The historian of Columbus’ second voyage says that during the month of October 1493 “St. Elmo appeared on the topgallant-masts with seven lighted tapers.” It is also alluded to by Pliny, “Nat. Hist.” lib. ii. cap. 37; by Stobæus, “Eclogarum Phys.,” I. 514; Livy, “Hist.,” cap. 2; Seneca, “Nat. Quæst.,” I. 1; by Cæsar, “de Bello Africano,” cap. 6 edit. Amstel., 1686; and by Camoëns, “Os Lusiades,” canto v. est. 18. “Last night I saw St. Elmo’s stars, With their glimmering lanterns all at play On the tops of the masts and the tips of the spars, And I knew we should have foul weather to-day.” Longfellow, “Golden Legend,” Chap. V. “... Sometimes I’d divide, And burn in many places--on the topmast, The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then meet and join....” Shakespeare, “The Tempest,” Act i. sc. 2. REFERENCES.--“Nouvelle Biographie Générale,” Vol. XVI. p. 179; “Grand Dict. Univ. du xix^e siècle” of Pierre Larousse, Vol. VII. p. 786; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 245; Becquerel, “Traité Expér.,” 1834, Vol. I. p. 34, and his “Résumé,” Chap. I; Le Breton, “Histoire,” 1884, p. 43; “La Lumière Electrique,” Juin 1891, p. 546, likewise Procopius, “De Bello, Vandal,” lib. ii. cap. 2; William Falconer’s “Observations,” etc. in Vol. III. p. 278 of “Mem. Lit. and Ph. Soc. Manchester,” 1790 (translated in Italian, 1791), for an account of the flames appearing upon the spear points of the Roman legions. =A.D. 400.=--Marcellus Empiricus, who was _magister officiorum_ in the reign of Theodosius the Great (379–395) states in his “De Medicamentis Empiricis,” Venetiis, 1547, P. 89, that the magnet called _antiphyson_ attracts and repulses iron. This, adds Becquerel in his “Résumé,” Chap. III, further proves that these properties were known in the fourth century. REFERENCES.--Klaproth, “Boussole,” 1834, p. 12; Harris, “Magnetism,” I and II; “New Gen. Biogr. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. IX. p. 475. =A.D. 425.=--Zosimus (Count), Greek historian, who lived under Theodosius II (401–450), “sometime advocate of the Treasury of the Roman Empire,” wrote the history of that empire from the reign of Augustus to the year A.D. 410, wherein he is the first to call attention to the electrolytic separation of metals, _i. e._ that the latter acquire a coating of copper upon being immersed in a cupreous solution. REFERENCES.--Gore, “Art of Electro-Met.,” 1877, p. 1, or the London 1890 edition, p. B; “A treatise on Electro-Metal.,” by Walter G. McMillan, London, 1890, p. 2; “Journal des Savants” for June 1895, pp. 382–387; Dr. Geo. Langbein’s treatise, translated by W. T. Brannt, Chap. I; “Nouvelle Biogr. Gén.” (Hœfer), Vol. XLVI. p. 1022; Schoell, “Hist. de la Littér. Grecque”; Pauly, “Real Encycl. ... Alterthums”; “Biogr. Univ.” (Michaud), Vol. XLV. p. 606; “Nouveau Larousse,” Vol. VII. p. 1429.