Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/331

 COPPET COPTIC LANGUAGE 327 it is now in great part smelted at home, al- though in 1870 two thirds of the copper pro- duce of that country was sent to Swansea in the shape of regulus. Large quantities of ores from Australia, South Africa, Cuba, and Brit- ish North America are shipped to England for treatment. The smelting works of Great Brit- ain are the most extensive on the globe. In 1871 there were 24 copper mills, employing 3,525 hands ; of which 13 were in Glamorgan- shire, 3 in Carmarthenshire, 3 in Surrey, 2 in Staffordshire, 2 in Worcestershire, and 1 in Anglesey. According to the census of 1870, the United States contained 27 establishments for milling and smelting copper, with 43 steam engines of 3,244 horse power, 1 water wheel of 39 horse power, and 1,082 hands ; capital, $3,158,500; wages paid, $577,129; value of materials, $10,715,400; value of product, $11,- 684,123. They were thus distributed : STATES. i| 1 I i! Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Rhode Island.... i i 19 1 127 97 636 25 $800,000 500,000 1,591,000 65,000 $1,016,500 544,850 9,260,976 335,920 Tennessee 2* 188 180 000 510 677 The other 3 (1 in Arizona and 2 in California) were unimportant. The Maryland works are in Baltimore co., the Massachusetts works in Bristol co., the Rhode Island works in New- port co., and the Tennessee works in Polk co. Of the Michigan works 12, employing 511 hands, and producing $6,752,228, were in Houghton co. ; 1, with 62 hands, producing $2,003,760, was in Wayne co. ; and 6 (quartz mills), with 63 hands, producing $504,988, were in Keweenaw county. COPPET, a village of the canton of Vand, Switzerland, on the lake and 9 m. N. of the city of Geneva ; pop. 500. In the chateau of Coppet the philosopher Bayle was at one time a teacher in the family of Count Dohna. The chateau was afterward the residence of M. Necker and of his daughter Mme. de Stael; and it is at present a summer residence of Baron Rothschild. COPROLITES (Gr. Kdirpos, dung, and Woe, a stone), the fossil excrements of various kinds of fishes and saurians, first recognized as such by Buckland. They are found, sometimes in enormous quantities, in several geological for- mations, as the tertiary, chalk, oolite, lias, and carboniferous, scattered among the other fossils in these rocks, and sometimes met with en- closed among the ribs of the fossilized ichthyo- sauri. They occur to some extent in this coun- try in the greensand and coal formations, but in England most abundantly in the lias. They vary greatly in size, some being the product of the largest ichthyosauri, and containing within them scales and bones of fishes and other ani- mals which served as food to these monsters ; while some belonged to smaller individuals, and are now seen in stony lumps of only an inch or two in length. Their color is whitish, grayish, and from this to black. On their sur- face are still impressed the marks of the tor- tuous wrinkles of the intestines. The animal remains preserved in the coprolites indicate the prey of these fishes and saurians. The larger kinds appear to have fed upon the smaller of their own species ; and these, from the bones found in the coprolites of the largest ichthyo- sauri, could not have been less than 7 ft. in length. A remarkable instance is given by Dr. Buckland of the minute accuracy with which the principles of comparative anatomy are applied to investigations of this nature. A small scale of a fish seen upon one side of a coprolite was shown to Prof. Agassiz, who at once recognized it as belonging to the extinct species pholidopJiorus linibatus ; and from a minute tube upon its inner surface, hardly discernible without a microscope, he observed that it must have been on the left side of the body near the head. This tube passed through the scales from the head to the tail of the fish, conveying a lubricating mucus. Different co- prolites differ considerably in chemical com- position ; those containing much phosphate of lime are very valuable as fertilizers, and are used as such. In the following table the first and fourth columns of figures give the com- position of the coprolites of the coast of Suf- folk ; the second column, those found in the ironstone of Burdiehouse in Scotland; the third, those found in the limestone of Burdie- house, according to A. Connel ; the fifth, those over the lias near Stuttgart, Germany ; the sixth, those from Bohemia : CONSTITUENTS. 1. 2. 8. 4. 5. 6. Phosphate of lime 56 10 85 16 68 15 Phosphate of iron. 14 6 14 6 Carbonate of lime 9,1 61 11 40 17 5 4 7 Silex 10 6 Carbonaceous matter 9 4 5 4 10 9 1 9, 74 1 14 1 3 Chloride of sodium ?, The varying chemical composition of this min- eral is to be expected from its origin ; the form and color also differ greatly, but the specific gravity is always between 2'6 and 2 -8. COPTIC LANGUAGE (Sahidic, Mentlcyptaion or Aspi en Kemi, language of Egypt ; Ethiopian, Qbetze; Arabic, Keft, in which also the Coptic people are called Ghipt). Some writers, fol- lowing the Moslems, derive the name Coptic from KoVrefv, to cut, to circumcise; Wilkins and Pococke from Koptos, a Thebaic nome on the Nile ; others from the Jacobites, a body of heretics who were called Coptes, under Hera- clius (A. D. 610-641) ; this is the prevailing theory of Roman Catholic authorities. Others hold that Copt was the name of the son of
 * Quartz mills.