[1388] Nothing is known of this individual, nor have we any further information respecting the discovery ascribed to him.—B.
[1389] Homer, Il. B. vii. l. 221, and Ovid, Fasti, B. iii. l. 824, speak of Tychius, as particularly skilful in making shoes, and other articles of leather.—B.
[1390] It is difficult to determine, how far we are to regard the names here mentioned as belonging to real or only to fictitious personages, nor is it easy for us to ascertain what should be regarded as the actual invention of medicine. A certain kind of medical, or rather surgical practice, must have existed in the rudest state of society and in the earliest ages, which was improved and refined by the gradual experience and increased civilization of each successive generation.—B.
[1391] 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.
[1392] According to Pausanias, the art of forging iron was discovered by Glaucus of Chios. Strabo ascribes it to the Idæan Dactyli, and the art of manufacturing utensils of bronze and iron to the Telchines; the former were inhabitants of Crete, the latter of Rhodes.—B.
[1393] According to Hyginus, silver was first discovered in Scythia by Indus, and introduced into Attica by Erichthonius. Æacus is said by Cassiodorus to have been the discoverer of gold.—B.
[1394] Pangæus is generally described as a mountain on the confines of Macedonia and Thrace; but Marcus says that it was a mountain of Abyssinia, near the source of the Nile, and he adduces various passages from the ancients to prove that the Egyptians had an extensive traffic there in gold at a very early period; Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 191, 192.—B.
[1395] Thoas was the king of the Tauric Chersonnesus, and Panchaia was a district of Arabia Felix; it does not appear what connection Thoas could have with Panchaia.—B.
[1396] We have no account of any individual bearing this name, and it has been proposed by Hardouin to substitute for it “Midas Phrygius,” who is said, both by Hyginus and by Cassiodorus, to have been the discoverer of lead.—B.
[1397] From the accounts of Pliny, B. iv. c. 36, as well as of Strabo, and the other ancient geographers, it appears, that he here alludes to the Scilly Isles, including, probably, the western extremity of Cornwall. We are informed by Herodotus, B. iii. c. 115, that tin was brought from them, and they were hence named the “tin islands,” from the Greek word for tin, κασσίτερος.—B.