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Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone

Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
72
DE ΝΑΤURA FOSSILIUM
in this belief. Some poets believed that amber was a gum but Pliny has not written who they might have been nor has he named the tree that, in their belief, produced this gum. Actually the poplar does not give off drops or tears but a resin according to the belief of Dioscorides. Pliny who decided it was a pine tree which produced the juice and Mithridates who though it was a cedar have left the following description "for each tree produces resin." There is seen to be considerable conflict in these statements hence we know one and all to be false since neither on our shores nor on the opposite shores nor on the intermediate islands do we find trees on the high cliffs, of which there are many along the seashores, that drop resin into the sea so that amber can be formed from it. Amber is usually thrown onto the shores by waves and storms and since it is soft both outside and inside it cannot have come from any great distance nor can it have lurked in the depths of the sea since some ancient time when trees might have dropped it. Therefore trees do not exude amber.12
Some say that it is a juice of the earth and they believe that the rays of the sun, penetrating with great force, bring forth an unctuous sweat from which amber is produced. Nicias is seen to have been of this opinion. What juice could be produced by the rays of the sun which are both hot and dry? Nicias was correct in believing that amber is an unctuous juice of the earth or, as he called it, a sweat but he is wrong in believing that it is pro­duced from the earth by the rays of the sun. Either the intense heat of the earth squeezes out a liquid from the unctuous earths or, liquifying an already congealed mass, causes it to flow forth, or waters which moisten and dissolve the congealed matter bring it forth as a liquid from the veins of the earth. How could the sun draw out a juice from the frozen regions toward the north that are turned away from it? Why does it not draw out this juice from the many hot places that are directly beneath its course? Certainly the heat is greatest in the latter regions in summer and only moderately so in the former regions. If the sun is able to throw such vehe­ment rays on our country that they can liquify congealed juices they should certainly liquify those juices that have been exposed to the air but the juice from which amber is made is very rarely so exposed being almost always buried in the earth where, having been liquified, it flows out with water. Therefore the rays of the sun do not produce this juice. Nevertheless Nicias has come closer to the actual method of origin of amber than any of the other Greeks or Latins. Even Asarubas and our own writers who say that it is formed from slime have added something. But neither the latter have explained what kind of slime it may be nor Nicias what kind of juice. Since amber is unctuous and inflammable it is obvious that it must be related to either sulphur or bitumen. The variety of colors shown by bitumen as it flows from fountains, white, yellow, reddish, black, purplish red and bluish black indicate that it is more
12 Agricola's logic, based upon his inability to see a tree that produced amber, led him to err.
Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone
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