[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. 19 and 21 he 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. 20 he 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 there {26} is 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 name _clamp_ for 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.: