Note 1391 — BOOK VII.835 MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS. (continued 2)

In this, as in so many others of the arts, the original invention has been given to the Egyptians, while the introduction of it into Greece is ascribed to Cadmus. The word æs, which is generally translated “brass,” as well as the Greek word χαλκὸς, was applied by the ancients, either to copper, or what is properly bronze, i. e. a mixture of copper and tin. Brass, the compound of copper and zinc, does not appear to have been known to them. With respect to the claim of the Scythians to the discovery of the use of copper, it has been justly remarked, that it is natural to suppose it to have been first known in those countries, where the ore of the metal is found in large quantities, which is the case in the region that was anciently named Scythia.—B.