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MALACHITE

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 456 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MALACHITE , a See also:

copper-ore of See also:fine See also:green See also:colour, sometimes polished as an ornamental See also:stone. The name is derived from Gr. µaMaxrl, the See also:mallow, in allusion to the colour of the See also:mineral being rather like that of the mallow-See also:leaf. Malachite was perhaps one of the green minerals described by See also:Theophrastus under the See also:general name of o-yapaybos; and according to the See also:late Rev. C. W. See also:King it was probably the smaragdus medicus of See also:Pliny, whilst his molochites seems to have been a different stone from our malachite and may have been a green See also:jasper. It is suggested by J. L. Myres (Ency. Bib.) that malachite may have been the Heb. See also:soham, of the high See also:priest's breastplate. Malachite is a basic cupric carbonate, represented by the See also:formula CuCOaCu(HO)2, and has usually been formed by the See also:action of meteoric agencies on other copper-minerals; hence it is found in the upper See also:part of ore-deposits, often as an incrustation, and occasionally as a pseudomorph after See also:cuprite, chalcocite, &c.

When formed, as commonly happens, by the alteration of copper-See also:

pyrites the See also:iron of this mineral usually takes the See also:form of See also:limonite, which may remain associated with the malachite. Occasionally, though but rarely, malachite occurs in small dark-green prismatic crystals of the See also:monoclinic See also:system. Its usual mode of occurrence is in nodular or stalagmitic forms, with a mammillated, reniform or botryoidal See also:surface, whilst in other cases it forms fibrous, compact or even earthy masses. The nodules, though commonly dull on the outside, may display on fracture a beautiful zonary structure, the successive layers often succeeding each other as curved deposits of See also:light and dark tints. The See also:colours include various shades of See also:apple-green, grass-green, See also:emerald-green and See also:verdigris-green. Certain varieties exhibit a finely fibrous structure, producing on the fractured surface a soft silky sheen. Whilst malachite is found in greater or less quantity in most copper-mines, the finer varieties useful for ornamental purposes are of very limited occurrence, and the See also:lapidary has generally See also:drawn his See also:supply from See also:Russia and See also:Australia. The See also:principal source in See also:recent years has been the Medno-Rudiansk mine near Nizhne Tagilsk, on the Siberian See also:side of the Urals, but it was formerly obtained from mines near Bogoslovsk to the See also:north and Gumishev to the See also:south of this locality. A See also:mass from Gumishev, preserved in the museum of the See also:Mining See also:Institute of St See also:Petersburg weighs 3240 lb, and still larger masses have been found near Nizhne Tagilsk. The mineral is prized in a In ii. 16 the See also:Targum renders " If See also:thou hatest her put her away." It is characteristic of later Judaism that an arbitrary exegesis trans-formed the above anticipation of the See also:doctrine of See also:marriage laid down in the See also:gospel into an See also:express See also:sanction of the right of the See also:husband to put away his wife at will. * " The permanence of Judaism depended on the religious separateness of the See also:Jews " (See also:Ryle, See also:Ezra and See also:Nehemiah, p.

143).' 5 Matt. xvii. 3, 4, 10–13; See also:

xxvii. 47, 49; See also:John i. 21, 25. his See also:time was the outcome of a lowered morality, not of a clearer spiritual See also:vision."' A strong sense of the unique privileges of the See also:children of See also:Jacob, the See also:objects of electing love (i. 2), the children of the Divine See also:Father (ii. to), is combined with an equally strong assurance of Yahweh's righteousness notwithstanding the many miseries that pressed on the unhappy inhabitants of See also:Judaea. At an earlier date the See also:prophet See also:Haggai had taught that the See also:people could not expect Yahweh's blessing while the See also:Temple See also:lay in ruins. In See also:Malachi's time the Temple was built (i. to) and the priests waited in their See also:office, but still a curse seemed to See also:rest on the nation's labours (iii. 9). To Malachi the See also:reason of this is See also:plain. The " See also:law of See also:Moses " was forgotten (iv. 4 [iii.

22]); let the people return to Yahweh, and He will return to them. It was in vain to complain, saying, " Every one that doeth evil is See also:

good in the eyes of Yahweh," or " Where is the See also:God of See also:judgment ?"—vain to ask " Wherein shall we return?" Obedience to the law is the sure path to blessing (ii. 17-111. I2). He calls the people to repentance, and he enforces the See also:call by proclaiming the approach of Yahweh in judgment against the sorcerers, the adulterers, the false swearers, the oppressors of the poor, the See also:orphan and the stranger. Then it shall be seen that He is indeed a God of righteous judgment, distinguishing between those that serve Him and those that serve Him not. The See also:Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth on those that fear Yahweh's name; they shall go forth with joy, and tread the wicked under See also:foot. The conception of the See also:day of final decision, when Yahweh shall come suddenly to His temple (iii. I) and confound those who think the presumptuous godless happy (iii. 15), is taken from earlier prophets, but is applied wholly within the Jewish nation. The day of Yahweh would be a curse, not a blessing, if it found the nation in its See also:present See also:state: the priests listlessly performing a fraudulent service (i. 7–ii.

9), the people See also:

bound by marriage to See also:heathen See also:women, while the tears of the daughters of See also:Israel, thrust aside to make way for strangers, See also:cover the See also:altar (ii. II-16), all faith in divine See also:justice gone (ii. 17; iii. 14 seq.), sorcery, uncleanness, falsehood and oppression rampant (iii. 5), the See also:house of God deprived of its dues (iii. 8), and the true fearers of God a little See also:flock gathered together in private exercises of See also:religion (perhaps the germ of the later See also:synagogue) in the midst of a godless nation (iii. 16). That the day of Yahweh is delayed in such a state of things is but a new See also:proof of His unchanging love (iii. 6), which refuses to consume the sons of Jacob. Meantime He is about to send His messenger to prepare His way before Him. The prophet See also:Elijah must reappear to bring back the See also:hearts of fathers and children before the See also:great and terrible day of Yahweh come. Elijah was the See also:advocate of See also:national decision in the great concerns of Israel's religion; and it is such decision, a clear recognition of what the service of Yahweh means, a purging of His professed worshippers from hypocritical and See also:half-hearted service (iii.

3) that Malachi with his intense religious earnestness See also:

sees to be the only salvation of the nation. In thus looking to the return of the See also:ancient prophet to do the See also:work for which later prophecy is too weak, Malachi unconsciously signalizes the decay of the See also:order of which he was one of the last representatives; and the somewhat See also:mechanical measure which he applies to the people's sins, as for example when he teaches that if the sacred dues were rightly paid prosperous seasons would at once return (iii. to), heralds the See also:advent of that system of formal legalism which thought that all religious See also:duty could be reduced to a system of set rules. Yet Malachi himself is no See also:mere formalist. To him, as to the Deuteronomic legislation, the forms of legal observance are of value only as the fitting expression of Israel's See also:peculiar sonship and service, and he shows himself a true prophet when he contrasts the worthless See also:ministry of unwilling priests with the pure offering of See also:prayer and praise that rises from the implicit monotheism of even See also:Gentile worship2 (i. II), or when he asserts i Welch in D.B. iii. 220. 2 This remarkable utterance is sometimes (as by W.R.S.) interreted of the See also:worship of Jews scattered in the See also:Dispersion: reasons For the above view are given by See also:Driver. Russia for use in See also:mosaic-work, and for the manufacture of vases, See also:snuff-boxes and various ornamental objects. Even folding doors, mantelpieces, table-tops and other articles of See also:furniture have been executed in malachite, the objects being veneered with thin slabs cleverly fitted together so as to preserve the See also:pattern, and having the interspaces filled up with fragments and See also:powder of malachite applied with a See also:cement. The malachite is sawn into slabs, ground with See also:emery and polished with See also:tripoli. Its hardness is less than 4, but it takes a good See also:polish like See also:marble: it is rather denser than marble, having a specific gravity of 3.7 to 4, but it is more difficult to work, in consequence of a tendency to break along the curved planes of deposition. Exceptionally fine examples of the application of malachite are seen in some of the columns of St See also:Isaac's See also:Cathedral in St Petersburg, which are hollow iron columns encrusted with malachite.

Large masses of ornamental malachite have been found in Australia, especially at the old Burra Burra copper-mine in South Australia. The Copper See also:

Queen and other mines in See also:Arizona have yielded fine specimens of malachite associated with See also:azurite, and polished slabs of the mixed minerals some-times show the vivid green and the deep See also:blue carbonate in very striking contrast. This natural association, cut as an ornamental stone, has been named, by Dr G. F. Kunz, azurmalachite. Malachite is occasionally used for See also:cameo-work, and some fine See also:antique examples are known. It was formerly worn as an See also:amulet to preserve the wearer from See also:lightning, contagion and See also:witchcraft. The mineral, when ground, has been used as a pigment under the name of " See also:mountain green." The coarser masses are extensively used, with other minerals, as ores of copper, malachite containing about 57 % of See also:metal. " Blue malachite ' is a name sometimes given to azurite (q.v.), whilst " siliceous malachite " is a See also:term inappropriately applied to See also:chrysocolla (q.v.). (F. W.

End of Article: MALACHITE

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