Chap. 30.] MOLAE STONES. 359 



the silex of Luna admits of being cut with a saw ; that that 

 of Tusculum decrepitates in the fire ; that the tawny silex of 

 tlie Sabine districts, with the addition of oil, will yield a flame 

 even ; and that, at Volsinii, molar stones^^ for grinding are 

 found. Among the prodigies that have happened, I find men- 

 tion made of millstones that have moved of themselves. 



CHAP. 30. MOLAR STONES. PTKITES ; SEVEN llEMEDIES. 



In no country are the molar stones*^ superior to those of 

 Italy ; stones, be it remembered, and not fragments of rock : 

 there are some provinces, too, where they are not to be found 

 at all. Some stones of this class are softer than others, and 

 admit of being smoothed with the whetstone, so as to present 

 all the appearance, at a distance, of ophites.** There is no 

 stone of a more durable nature than this ; for in general, stone, 

 like wood, suffers from the action, more or less, of rain, heat, 

 and cold. Some kinds, again, become deteriorated by the action 

 of the moon, while others are apt to contract a rust in lapse of 

 time, or to change their white colour when steeped in oil. 



(19.) Some persons give this molar stone the name of 

 ''pyrites,"*^ from the circumstance that it has a great affinity 

 to, fire ;*^ but there is also another kind of pjTites, of a more 

 ])orous nature, and another,*" again, which resemlDles copper. 

 This last, it is said, is found in the mines, near Acamas,*^ in the 

 Isle of Cyprus ; one variety of it being of a silver, another of a 

 golden, colour. There are various methods of melting these 

 stones, some persons fusing them twice, or three times even, in 

 honey, till all the liquid has evaporated ; while others, again, 

 calcine them upon hot coals, and, after treating them with 

 honey, wash them like copper. 



The medicinal properties which these minerals possess are of 

 a calorific, desiccative, dispersive, and resolvent nature, and, 



in Italy : See B. iii. c. 9. These Btones are also mentioned by Isidorus, 

 Origj B. xvi. c. 4. 



*2 Identified by Ajasson and Defontaines with Quartz molar agate, very 

 abundant in this volcanic region of Italy. 



*^ " Molares." " Millstone." 



** Or Serpentine. See Chapter 11 of this Book. 



^5 Not the Pyrites of modern Mineralogy, combinations of sulphur with 

 various mineral ores. ^"^ Tlie Greek for "fire" being wvp. 



^^ Sulphate of copper, probably, our Chalcopyrite, or yellow copper 

 pyrites. *8 ggg ;b. y. c. 35. 



