cement, when compared with that of modern times, in which a practice very different is ufually followed, without having recourse to any other wonderful arcana what

ever.

§24.

A modern French author, Monfieur Loriot, after meditating much upon this fubject, imagines he has made a perfect difcovery of the way in which the antients employed their quick-lime, fo as to obtain fuch an extraordinary firm cement; from which discovery, he thinks, very important benefits be derived to fociety.

may

According to his opinion, the antient cement confifted of lime and fand, nearly in the fame proportions as are commonly employed for that purpose at present.-But, instead of making it of flaked-lime entirely, as we do now, he fays, they employed a

certain

certain proportion of their lime unflaked, which they mixed with their mortar immediately before it was used.

This compofition, he says, forms a firm and durable cement, poffeffing fo many valuable properties, that I chufe to give them in the words of his own panegyrist. *", fays

"In the course of the year 1770 he †, "Monfieur Loriot had the happiness to discover

*It deferves to be noted, that, about the fame period, Mr Doffie, fecretary to the fociety of Agriculture and arts, in the Strand, London, published, a receipt for making mortar in imitation of that of the antients, which was, in every respect, the fame with this of Monfieur Loriot-which of these was the original difcoverer, let the parties themselves determine.

These extracts are taken from a treatise, entitled, A praclical Effay on Cement and artificial ftone, justly fuppofed to be that of the Greeks and Romans, lately re-discovered by Monfieur Loriot, mafter of mechanics to his moft Chriftian Majefty, &c. tran

flated

discover a kind of mystery in nature, which, for several ages paft, had not, it is moft probable, manifested itself to any body but himself; a mystery on which all the merit of his discovery is founded.

"Taking fome lime, which had been a long time flaked, out of a pit covered with boards, and a confiderable quantity of earth over them again, by which means the lime had preferved all its original freshness, he made two parts of it, and plashed and beat them both perfectly well.

"He then put one of these parts, without any addition, into a glazed earthen pot, and in that condition fet it to dry of itself in the fhade. Here, in proportion as it loft its moisture by evaporation, it cracked and split

in

Aated from the French original, lately published by the exprefs order of the above Monarch. London, Caddel, 1775. It appears to have been written not by Mr Loriot himself, but fome of his friends, as he is always mentioned in the third perfon.

in every direction; parted from the fides of the pot; and crumbled into a thousand pieces, all of them equally friable with the bits of lime dried up with the fun, which we ufually meet on the banks of our limepits

"With

*It is impoffible, in reading this essay, not to remark the extreme ignorance or inaccuracy of the compiler of it on many occafions. The prefent paragraph affords a proof of it.-There can be no doubt but that lime, if it has been very long flaked, will lofe all its qualities as a quick-lime, and become perfectly effete, let it be ever fo carefully covered.He gives no other teft of the lime being ftill poffeffed of its cauftic quality, but that it was covered.-For aught that appears, it might have been entirely effete lime; in which cafe, it is not at all surprising if it should not be capable of being converted into a cement of any kind. Indeed, the effects he describes could only arife from its having been actually in this state.-For there is no man who does not know, that lime which has been fome time flaked may, on many occafions, be employed as a cement, which, at least, is ca pable of adhering together, and not falling down at once into a loose powder as it dries.

"With regard to the other part, Monfieur Loriot just added to it one third of its quantity of powdered quick-lime, and then had the whole well kneaded, in order to make the two kinds of lime perfectly incorporate with each other. This done, he put this mixture likewise into a glazed earthen pot, as he had done the first; when, behold, it foon began to heat, and, in the space of a few minutes, acquired a degree of consistence equal to the best plafter, when prepared in the best manner. In fhort, it fet and confolidated as readily as metals in fufion, when taken from the fire, and turned out a kind of instantaneous lapidification, having dried compleatly within a very small space of time, and that too without the leaft crack or flaw ; it adhered fo ftrongly to the fides of the pot, as not to be parted from them without breaking it."

nay,

As