"Tin was obtained from India and Spain and afterwards from Britain. It was one of the articles of commerce used in trade by the ns. Mirrors were made of it, and copper vessels were coated over with it. and tin seem to have been regarded as varieties of the same metal, and were called plumbum nigrum and plumbum candidum. Pliny speaks of conveying water in leaden pipes, and Homer makes much earlier mention of the metal. It came mainly from Britain and Spain; and from this latter country mercury was also gotten, and was used, as now, in extracting gold from its ores. The first mention of it was in 300 B.C. Native mercury was called argentum vivum (quicksilver), and mercury distilled from was known as hydrargyrum (ὔδωρ). Various compounds of these metals were known and used."
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A Short History of Chemistry
A Short History of Chemistry by was published in 1894.
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