It is probable that this metal was discovered in India before anything of the European zinc had been known in that country; but we are still less acquainted with the cause of the discovery than with the method of procuring the metal. We are told that an Englishman, who, in the above century, went to India, in order to discover the process used there, returned with an account that it was obtained by distillation _ver descensum_. Respecting the origin of the different names of this metal, I can offer very little. _Conterfey_ signified formerly every kind of metal made in imitation of gold[111]. Frisch says it was called _zink_, from which was formed first _zinetum_, and afterwards _zincum_, because the furnace-calamine assumes the figure of (_zinken_ or _zacken_) nails or spikes; but it is to be remarked that these names do not occur before the discovery of this metal, though _ofenbruch_ was known long before. Fulda speaks of the Anglo-Saxon _sin_, _zink_, which he translates _obryzum_. _Spiauter_, _speauter_, and _spialter_, from which Boyle made _speltrum_, and also _tutaneg_ or _tuttanego_, came to us from India with the commodity. Under the last-mentioned name is sometimes comprehended a mixture of tin and bismuth. _Calaem_ is also an Indian appellation given to this metal, and has a considerable likeness to calamine; but I am of opinion with Salmasius that the latter is not derived from the former, as _lapis calaminaris_ occurs in the thirteenth century, and _calaem_ was first brought to us by the Portuguese from India. [Most of the zinc works in this country are situated in the neighbourhood of Birmingham and Bristol; a few furnaces also exist in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, among the coal-pits surrounding that town; there is also one at Maestag in Glamorganshire. The ores worked at Bristol and Birmingham are principally obtained from the Mendip-hills and Flintshire; those at Sheffield from Alston Moor. The greater part however of the zinc used in this country is imported in ingots and plates from Silesia, by way of Hamburg, Antwerp, Dantzic, &c. We receive annually from 100,000 to 170,000 cwts. from Germany; of this quantity, about 80,000 cwt. are entered for home consumption, and the rest is exported for India. From its moderate price and the ease with which it can be worked, zinc is now extensively used for making water-cisterns, baths, pipes, covering of roofs, and a great many architectural purposes. It has also of late been employed in the curious art of transferring printing, known under the name of _Zincography_, but owing to the ease with which this metal becomes coated with a film of oxide or carbonate, by exposure to the air, the plates cannot be preserved for any great length of time.] FOOTNOTES