238 PLINY'S VATUHAL HISTORY. [Book XXXV. 



and two pounds of Greek melinum, cc well mixed and triturated 

 together for twelve successive days, produce " leucophoroii/' 27 

 a cement used for applying gold-leaf to wood. 



CHAP. 18. PA1UETON1UM. 



Par&tonium 29 is so called from the place 29 of that name in 

 Egypt. It is sea-foam, 30 they say, solidified with slime, and 

 hence it is that minute shells are often found in it. It is pre- 

 pared also in the Isle of Crete, and at Cvrcna\ At Home, it is 

 adulterated with Cimolian 31 earth, boiled and thickened. Tho 

 price of that of the highest quality is fifty denarii per six 

 pounds. This is the most unctuous of all the white colours, 

 and the most tenacious as a coating for plaster, the result of 

 its smoothness. 



CHAP. 19. MKLINl'U: SIX IIKMEDIF.S. CKIU'SK. 



Melinum, too, is a white colour, the best being the produce 

 of the I*le of Melos/" It is found also in Samos ; but this 

 last kind is never used by painters, in consequence of its being 

 too unctuous. The persons employed in extracting it, lie at 

 full length upon the ground, and search for the veins among the 

 rocks. In medicine it is employed for much the same purposes 

 as erctria; 33 in addition to which, it dries the tongue, acts as 

 a depilatory, and has a soothing eifect. The price of it is one 

 sestertius per pound. 



The third of the white pigments is crruse, the nature of 

 which ^'e have already 31 explained when speaking of the ores 

 of lead ; there was also a native ceruse, formerly found on the 



w A white earth from the T>lc of Melos. Sec Chapter 10. 



- 7 Sec l>. xxxiii. c. 20. * 4 One in:iy readily concvive that this must Lave 

 VH en a ferruginous ochre, or kind of hole, which is .still used a* a ground, 

 polinitHti anu'rttc." Beckmann, Jlisf. Inv. Vol. 1 1. p. 2'Jl. J'.oJttt's JMition. 



'" A white, much used for fresco painting. Aja.sson,)9 of opinion, that 

 ]']iry, in this Chapter, like the other ancient authors, confounds two earths 

 t'.iat are, in reality, totally different. Hydrosiiicuteof magnesia, or Steatite, 

 and Rtomboidical carbonate of lime. *' J .Sve IJ. v. c. G. 



i; Ajas.on thinks that possibly our compact ma^nesite, meerschaum, or 

 sea-foam, may he the substance here alluded to. 



* il See Chapter >')7 of this Hook. 



z - Sec It. iv. c. 33. Tourm-fort says that this earth is exactly similar 

 to the Cimolian earth, described in Chapter ;37. 



2:1 See U. xxxiii. c. 57, and Chapter 21 of this Hook. 



31 In IJ. xxxiv. c. 51. 



