[539] Fortunati Opera. Romæ, 1786, 4to, i. p. 14, lib. i. cap. 8. [540] Proofs may be found in Dufresne. [541] Wencesl. Hagec Böhmische Chronik. Nürnb. 1697, fol. p. 53. [542] For example, Borlase in Natur. Hist.--Speed’s Theatre of Great Britain.--Camden’s Britannia.--Anderson’s Hist. of Commerce, &c. [543] This metal, however, must have remained long dear; for it is remarked in the Archæologia, vol. iii. p. 154, from an expense-book of the Earls of Northumberland, that vessels of tin, about the year 1500, in consequence of their dearness, had not become common. This is confirmed also by a regulation respecting the household of Henry VIII., printed also in the Archæologia, where it is said, “Officers of the squillery to see all the vessels, as well silver as pewter, be kept and saved from stealing.” [544] C. Bruschii redivivi Beschreib. des Fichtelberges. Nürnb. 1683. [545] See Gegenwärtiger Staat von England, Portugal, und Spanien (by Theodore King of Corsica), ii. p. 25. [546] Narrisch Weisheit, p. 51. [547] Yarranton’s England’s Improvement by Sea and Land, 1698. [548] Watson’s Chem. Essays, iv. p. 203.--Anderson’s Commerce. [549] This is related by Diderot in his article _Fer-blanc_ in the Encyclopédie. That the _Fer-blanc_ of the French is tin plate every one knows; but what are we to understand by _ferrum candidum_, a hundred talents of which were given as a present to Alexander in India? No commentator has noticed this appellation. In the index, however, to Snakenburg’s Curtius, I find the conjecture that it may mean the _ferrum Indicum_, which, lib. xvi. § 7. _ff_ de Publicanis, or Digest. xxxix. 4, § 16, 7, is named among the articles liable to pay duty; but some editions in this passage have _ebenum Indicum_. The reader is referred also to Photii Biblioth. p. 145, where Ctesias relates a fable in regard to Indian iron. Pliny, xxxiv. 14, p. 667, mentions _ferrum Sericum_, which in his time was considered as the best; but still it may be asked, why is the epithet white applied in particular to the Indian iron? Compare Aristot. de Mirab. Auscult. pp. 96, 426. [550] Ramusio, fol. i. p. 166. c. [551] Ib. i. p. m. 317. d. SOWING-MACHINES. That under the terms sowing-machine, _semoir_, drill-plough, _macchine per seminare_, are understood implements by which the seeds of those plants cultivated on a large scale, and particularly the different species of corn, can be regularly deposited in the earth, and at any distance from each other, at pleasure, is at present generally known. The principal part of the machine consists of a box, having within it a cylinder furnished with cogs, which forms the axes of two wheels, and which, as it revolves, assists the seed put into the box to escape through holes formed at a proper distance from each other in the bottom.