Tryer

[…] I had once brought me a certain Earth, by a Gentleman that digg'd it up in this, or ſome neighboring Country, vvhich, though it ſeem'd but a Mineral Earth, did really afford, to a very expert tryer of Metals of my acquaintance, a not deſpicable proportion of Gold.

The Spartans did not allow the father to dispose of his child as he thought fit, for he was obliged to take it to the tryers, who, if they found it puny and ill-shaped, ordered it to be carried to a sort of chasm under Taygetus […]