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Book I Minerals color, taste, odor , physical properties of gemstones and minerals such as emeralds, diamonds, rubies, sapphires

To the illustrious duke of saxony and thuringia and misena prince of Maurice Page of 251 Book I Minerals color, taste, odor , physical properties of gemstones and minerals such as emeralds, diamonds, rubies, sapphires Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
BOOK I
Mineral substances vary greatly in color, transparency, luster, bril­liance, odor, taste, and other properties which are shown by their strength and weakness, shape, and form. They do not have the variety of origins that we find not only in living matter but also in original matter. More­over they have not been classified like the latter on the basis of the place where they pass their life since mineral substances lack life and with rare exceptions are found only within the earth. They do not have the differences in characters and actions which nature has given to living things alone. Great differences are not the essential features of minerals as they are of living and original matter.
Minerals have no dissimilar portions made up of similar materials. For example, a mineral we call "complex" nature forms from different kinds of simple substances, none of them dissimilar. The substances we call similar the Greeks usually call &μοιομΐρτ\ϊ while dissimilar substances are called ίνομουομίρη$. Many minerals form from a single species, a few from many similar species. For example, each unit of red ocher is red ocher; each unit of alum, alum; asbestos, asbestos; gold, gold. All species of earth, congealed juice, stone, and metal are composed of single species except certain stones which are composed of two or more species. These stones are recognized by the presence of spots, veins, and areas that glitter like the stars. They may imitate different things by color variations. Thus from the minerals that come to our notice we learn these differences and are able to study their nature.
Color, taste, odor, and qualities of minerals which can be perceived by touch are most widely known because they are more easily recognized by the physical senses than qualities such as strength or weakness. A great many of these qualities are not known to everyone although those qualities which are learned through experience are widely known. For example, everyone knows that fire can be produced by striking flint with iron. On the other hand miners not only know this but also that fire will melt some varieties of flint, shatter others. Many people know that lode-stone will pick up iron but only a few know that this power is weakened and destroyed if the stone is immersed in an acid.
In order to show the differences in minerals I shall begin by classifying them according to color, then I shall describe the nature of each form. Minerals vary greatly in color. Chalk, alum, asbestos, and Arabian marble are usually white. Persian marble, quartz, silver, quick silver, and tin are almost always white. Pnigitis, sory, smoky quartz, and Lucullian marble are black. Melia earth and one of the Eretria earths are ash-gray. Lapis lazuli and sapphire are blue. Chrysocolla and smaragdus are always green while some chalk and atramentum sutorium may be green. Ocher and gold
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To the illustrious duke of saxony and thuringia and misena prince of Maurice Page of 251 Book I Minerals color, taste, odor , physical properties of gemstones and minerals such as emeralds, diamonds, rubies, sapphires
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