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Book III about halite and nitrium, alum and acrid juices and related minerals, sulphur, bitumen, realgar, and orpiment; the fourth, chrysocolla, aerugo, caeruleum, ferrugo

Book III about halite and nitrium, alum and acrid juices and related minerals, sulphur, bitumen, realgar, and orpiment; the fourth, chrysocolla, aerugo, caeruleum, ferrugo Page of 251 Book III about halite and nitrium, alum and acrid juices and related minerals, sulphur, bitumen, realgar, and orpiment; the fourth, chrysocolla, aerugo, caeruleum, ferrugo Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
44
DE NATURA FOSSILIUM
dregs or tartar in wine casks. Pliny also tells us that utensils were made from the Egyptian mineral that became hard as stone when left in mounds. Macedonians add chalastraeum to flour instead of salt when baking bread. Egyptians sprinkle it on radishes just as we use salt. Physicians regard it with the highest esteem. It dries, cleanses, and dissipates. "Nitrum foam" is the more valuable while the the finest quality of aphronitrum, loose-textured, soft, pulverulent and purplish white is the most valuable. That usually selected by physicians is light, spongy, reddish or white such as is found in the mounds made by the Egyptians, especially the very whitest and lightest of "nitrum foam." This, as well as white nitrum, may be adulterated with lime but the deception can be detected by both the tongue and nose. According to Pliny the pure mineral dissolves quickly, the adulterated, slowly; the former has only a slight odor, the latter irritates the nose. Chrysocolla is used by artisans to solder silver and gold, whence its name.9 Artificers who make needles from iron use sal ammoniac in a similar manner when they coat the heads with tin. Goldsmiths add a lump of chrysocolla when they wish to melt gold fillings since it increases the speed of melting.
Halinitrum whitens the fields of Saxony not far south of Stassfurt on the road to Warmesdorf just as halmirhaga whitens the valleys near Medos in summer. In fact the earth is saturated with halinitrum at Cervecius and Berneburg, Saxony, Mochela, Thuringia, and other places in Germany. In arid regions storms do not penetrate far below the earth's surface, as a rule, and below the superficial crust definite veins (beds) of white hal­initrum are common. In the above named sections of Saxony the country is low and fiat. Halinitrum is made from the material that effloresces on the fields. It is collected in heaps and covered with branches of shrubs. It is salty and slightly acrid. A material similar to this is seen to effloresce on the stone walls of wine cellars and other dark places that are protected from moisture. It has the appearance of flour on the walls. The mineral we call halinitrum is made from these two materials no matter whether they are halmirhaga or nitrum. The finest material in this class is that from which the largest amount of salt has been removed.
True halinitrum is produced not only from these two native materials but also from the soft and very tenuous material which exudes from rocks on mountains. Such material adheres to limestone and gypsum on the mountains near Sala. It is also produced from hard and dense icicles that commonly hang down from the backs of underground passages and caves such as the one at Neoschonburg, a stronghold of Bohemia. There they hang in a wine cellar cut out of rock. The material is neither very bitter nor very salty but it is sometimes acrid, sometimes only slightly so. The color is variable, white, yellowish, fight red, etc. The material that efflo­resces on the walls of caves is either gray or white while that which forms
9 χρυσοί, gold; κόλλα, glue.
Book III about halite and nitrium, alum and acrid juices and related minerals, sulphur, bitumen, realgar, and orpiment; the fourth, chrysocolla, aerugo, caeruleum, ferrugo Page of 251 Book III about halite and nitrium, alum and acrid juices and related minerals, sulphur, bitumen, realgar, and orpiment; the fourth, chrysocolla, aerugo, caeruleum, ferrugo
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