_Copper_ is also found to a limited extent in the metallic state, but probably the greater part of that used by the ancients was obtained from its ores, which are comparatively abundant and readily smelted. It was also used for coinage by the Egyptians, and was fashioned by them into a variety of utensils and implements. The older writers drew no clear distinction between copper, bronze, and brass, and the terms designating them—_æs_ and χαλκός—are frequently employed; as by Pliny, indiscriminately. The statement in Deut. viii. 9—“Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass”—obviously cannot mean an alloy of copper and zinc, since this does not occur naturally. Pure copper is too soft a metal to be used for swords and cutting instruments, but copper ores frequently contain associated metals, as, for example, tin, which would confer upon the copper the necessary hardness to enable it to be fashioned into weapons. Such copper would be of the character of bronze, and it was known to the early workers that the nature of the metal was greatly modified by the selection of ores from particular localities. It was comparatively late in the metallurgical history of copper that bronze was produced by knowingly adding tin to the metal. Copper was largely used by the Romans, who obtained it from Cyprus; it was known to them as _æs Cyprium_, and eventually _Cuprum_, whence we obtain the chemical symbol Cu. What the Romans called _æs_ was found also at Chalkis, in Eubœa, whence χαλκός, the Greek word for copper. _Aurichalcum_, or golden copper—that is, brass—was well known to the early workers in copper, and was made in Pliny’s time by heating together copper, cadmia (calamine), and charcoal. Bell metal was employed by the Assyrians, and bronze was cast by the Egyptians for the manufacture of mirrors, vases, shields, etc., as far back as 2000 B.C. Statuary bronze, largely used by the Romans, usually contained more or less lead. _Tin_, which was also known to the early Egyptians, would appear to have been first obtained from the East Indies, and to have been known under the Sanscrit name of _Kastîra_ (_Kâs_, to shine), whence we have the Arabic word for tin, _Kàsdir_, and the Greek κασσίτερος, used by Homer and Hesiod. Tin ores are found in Britain (Cornwall), and were brought thence by the Phœnicians. The group of islands, including the Scilly Islands and the larger island to the east (Britain), was known to the Romans as the _Insulæ Cassiterides_. Pliny states that the tin is found in grains in alluvial soil, from which it is obtained by washing; but he gives no description of the method of smelting. The Latin word for tin was _stannum_; it was also known as _plumbum album_, in contradistinction to lead, which was called _plumbum nigrum_. Tin was used by the Romans for covering the inside of copper vessels, and was also occasionally employed in the construction of mirrors.