow with a terella." John Evelyn, in hisDiary, 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 (seePhil. Transactionsfor that year) by the Society to see whether the positions of its poles had changed.In Grew'sCatalogue 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 theNeedleto the severalPointsof theLoadstone."In Sir John Pettus'sFleta Minor, London, 1683, in theDictionary of Metallick Wordsat the end, under the wordLoadstoneoccurs the following passage:"Another piece of Curiosity I saw in the Hands of SirWilliam Persal(since Deceased also)viz., aTerrellaorLoad-stone, of little more than6 Inches Diameter, turned into aGlobular Form, and all theImaginery Linesof ourTerrestrial Globe, exactly drawn upon it:viz.theArtickandAntartick Circles, thetwo Tropicks, thetwo Colures, theZodiackandMeridian; and theseLines, and the severalCountryes, artificiallyPaintedon it, and all of them with their trueDistances, from the twoPolar Points, and to find the truth of thosePoints, he took twolittle piecesof aNeedle, each of abouthalfan Inch in length, and those he laid on theMeridian line, and then withBrass Compasses, moved one of them towards theArtick, which as it was moved, still raised it self at one end higher and higher, keeping the other end fixt to theTerrella; and when it had compleated it Journy to the veryArtick Points, it stood upright upon thatPoint; then he moved the other piece ofNeedleto theAntartick Point, which had itsElevationslike the other, and when it came to thePoint, it fixt it self upon thatPoint, and stoodupright, and then taking theTerrellain my Hand, I could perfectly see that the twopiecesofNeedlesstood so exactly one against the other, as if it had been one intirelong Needleput through theTerrella, which made me give credit to those who held, That there is anAstral Influencethatdartsit self through theGlobeofEarthfromNorthtoSouth(and is as theAxel-Treeto theWheel, and so called theAxisof theWorld) about which theGlobeof theEarthis turned, by anAstral Power, so as what I thoughtimaginary, by thisDemonstration, I foundreal."[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.erectusaltered in ink in the folio toerecta. Buterectusis 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 quadā.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, line8.[68]Page 17, line 1.Page 17, line 1.videbis.—The readingvibebisof the 1633 edition is an error.[69]Page 18, line 24.Page 18, line 27.Theamedem.—For the myth about the allegedTheamedes, 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 hisArte 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'sGeorgics, 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 toqualis. The editions of 1628 and 1633 both readqualis.[72]Page 22, line 19.Page 22, line 20.rubrica fabrili: in Englishruddleorreddle. See "Sir" John Hill,A General Natural History, 1748, p. 47. In theDe Re Metallicaof Entzelt (Encelius), Frankfurt, 1551, p. 134, is a paragraph headedDe Rubrica Fabrili, as follows: "Rubrica fabrilis duplexest. à Germanis añt utraque dicitur rottel, röttelstein, wie die zimmerleüt vnd steynmetzen brauchen. à Græcisμίλτος τεκτονική. 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'sBritannia(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 theDe 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.19and21he 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.20he 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 thereis 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 nameclampfor 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 thecityof 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'sDictionary 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 alsoRemarks 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'sCosmos, vol. i. (p. 97 of London edition, 1860); C. Rammelsberg,Die chemische Natur der Meteoriten(Berlin, 1879); Maskelyne,Some lecture-notes on Meteoritesprinted inNature, vol. xii., pp. 485, 504, and 520, 1875. Maskelyne denominates assideritesthose 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'sAn 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 cœlo lapides circiter MCC in agrum fluvio Abduæ conterminum, ex his unum CXX pondo, alium sexaginta delati fuerunt ad reges Gallorũ 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 translatingplumbum albumorplumbum candidumas "tin" (which is unquestionably the meaning in such examples as Pliny'sNat. Hist., xxxiv. 347, and iv. 16; or Strabo, iii. 147), nevertheless it is certain that hereplumbum albumis not given as a synonym ofstannumand therefore is nottin. That Gilbert meant either spelter or pewter is pretty certain. He based his metallic terms mainly upon Encelius (Christoph Entzelt) whoseDe Re Metallicawas published at Frankfurt in 1551. From this work are taken the following passages:p. 61.De Plumbo candido.Cap. XXXI."Veluti plumbum nigrũ uocatur à Germanis blei simpliciter, od' schwartzblei: ita plumbũ candidũ 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 plumbũ candidũ. 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 bisemutũ: ecõtra nostrũ candidũ plumbũ, est Plinij candidũ plumbũ, 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 plũbo 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'sVanity of Dogmatizing(Lond., 1661) we read: "We believe theverticityof theNeedle, without a Certificate from thedayesofold."[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 requireverticitatem. All editions, however, readverticem.[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, ... Veneziamdcxvi., 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 pocaquantità, 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 thenoteto 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 theLoadstonebeRubbedwithGarlick, theIron 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 hisMagneticall Aduertisements(1616, p. 7), as follows:"It is the goodnesse of theLoadstoneioyned 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 theLoadstonebee it neuer so excellent, except it haue some conuenient forme, is not auaileable. For example, an excellentloadstoneof 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 aLoadstoneinwardly, and the small filing of iron mingled in some plaister outwardly: supposing that herein themagneticalldrawing 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 hisLiber 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." Theemplastrum divinumdoes 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 byL. 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 treatiseMethodo 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,hæmatite, and twenty other ingredients, and declared to be "vulnerum ulcerumque telo inflictorum sticticum emplastrum præstantissimum," is described on p. 267 of theBasilica chimicaof 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 thePharmacopœia 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 ounceslapidis magnetis præparati. The recipe concludes: "Fiat Emplastrum secundùm artem. Perquàm efficax ad recentia vulnera et puncturas, vndè denominationem habet." The volume is a handsome folio not unlike Gilbert's own book, and bears at the end of the prefatory addressad Lectoremidentically the samecul de lampeas is found on p.44ofDe Magnete.The contradictions as to the alleged medicinal virtues of loadstone are well illustrated by Galen, who in hisDe facultatibussays that loadstone is like hæmatite, which is astringent, while in hisDe simplici medicinahe 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 inWundt 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'sBibliotheca 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 arésuméof the works of Galen and the Arabic physicians, but gives little respecting iron. Curtius (Nicolaus) was the author of a book,Libellus de medicamentis præparatibus et purgantibus(Giessæ Cattorum, 1614). The works of Fallopius areDe Simplicibus Medicamentis purgentibus tractatus(Venet., 1566, 4to), andTractatus de Compositione Medicamentorum(Venet., 1570, 4to).[94]Page 34, line 7.Page 34, line 3.quorundã Arabum opiniones.—The Arabian authorities referred to here or elsewhere by Gilbert are:Albategnius(otherwise known as Machometes Aractensis), Muhammad Ibn Jābir,Al-Battānī.Avicenna(otherwise Abohali). Abou-’Ali al-’Hoséin ben-’Abd-Allah Ibn-Sinâ, or, shortly,Ibn Sîna.Averroes.Muhammad Ibn Ahmed Ibn-Roschd,Abou Al-Walíd.Geber.Abū Mūsā Jābir Ibn Haiyān,Al-Tarsūsi.Hali Abas.’Alí Ibn Al-’Abbás,Al Majúsi.Rhazes, orRasis. Muhammad Ibn Zakarīyā.Serapio.Yuhanná Ibn Sarapion.Thebit Ben-Kora(otherwise Thabit Ibn Corrah). Abū Thabit Ibn Kurrah,Al Harrani.[95]Page 34, line 38.: Page 34, line 40.electuarium de scoria ferri descriptum à Raze.—Rhazes or Rasis, whose Arabic name was Muhammad Ibn Zakarīyā, wroteDe 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 titleHabes candide lector Continẽtem Rasis, Libri ultimi, cap. 295, under the headingDe Ferro,are set forth the virtues of iron slag: "Virtus scorie est sicut virtus scorie [a]eris sed debilior in purgãdo: et erugo ferri est stiptica: et cũ superpositur retinet fluxus menstruorũ.... Ait Paulus: aqua in qua extinguitur ferrũ 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 Aeginæ.[97]Page 35, line 29.: Page 35, line 28.Sed malè 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 hæmatites, & virtus ejus est sicut virtus illius.... Datur in potu [ad bibitionem limaturæ 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 ofmercurialis. Here he only follows Matthiolus, who, in hisCommentaries on Dioscorides, says (p. 998 of the Basil. edition of 1598): "Sed (vt idem Auicenna scribit) proprium hujusce ferrei pharmaci antidotum, est lapis magnes drachmæ pondere potus, ex mercurialis, vel betæ succo."Serapio, in hisDe Simplicibus Medicinis(Brunfels' edition, Argentorati, 1531), p. 264, refers to Galen's prescription of iron scoriæ, and under the articlede lapide magnetis, p. 260, quotes Dioscorides as follows: "Et uirtus huius lapidis est, ut quãdo dantur in potu duo onolosat ex eo cũ melicrato, laxat humores grossos."The original passage in Dioscorides,De Materia Medica,ch. 147 (Spengel's edition of 1829) runs: "Τοῦ δὲ μαγνήτου λίθου ἄριστός ἐστιν ὁ τὸν σίδηρον εὐχερῶς ἕλκων, καὶ τὴν χρόαν κυανίζων, πυκνός τε κὰι οὐκ ἄγαν βαρύς. Δύναμιν δὲ ἔχει πάχους ἀγωγὸν διδόμενος μετὰ μελικράτου τριωβόλου βάρος· ἔνιοι δὲ τοῦτον καίοντες ἀντὶ αἱματίτου πιπράσκουσιν.."In the Frankfurt edition of Dioscorides, translated by Ruellius (1543), the passage is:"Magnes lapis optimus est, qui ferrum facile trahit, colore ad cœruleum uergente, densus, nec admodum gravis. Datur cum aqua mulsa, trium obolorum pondere, ut crassos humores eliciat. Sunt qui magnetem crematū pro hæmatite vendant...."In theScholiaof Joannes Lonicerus upon DioscoridesIn DioscoridæAnazarbei 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."Σκωρία σιδήρου. scoria vel recrementum ferri. Quæ per ignem à ferro et cupro sordes separantur ac reijciuntur, et ab aliis metallisσκωρίαuocantur. Omnis scoria, maxime uero ferri exiccat. Acerrimo aceto macerauit Galenus ferri scoriam, ac deinde excocto, pharmacum efficax confecit ad purulentas quæ multo tempore uexatæ erant, aures, admirando spectantium effectu. Ardenti scoria uel recrementumἕλκυσμα, inquit Galenus."See also theEnarrationes eruditissimæof Amatus Lusitanus (Venet., 1597), pp. 482 and 507, upon iron and the loadstone.[98]Page 36, line 27.Page 36, line 29.eijciturforejicitur.[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 inDe Subtilitate, lib. vii. (Basil., 1611, p. 381).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 thePhilosophical 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 aMagnetarium. SeeProc. Roy. Soc., June, 1890, Jan., 1891, and June, 1891.An actual magnetic rock exists in Scandinavia, the following account of it being given in theElectrical Reviewof 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 forAcosta(Joseph de), the Jesuit, whose workHistoria natural y moral de las Indiaswas 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.3and62), and Filippo Costa of Mantua, who wrote on antidotes and medicaments (see p.141). The passage to which Gilbert refers is in Acosta'sHistoria(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 theZaires fluviusand theZanberes 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 celebratedMagia 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.
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 topicsin materia di Fisica, but these writings have perisht. He appears to have been the first to recognize that fire destroyed the magnetic properties. (SeeFra Paolo Sarpi, the greatest of the Venetiansby the Rev. Alexander Robertson, London, 1894; see also the notice of Sarpi in Park Benjamin'sIntellectual 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 ofDe 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, libride medicinis compositis.
[36]Page 6, line 30.Page 6, line 39.:Olaus Magnus. Seenoteto 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,practicæcap. 45,Regalis Dispositionis Medicinæ. The passage to which Gilbert refers is found in the volumeLiber totius medicinæ necessaria cōtinens ... 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 evtute sadenego: & aiunt qmsi teneatrin manu mitigatqsunt in pedibsipis dolores ac spasmū."
Mr. A. G. Ellis identifies the nounsadenegumas 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 alsonoteon 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.The following examples are taken from the treatiseDe 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 autẽ lapis alleo non trahit, si superponitur ei Adamas iterum non attrahit, ita quod paruus Adamas magnũ ligat Magnetẽ. Inventus autẽ est nostris tẽporibus Magnes qui ab uno angulo traxit ferrũ et ab alio fugavit, et hunc Aristot. ponit aliud genus esse Magnetis. Narrauit mihi quidam ex nostris sociis experimẽtator quod uidit Federicum Imperatorem habere Magnetem qui non traxit ferrum, sed ferrum uiceuersa traxit lapidem."
The first edition of this workde mineralibusappears 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 workMemorabilium Gaudentii Merulæ...(Lugd., 1556), where we find:
"Qui magneti vrsæ sculpserit imaginem, quãdo Luna melius illuc aspiciat, & filo ferreo suspẽderit, 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 theDe triplici vitaof 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, ferrumq; ferrū: non quia superior in ordine corporum, imò superius est lapillo metallum ... Ego autem quum hæc explorata hactenus habuissem admodum gratulabar, cogitabamq; iuuenis adhuc Magneti pro uiribus inscluperet (sic) coelestis Vrsæ figuram, quando Luna melius illuc aspiciat, & ferro tūc 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 herbalDe 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 entitledMarbodei 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.The commentary of Pictorius gives references to earlier writers, Pliny, Dioscorides, Bartholomæus Anglicus, Solinus, Serapio, and to the bookde lapidibuserroneously ascribed to Aristotle.
The following is a specimen of the poem of Marbodeus:
Magnetes lapis est inuentus apud Trogloditas,Quē lapidā genetrix nihilominus India mittit.Hic ferruginei cognoscitur esse coloris,Et ui naturæ uicinum tollere ferrum.Ededon magus hoc primum ferè dicītur usus,Conscius in magica nihil esse potentius arte.Post illum fertur famosa uenefica CirceHoc in præstigijs magicis specialiter usa.
Magnetes lapis est inuentus apud Trogloditas,Quē lapidā genetrix nihilominus India mittit.Hic ferruginei cognoscitur esse coloris,Et ui naturæ uicinum tollere ferrum.Ededon magus hoc primum ferè dicītur usus,Conscius in magica nihil esse potentius arte.Post illum fertur famosa uenefica CirceHoc in præstigijs magicis specialiter usa.
Magnetes lapis est inuentus apud Trogloditas,
Quē lapidā genetrix nihilominus India mittit.
Hic ferruginei cognoscitur esse coloris,
Et ui naturæ uicinum tollere ferrum.
Ededon magus hoc primum ferè dicītur 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'sPatrologia. 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 treatisede 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.
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.
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.—Theecheneis, 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 theEcheneissee Gaudentius Merula (op. citat.) p. 209. Also Dr. Walter Charleton,Physiologia Epicuro Gassendo-Charltoniana(Lond., 1654), p. 375. Compare p.63, line3.
[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'sVoyages. Robert Hues (or Hood) wrote a treatiseon 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 theBear, and is mentioned in Dudley'sArcano 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. (SeeHakluyt, 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 magneticallNeedle. Wherein is Mathematically shewed, the manner of the obseruation, effectes, and application thereof, made by W. B.And is to be annexed toThe Newe Attractiveof R. N., 1581 (London).
[46]Page 7, line 37.Page 8, line 2.Guilielmus Barlo.—Archdeacon William Barlowe (author, in 1616, of theMagneticall Aduertisements) wrote in 1597 a little work calledThe 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. SeeNoteto 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 (asNicandersaith) 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 spelledSwarcebergs ... 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'sVoyages, vol. iii., p. 96.
[52]Page 11, line 17.Page 11, line 28.Dicitur a Græcisηρακλιος.—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'sBritish 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, Iresérie, t. vi., Irepartie, 1861); G. A. Palm,Der Magnet in Alterthum(Programm des k. württembergischen Seminars Maulbronn, Stuttgart,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 nameμαγνῆτις, the magnet also has the namesἀδάμαςandκαλαμίτα. The former of these, in various forms,adamas,adamant,aimant,yman, andpiedramon, has gone into many languages. Originally the wordἀδάμας(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 ofadamasto denote the loadstone as well as the diamond. Certainly the wordadamas, without ceasing to be applied to the diamond, also designated the loadstone. At the same time (says Martin) the wordmagneswas preserved, as Pliny records, to designate a loadstone of lesser strength than theadamas. On the other hand, the worddiamas, ordeamans, had already in the thirteenth century been introduced into Latin to signify the diamond as distinguisht from the magnet.Adamaswas renderedaymantin 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 termedachzhàb'th, the stone which attracts; and in their ancient prayers it has the European namemagnēs." 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 writtenאבן שואבת. Omitting theו which marks the participial construction, the words would stand thus:אבן שאבת A person referring to Buxtorf'sLexiconTalmudicum 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 readsאבן שאבת thus:אכזשאבת achzhab'th. It is true that Buxtorf has inserted in hisLexiconthe vocableמַגְנִיסֵס, "corruptum ex gr.μάγνης, μαγνήτης, μαγνῆτις, named after the Asiatic city Magnesia." He goes on to say, "Inde Achilles Statius istum lapidem vocavitμαγνήσιαν λίθον. Hincאבן המגניסס חמשוך הברזל. Lapis Magnesius trahit ferrum." Here he quotes from (Sepher) Ikkarem IV., cap. 35.
Kircher, in hisMagnes, sive de Arte magnetica(Coloniæ, 1643), gives several other references to Hebrew literature. Others have supposed that the wordחלמישkhallamish, which signifies pebble, rock, or hard rock, to be used for the magnet.
As to the other Greek name,σιδηρῖτις, orλίθος σιδηρῖτιςthis was given not only to the loadstone but also to non-magnetic iron. In theEtymologicum magnum(under the wordμαγνῆτις), and in Photius (Quæst. amphiloch., q. 131), it is stated that the namesideritiswas 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) thatthe loadstone appears to be nothing else thanγῆ σιδηρῖτις, 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 theΛιθικά. The passage, as given in Abel's edition (Berol., 1881), begins:
Τόλμα δ' ἀθανάτους καὶ ἑνήεϊ μειλίσσεθαιμαγνήσσῃ, τὴν δ' ἔξοχ' ἐφίλατο θούσιος Ἄρης,οὕνεκεν, ὁππότε κεν πελάσῃ πολιοῖο σιδήρου,ἠύτε παρθενικὴ τερενόχροα χερσὶν ἑλοῦσαἠΐθεον στέρνῳ προσπτύσσεται ἱμεροέντι,ὥς ἥγ' ἁρπάζουσα ποτὶ σφετερὸν δέμας αἱεὶἂψ πάλιν οὐκ ἐθέλει μεθέμεν πολεμιστὰ σὶδηρον.
Τόλμα δ' ἀθανάτους καὶ ἑνήεϊ μειλίσσεθαιμαγνήσσῃ, τὴν δ' ἔξοχ' ἐφίλατο θούσιος Ἄρης,οὕνεκεν, ὁππότε κεν πελάσῃ πολιοῖο σιδήρου,ἠύτε παρθενικὴ τερενόχροα χερσὶν ἑλοῦσαἠΐθεον στέρνῳ προσπτύσσεται ἱμεροέντι,ὥς ἥγ' ἁρπάζουσα ποτὶ σφετερὸν δέμας αἱεὶἂψ πάλιν οὐκ ἐθέλει μεθέμεν πολεμιστὰ σὶδηρον.
Τόλμα δ' ἀθανάτους καὶ ἑνήεϊ μειλίσσεθαι
μαγνήσσῃ, τὴν δ' ἔξοχ' ἐφίλατο θούσιος Ἄρης,
οὕνεκεν, ὁππότε κεν πελάσῃ πολιοῖο σιδήρου,
ἠύτε παρθενικὴ τερενόχροα χερσὶν ἑλοῦσα
ἠΐθεον στέρνῳ προσπτύσσεται ἱμεροέντι,
ὥς ἥγ' ἁρπάζουσα ποτὶ σφετερὸν δέμας αἱεὶ
ἂψ πάλιν οὐκ ἐθέλει μεθέμεν πολεμιστὰ σὶδηρον.
[54]Page 11, line 20.Page 11, line 31.Gallis aimant.—The French wordaimant, oraymant, is generally supposed to be derived fromadamas. Nevertheless Klaproth (op. citat., p. 19) suggests that the wordaimantis a mere literal translation into French of the Chinese wordthsu chy, which is the common name of the magnet, and which meansloving stone, orstone that loves. All through the east the names of the magnet have mostly the same signification, for example, in Sanskrit it isthoumbaka(the kisser), in Hindustanitchambak.
[55]Page 11, line 20.Page 11, line 32.Italis calamita.—The namecalamita, universal in Italian for the magnet, is also used in Roumanian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Wendish. Its supposed derivation from the Hebrewkhallamîshis repudiated by Klaproth, who also points out that the use ofκαλαμιταin Greek is quite modern. He adds that the only reasonable explanation of the wordcalamitais that given by Father Fournier (op. citat.), who says:
"Ils (les marins français) la nomment aussicalamite, qui proprement en français signifie unegrenouille 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 wordcalamite, to designate the little green frog, called to-dayle graisset,la raine, orla rainette, is essentially Greek. For we read in Pliny (Hist. Nat.lib. xxxii., ch. x.): "Ea rana quam Græcicalamitenvocant, quoniam inter arundines, fruticesque vivat, minima omnium est et viridissima."
[56]Page 11, line 20.Page 11, line 32.Anglisloadstone & adamant stone.
The English termloadstoneis clearly connected with the Anglo-Saxon verblœdan, to lead, and with the Icelandicleider-stein. There is no doubt that the spellinglodestonewould be etymologically more correct, since it meansstone that leadsnotstone that carries a load. The correct form is preserved in the wordlode-star.
The wordadamant, fromadamas, the mediæval word for both loadstone and diamond, also occurs in English for the loadstone, as witness Shakespeare:
"You draw me, you hard-hearted adamantBut yet you draw not iron; for my heartIs true as steel."Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1.
"You draw me, you hard-hearted adamantBut yet you draw not iron; for my heartIs true as steel."Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1.
"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,line 33.Germanis magness, &siegelstein. The Stettin edition of 1628 readsGermanisMagnetstein,BelgisSeylsteen; while that of 1633 readsGermanisMagnetstein,BelgisSylsteen.
[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,θαλῆςbeing thus altered intoΘαλῆς, andαπομνεμονύουσιintoαπομνεμονεύουσι. 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, and200of 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 formica, 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 oflapis specularisfor windows.
[60]Page 11, line 31.Page 11, line 46.:Germanis Katzensilbar&Talke.—In the editions of 1628 and 1633 this is corrected toGermanisKatzensilber & Talcke. Goethe, inWilhelm Meister's Travels, calls mica "cat-gold."
[61]Page 12, line 30.Page 12, line 35.integtumappears to be a misprint forintegrum, which is the reading of editions 1628 and 1633.
[62]Page 13, line 4.Page 13, line 3.μικρόγηseu 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 nameTerrellaremained in the language. InPepys's Diarywe read how on October 2, 1663, he "received a letter from Mr. Barlow with a terella." John Evelyn, in hisDiary, 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 (seePhil. Transactionsfor that year) by the Society to see whether the positions of its poles had changed.
In Grew'sCatalogue 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 theNeedleto the severalPointsof theLoadstone."
In Sir John Pettus'sFleta Minor, London, 1683, in theDictionary of Metallick Wordsat the end, under the wordLoadstoneoccurs the following passage:
"Another piece of Curiosity I saw in the Hands of SirWilliam Persal(since Deceased also)viz., aTerrellaorLoad-stone, of little more than6 Inches Diameter, turned into aGlobular Form, and all theImaginery Linesof ourTerrestrial Globe, exactly drawn upon it:viz.theArtickandAntartick Circles, thetwo Tropicks, thetwo Colures, theZodiackandMeridian; and theseLines, and the severalCountryes, artificiallyPaintedon it, and all of them with their trueDistances, from the twoPolar Points, and to find the truth of thosePoints, he took twolittle piecesof aNeedle, each of abouthalfan Inch in length, and those he laid on theMeridian line, and then withBrass Compasses, moved one of them towards theArtick, which as it was moved, still raised it self at one end higher and higher, keeping the other end fixt to theTerrella; and when it had compleated it Journy to the veryArtick Points, it stood upright upon thatPoint; then he moved the other piece ofNeedleto theAntartick Point, which had itsElevationslike the other, and when it came to thePoint, it fixt it self upon thatPoint, and stoodupright, and then taking theTerrellain my Hand, I could perfectly see that the twopiecesofNeedlesstood so exactly one against the other, as if it had been one intirelong Needleput through theTerrella, which made me give credit to those who held, That there is anAstral Influencethatdartsit self through theGlobeofEarthfromNorthtoSouth(and is as theAxel-Treeto theWheel, and so called theAxisof theWorld) about which theGlobeof theEarthis turned, by anAstral Power, so as what I thoughtimaginary, by thisDemonstration, I foundreal."
[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.erectusaltered in ink in the folio toerecta. Buterectusis 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 quadā.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, line8.
[68]Page 17, line 1.Page 17, line 1.videbis.—The readingvibebisof the 1633 edition is an error.
[69]Page 18, line 24.Page 18, line 27.Theamedem.—For the myth about the allegedTheamedes, 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 hisArte 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'sGeorgics, 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 toqualis. The editions of 1628 and 1633 both readqualis.
[72]Page 22, line 19.Page 22, line 20.rubrica fabrili: in Englishruddleorreddle. See "Sir" John Hill,A General Natural History, 1748, p. 47. In theDe Re Metallicaof Entzelt (Encelius), Frankfurt, 1551, p. 134, is a paragraph headedDe Rubrica Fabrili, as follows: "Rubrica fabrilis duplexest. à Germanis añt utraque dicitur rottel, röttelstein, wie die zimmerleüt vnd steynmetzen brauchen. à Græcisμίλτος τεκτονική. 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'sBritannia(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 theDe 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.19and21he 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.20he 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 thereis 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 nameclampfor 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 thecityof 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'sDictionary 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 alsoRemarks 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'sCosmos, vol. i. (p. 97 of London edition, 1860); C. Rammelsberg,Die chemische Natur der Meteoriten(Berlin, 1879); Maskelyne,Some lecture-notes on Meteoritesprinted inNature, vol. xii., pp. 485, 504, and 520, 1875. Maskelyne denominates assideritesthose 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'sAn 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 cœlo lapides circiter MCC in agrum fluvio Abduæ conterminum, ex his unum CXX pondo, alium sexaginta delati fuerunt ad reges Gallorũ 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 translatingplumbum albumorplumbum candidumas "tin" (which is unquestionably the meaning in such examples as Pliny'sNat. Hist., xxxiv. 347, and iv. 16; or Strabo, iii. 147), nevertheless it is certain that hereplumbum albumis not given as a synonym ofstannumand therefore is nottin. That Gilbert meant either spelter or pewter is pretty certain. He based his metallic terms mainly upon Encelius (Christoph Entzelt) whoseDe Re Metallicawas published at Frankfurt in 1551. From this work are taken the following passages:
p. 61.De Plumbo candido.Cap. XXXI.
"Veluti plumbum nigrũ uocatur à Germanis blei simpliciter, od' schwartzblei: ita plumbũ candidũ 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 plumbũ candidũ. 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 bisemutũ: ecõtra nostrũ candidũ plumbũ, est Plinij candidũ plumbũ, 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 plũbo 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'sVanity of Dogmatizing(Lond., 1661) we read: "We believe theverticityof theNeedle, without a Certificate from thedayesofold."
[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 requireverticitatem. All editions, however, readverticem.
[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, ... Veneziamdcxvi., 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 pocaquantità, 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 thenoteto 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 theLoadstonebeRubbedwithGarlick, theIron 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 hisMagneticall Aduertisements(1616, p. 7), as follows:
"It is the goodnesse of theLoadstoneioyned 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 theLoadstonebee it neuer so excellent, except it haue some conuenient forme, is not auaileable. For example, an excellentloadstoneof 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 aLoadstoneinwardly, and the small filing of iron mingled in some plaister outwardly: supposing that herein themagneticalldrawing 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 hisLiber 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." Theemplastrum divinumdoes 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 byL. 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 treatiseMethodo 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,hæmatite, and twenty other ingredients, and declared to be "vulnerum ulcerumque telo inflictorum sticticum emplastrum præstantissimum," is described on p. 267 of theBasilica chimicaof 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 thePharmacopœia 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 ounceslapidis magnetis præparati. The recipe concludes: "Fiat Emplastrum secundùm artem. Perquàm efficax ad recentia vulnera et puncturas, vndè denominationem habet." The volume is a handsome folio not unlike Gilbert's own book, and bears at the end of the prefatory addressad Lectoremidentically the samecul de lampeas is found on p.44ofDe Magnete.
The contradictions as to the alleged medicinal virtues of loadstone are well illustrated by Galen, who in hisDe facultatibussays that loadstone is like hæmatite, which is astringent, while in hisDe simplici medicinahe 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 inWundt 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'sBibliotheca 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 arésuméof the works of Galen and the Arabic physicians, but gives little respecting iron. Curtius (Nicolaus) was the author of a book,Libellus de medicamentis præparatibus et purgantibus(Giessæ Cattorum, 1614). The works of Fallopius areDe Simplicibus Medicamentis purgentibus tractatus(Venet., 1566, 4to), andTractatus de Compositione Medicamentorum(Venet., 1570, 4to).
[94]Page 34, line 7.Page 34, line 3.quorundã Arabum opiniones.—The Arabian authorities referred to here or elsewhere by Gilbert are:
Albategnius(otherwise known as Machometes Aractensis), Muhammad Ibn Jābir,Al-Battānī.
Avicenna(otherwise Abohali). Abou-’Ali al-’Hoséin ben-’Abd-Allah Ibn-Sinâ, or, shortly,Ibn Sîna.
Averroes.Muhammad Ibn Ahmed Ibn-Roschd,Abou Al-Walíd.
Geber.Abū Mūsā Jābir Ibn Haiyān,Al-Tarsūsi.
Hali Abas.’Alí Ibn Al-’Abbás,Al Majúsi.
Rhazes, orRasis. Muhammad Ibn Zakarīyā.
Serapio.Yuhanná Ibn Sarapion.
Thebit Ben-Kora(otherwise Thabit Ibn Corrah). Abū Thabit Ibn Kurrah,Al Harrani.
[95]Page 34, line 38.: Page 34, line 40.electuarium de scoria ferri descriptum à Raze.—Rhazes or Rasis, whose Arabic name was Muhammad Ibn Zakarīyā, wroteDe 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 titleHabes candide lector Continẽtem Rasis, Libri ultimi, cap. 295, under the headingDe Ferro,are set forth the virtues of iron slag: "Virtus scorie est sicut virtus scorie [a]eris sed debilior in purgãdo: et erugo ferri est stiptica: et cũ superpositur retinet fluxus menstruorũ.... Ait Paulus: aqua in qua extinguitur ferrũ 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 Aeginæ.
[97]Page 35, line 29.: Page 35, line 28.Sed malè 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 hæmatites, & virtus ejus est sicut virtus illius.... Datur in potu [ad bibitionem limaturæ 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 ofmercurialis. Here he only follows Matthiolus, who, in hisCommentaries on Dioscorides, says (p. 998 of the Basil. edition of 1598): "Sed (vt idem Auicenna scribit) proprium hujusce ferrei pharmaci antidotum, est lapis magnes drachmæ pondere potus, ex mercurialis, vel betæ succo."
Serapio, in hisDe Simplicibus Medicinis(Brunfels' edition, Argentorati, 1531), p. 264, refers to Galen's prescription of iron scoriæ, and under the articlede lapide magnetis, p. 260, quotes Dioscorides as follows: "Et uirtus huius lapidis est, ut quãdo dantur in potu duo onolosat ex eo cũ melicrato, laxat humores grossos."
The original passage in Dioscorides,De Materia Medica,ch. 147 (Spengel's edition of 1829) runs: "Τοῦ δὲ μαγνήτου λίθου ἄριστός ἐστιν ὁ τὸν σίδηρον εὐχερῶς ἕλκων, καὶ τὴν χρόαν κυανίζων, πυκνός τε κὰι οὐκ ἄγαν βαρύς. Δύναμιν δὲ ἔχει πάχους ἀγωγὸν διδόμενος μετὰ μελικράτου τριωβόλου βάρος· ἔνιοι δὲ τοῦτον καίοντες ἀντὶ αἱματίτου πιπράσκουσιν.."
In the Frankfurt edition of Dioscorides, translated by Ruellius (1543), the passage is:
"Magnes lapis optimus est, qui ferrum facile trahit, colore ad cœruleum uergente, densus, nec admodum gravis. Datur cum aqua mulsa, trium obolorum pondere, ut crassos humores eliciat. Sunt qui magnetem crematū pro hæmatite vendant...."
In theScholiaof Joannes Lonicerus upon DioscoridesIn DioscoridæAnazarbei 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.
"Σκωρία σιδήρου. scoria vel recrementum ferri. Quæ per ignem à ferro et cupro sordes separantur ac reijciuntur, et ab aliis metallisσκωρίαuocantur. Omnis scoria, maxime uero ferri exiccat. Acerrimo aceto macerauit Galenus ferri scoriam, ac deinde excocto, pharmacum efficax confecit ad purulentas quæ multo tempore uexatæ erant, aures, admirando spectantium effectu. Ardenti scoria uel recrementumἕλκυσμα, inquit Galenus."
See also theEnarrationes eruditissimæof Amatus Lusitanus (Venet., 1597), pp. 482 and 507, upon iron and the loadstone.
[98]Page 36, line 27.Page 36, line 29.eijciturforejicitur.
[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 inDe Subtilitate, lib. vii. (Basil., 1611, p. 381).