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Up to this period, no evidence appears to prove that any other than colored articles in glass-ware were made. It is clear, too, that the furnaces and melting-pots then in use were of very limited capacity, the latter being of crucible shape; and it was not until the time of Nero that the discovery was made that muffled crucibles or pots, as at the present day, were required in order to make crystal glass. (Without them, it is well known, crystal glass cannot be perfected.) It appears, further, that a definite street in the city of Rome was assigned to the manufacturers of this article; and that in the reign of Severus they had attained such a position, and accumulated wealth to such a degree, that a formal tax was levied upon them. Some writers take the ground that this assessment was the primary cause of the transfer of the manufacture to other places.     That the peculiar property of the manufacture at this period was its clear and crystal appearance is abundantly evident; and this, and the great degree of perfection to which the manufacture of white or crystal-like glass was carried, are by many writers thought to have been proved from classical sources,-- Horace and Virgil both referring to it, the one speaking of its beautiful