Quantcast
  Due to a new server, slow response may occur for which we apologize Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/agricola_textbook_of_mineralogy/page_101 - 2
 

Book V about lodestone, hematite, geodes, hematite, selenite, lapis secularum, asbestos, mica

Book V about lodestone, hematite, geodes, hematite, selenite, lapis secularum, asbestos, mica Page of 251 Book V about lodestone, hematite, geodes, hematite, selenite, lapis secularum, asbestos, mica Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
BOOK V
89
gray and when pulverized with flint yields a milky powder from which galactites takes its name. Both powders are sweet although that from meli-tites is sweeter and the mineral takes its name from honey because of the similarity of taste. The Achelous river yields galactites and it is found along the rivers in Goslar, Saxony. In Hildesheim it is found in a sandstone pit where it is deposited each year from a milky, glue-like juice. Masses sever­al times the size of a boy's head are often found here. Each cleanses be­cause it contains some heat but melitites is the better since it contains the most. Each is beneficial when applied as an ointment to running eyes and ulcers. Galactites, having been pulverized and drunk with water or sweet wine, is said to produce abundant breast milk. The stones from Argaeus, Cappadocia, when dissolved produce a milk-like solution. Galen reports that these destroy gall-stones.
Calcareous rock is the parent of gypsum (gypsum). Veins of gypsum cut the calcareous rocks of the mountains of Misena near Sala. The nature of gypsum, although unusual, is closer to a stone than an earth as Theo-phrastus rightly believed. It occurs in many places and we shall mention only the most noted, for example, Galicia, Spain; Hildesheim, Saxony, beyond Mt. Maurice; in the Harz forest at Stolberg; among the Chatti between the towns of Aldedorf and Eschuega not far from the citadel of Pilstein; among the Thuringians in Northusa where there are moun­tains of gypsum and in the same district near Gotha where it is mined on Mt. Seberg; in Misena between Sala and Jena, a town of Thuringia where many wide veins are found in the mountains. It occurs in Italy at Thuriae, Thessaly, Perrhaebia and Thesprotia toward Tymphaea; in Cyprus where it is mined after a thin crust of earth is removed. It occurs in Phoenicia, Syria and Caesarian Mauritania where, if I am not mistaken, the port of Gypsaria takes its name from this mineral.
Gypsum varies in color. It is found white in many places but the whitest comes from Northusa and Hildesheim where it resembles ivory. It also occurs grayish-white at Hildesheim; gray covered with black spots like the Rochlicens marble, in Misena near Sala; and gray in Northusa where it occurs in abundance. Light red and green varieties are also found in Misena.
The luster of gypsum is variable. Some twinkles like stars such as that commonly in the form of lumps; some glistens like marble such as the grayish-white material from Hildesheim and the light red from Misena; some is translucent such as the material which comes occasionally from Galicia. The mineral also has a variable form. The light red from Misena and the gray with black spots occurs in lumps. The gray from Northusa occurs in crusts while the white and green from Misena occurs as cleav­ages resembling sal ammoniac. Although all gypsum has a certain hard­ness, as I have mentioned, that found in Thuringia between Northusa and Elder and in Saxony in the district of Hildesheim is soft and resembles sugar and has more the appearance of an earth than a stone. This is so
Book V about lodestone, hematite, geodes, hematite, selenite, lapis secularum, asbestos, mica Page of 251 Book V about lodestone, hematite, geodes, hematite, selenite, lapis secularum, asbestos, mica
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page