should be well lined with a metal, consisting of one pound of grain-tin, and one pound and a half of zinc, spelter, or other metal of equal wholesomeness and durability: when this operation is performed, the outside should be scoured clean, and rough-planished on a bright stake. The inside is also to be rubbed with chalk and water, till the tin become clean, when it is to be polished, and smoothed hard to give it a gloss. Ladles, skimmers, and all such culinary utensils, as require to be tinned on both sides, are to be frozen on a cut stake, in the manner already mentioned, and dipped in the melted metal. By this process, the vessel will be much more beautiful and regular, better calculated to resist the effects of heat, and at the same time prevent fatal accidents.
Copper is likewise applied to various other purposes: when combined with tin and zinc, it is employed in enamel painting, dyeing, &c. If it be mixed with a considerable proportion of tin, it produces what is called bell-metal; if in a smaller quantity, Bronze (see voi. i. p. 362), With zinc it forms Brass (ibid. p. 326-7), Pinchbeck, &c. according to the proportions used.
By the 2d and 3d Edward VI. c. 37, and also by the 5th and 6th William and Mary, c. 17, no copper, brass, latten, bell-metal, pan-metal, gun-metal, or shruff-metal, whether clean or mixed (except tin and lead, and also except copper and mundic-metal made of British ore and foreign copper in bars), may be exported, on forfeiture of double the value, and of 10l. for every thousand weight. But, by an order of Council, dated July 3, 1799, no sheet copper, copper in bolt-staves, bars, rings, and nails, or copper in such a state that can be easily converted into naval stores, shall be exported without leave of the Privy Council, on penalty of forfeiture, besides treble the value thereof, and the ship; 33 George III. c. 2.
With respect to the poisonous qualities of copper, when introduced into the stomach, it is less dangerous than arsenic; as the former is more easily dissolved.—And though the editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica have declared that they have not met with any well authenticated instance of a person who has died in consequence of having swallowed even verdigrease itself, yet so many examples have lately occurred, that there is not the least doubt of the deleterious properties of copper. Of the many cases that might be adduced, we shall select one, which is authenticated by Dr. Percival, of Manchester. A young lady had eaten about 3 or 4 ounces of pickled samphire, strongly impregnated with copper, and had drunk afterwards the 5th part of a pint of vinegar, on an empty stomach. She had not applied for medical aid, for two days, and in the course of ten she died. Dr. Percival is of opinion, that an emetic, if it had been administered in an early stage, might probably have saved her life. Persons apprehensive of the pernicious effects of copper, have been successfully relieved by castor oil, or clysters; and, if any suspicion arise of metallic salts having been swallowed, the same physician judiciously recommends calcined magnesia, as it will not only
