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Book X lapis sabinicus, lapis selentinus, lapis liparaeus and other mixtures of stone, metal and earth

Book X lapis sabinicus, lapis selentinus, lapis liparaeus and other mixtures of stone, metal and earth Page of 251 Book X lapis sabinicus, lapis selentinus, lapis liparaeus and other mixtures of stone, metal and earth Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
218
DE NATURA FOSSILIUM
these compounds that it is of value to consider them carefully. Otherwise the quality and nature of many things cannot be explained satisfactorily. When two simple substances are compounded they must be two of the following, earth, stone, metal, or congealed juice.
I shall take up first earths to which a congealed juice has been added. If the congealed juice is salt the earth is called saline; if soda, alkali; if alum, aluminous; if atr-amentum sutorium, atramentiferous; if sulphur, sulphurous; if bitumen, bituminous; and if one of the acrid juices such as chrysocolla, aerugo, caeruleum, orpiment, or realgar, similar terms are used.
Melia is one of the aluminous earths or species. It is gray and harsh so that it makes a harsh sound when rubbed between the fingers similar to that of pumice. Ampelitis cinerea is a bituminous earth with a white to reddish brown color.
The congealed juices contained in an earth are either visible to the eye or can be seen when the earth is broken apart if they have formed in small masses. On the other hand when an earth has absorbed these liquids in such a manner that they are distributed throughout the mass we recog­nize the well known ones by color, the rest by taste. Earths containing these are found in places where the same congealed juice is mined or where waters, flowing from the earth, contain them. Saline earths are common in Germany in the mountains near Seburg where there is a salt lake to the north. When the weather is clear those mountains glitter with salt. All the country between Seburg and Salsamund and between Salsamund and Halle is salt.
The Egyptian mud used to treat tumors contains soda. Halinitrum, as I have said, occurs in Germany as an efflorescence on the ground near Stassfurt. An aluminous earth, from which they produce alum, is mined near the famous town of Luneburg and near the Elbe at Brambach, Saxony; near Salfeld and Blaa, Voightland; near Radeberg, Misena; and at Schlachic, Bohemia. The earth that occurs in the commonwealth of Parasimus on the Scythian peninsula, according to Pliny, is obviously aluminous since it is used to heal all types of wounds. At Goslar, Saxony, a red earth is found that contains an atramentum sutorium essence and closely resembles red ocher. A sulphurous earth is found at the foot of Vulcan, Campania, underlying the plowed fields of Ariccia. The latter earth will burn when placed on a fire. A similar earth is found at Narni together with an aluminous earth that Pliny writes becomes drier with rains. Actually the aluminous earths are not washed away readily by rains as can be observed in certain parts of Hildesheim.
Bituminous earth is found at Halle in the district occupied by the Hermunduri, particularly in a pit to the south and near Satelum, Elbo-ganum. Earths containing acrid juices, chrysocolla, aerugo, and caeruleum are found in gold, silver, and copper mines while earths containing realgar and orpiment are found in characteristic veins.
Book X lapis sabinicus, lapis selentinus, lapis liparaeus and other mixtures of stone, metal and earth Page of 251 Book X lapis sabinicus, lapis selentinus, lapis liparaeus and other mixtures of stone, metal and earth
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