198 pliny's natural history. [Book XXXIV. 



Cyprian copper, alum and salt, or an equal quantity of nitre, 

 with the very strongest white vinegar. This preparation is 

 only made during the hottest days of the year, about the 

 rising of the Dog-star. The whole is triturated until it be- 

 comes green, and assumes the appearance of small worms, to. 

 which it owes its name. This repulsive form is corrected by 

 mixing the urine of a young child, with twice the quantity of 

 vinegar. Scolex is used for the same medicinal purposes as 

 santerna, which we have described as being used for soldering 

 gold,^^ and they have, both of them, the same properties as 

 verdigris. Native scolex is also procured by scraping the 

 copper ore of which we are about to speak. 



CHAP. 29. CHALCITIS: SEVEN KEMEBIES. 



Chalcitis^* is the name of a mineral, from which, as well as 

 cadmia, copper is extracted by heat. It differs from cadmia 

 in this respect, that this last is procured from beds below the 

 surface, while chalcitis is detached from rocks that are exposed 

 to the air. Chalcitis also becomes immediately friable, being 

 naturally so soft as to have the appearance of a compressed 

 mass of down. There is also this other distinction between 

 them, that chalcitis is a composition of three other substances, 

 copper, misy, and sory,^^ of which last we shall speak in their 

 appropriate places.^* The veins of copper which it contains are 

 oblong. The most approved kind is of the colour of honey ; 

 it is streaked with fine sinuous veins, and is friable and not 

 stony. It is generally thought to be most valuable when fresh, 

 as, when old, it becomes converted into sory. It is highly 

 useful for removing fleshy excrescences in ulcers, for arresting 

 haemorrhage, and, in the form of a powder, for acting as- 



flour used in cookery." — Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 173, Bohn's 

 Edition. 13 In B. xxxiii. c. 29 — B. 



1* The name, no doubt, of a copper ore which has not been identified. 

 Delafosse suggests that it may have been an ore of iron and copper pyrites 

 in combination with a silky copper malachite. See Chapter 2 of this 

 I^ook, and B. xxxv. c. 52. 



^^ Brongniart is of opinion that the *' sory" of Pliny is the sulphate of 

 copper, probably with an excess of acid. He informs us that he has re- 

 ceived a specimen of a native sulphate of copper from Cuen^a, in Spain, 

 which possesses all the characteristics of " sory" as here described. He 

 considers it more difficult to ascertain the chemical composition of '* misy," 

 but is disposed to consider it as a mixed sulphate of iron and copper. — Jj. 



^^ In the next two Chapters.— B. 



