300 PLlrfS NATURAL HI STORY. [Book XXXV. 



them, two kinds of Cimolian earth, employed in medicine, the 

 one white and the other inclining to the tint of purpurissum.^" 

 Both kinds, moistened with vinegar, have the effect of dis- 

 persing tumours and arresting defluxions. They are curative 

 also of inflammatory swellings and imposthumes of the parotid 

 glands ; and, applied topically, they are good for affections of 

 the spleen and pustules on the body. With the addition of 

 aphronitrum,*^ oil of cypros,^^ and vinegar, they reduce 

 swellings of the feet, care being taken to apply the lotion in 

 the sun, and at the end of six hours to wash it off with salt 

 and water. In combination wath wax arid oil of cypres, 

 Cimolian earth is good for swellings of the testes. 



Cretaceous earths, too, are of a cooling tendency, and, 

 applied to the body in the form of a liniment, they act as a 

 check upon excessive perspiration : taken with wine, in the 

 bath, they remove pimples on the body. The most esteemed 

 of all these earths is that of Thessaly : it is found also in the 

 vicinity of Bubon*^ in Lycia. 



Cimolian earth is used also for another purpose, that of 

 scouring cloth. As to the kind which is brought from Sar- 

 dinia, and is known as "sarda," it is used for white tissues 

 only, and is never employed for coloured cloths. Indeed, this 

 last is held in the lowest estimation of all the Cimolian earths; 

 whereas, that of TJmbria is more highly esteemed, as also the 

 kind generally known as ^* saxum."^* It is a property of 

 this last to increase in weight*^ by maceration, and it is by 

 weight that it is usually sold, Sg,rdinian earth being sold by 

 measure. Umbrian earth is only used for giving lustre to 

 cloths. 



It will not be deemed out of place to give some further 

 account here of this process, there being still in existence the 

 Metilian Law, relative to fullers; an enactment which C. 

 Plaminius and L. JEmilius, in their censorship,*^ had passed by 



cretaceous earth, but an aluminous silicate, still found in the island of 

 Kimoli, or Argentiera, one of the Cyclades ; See B. iv. c. 23. Tourne- 

 fort describes it as a white cbalk, very heavy, tasteless, and dissolving in 

 •water. It is found also at Alexandrowsk in Russia. 



^•^ See Chapter 25 of this Eook. *' See B. xxxi. c. 46. 



•'^ See B. xii. c. 51. 43 gee B. v. c. 28. 



** Beckmann thinks that this may have been our common chalk. 

 Vol. II. p. 105. 



^^ This seems to be the meaning of " crescit in macerando." 



*« A.u.c. 535, it is supposed. 



