3">G PLINY'S NATURAL insroiiT. [flook XXXVI. 



on Macedonia, and lies to the right of the road which leads from 

 the town of JJoebe to lolcos; a third, from Hyettua in Boeotia ; 

 a fourth, from Alexandria in Troas ; and a fifth, from Magnesia 

 in Asia. The leading distinction in magnets is the sex, male 

 ur:d female, 2 * and the next great diiieivnce in them is the 

 colour. Those of Magnesia, bordering on Macedonia, are of 

 a reddish black ; those of Ltfotia are more red than black ; and 

 the kind that is found in Troas is black, of the female sex, 

 and consequently destitute of attractive power. The most 

 inferior, however, of all, are those of Magnesia in Asia : they 

 arc white, have no attractive influence on iron, and resemble 

 pumice in appearance. It has been found by experience, that 

 the more nearly the magnet approaches to an azure colour, 

 the better it is in quality. The ./Ethiopian magnet is looked 

 upon as the best of all, arid is purchased at its weight in silver: 

 Zmiris in ./Ethiopia is the place where it is found, such being 

 the name of a region there, covered with sand. 



In the same country, too, the magnet called " hematites"* 8 is 

 ibund, a stone of a blood-red colour, and which, when bruised, 

 yields a tint like that of blood, as also of saffron. The 

 haematites has not the same property 26 of attracting iron that 

 the ordinary magnet has. The ./Ethiopian magnet is recog- 

 nized by this peculiarity, that it has the property, also, of 

 attracting other magnets to ik 27 All these minerals are use- 

 iul as ingredients in ophthalmic preparations, in certain propor- 

 tions according to the nature of each : they are particularly 

 good, too, for arresting defluxions of the eyes. Triturated in 

 a calcined state, they have a healing effect upon burns. 



In JEthiopia, too, not far from Zmiris, there is a mountain 

 in which the stone called " theamedes"- 8 is found, a mineral 



24 An absurd distinction, as Ajasson remarks; based, probably, on East- 

 ern notions, and with reference to the comparative powers of attraction. 



'^ From ai/m, "blood." lie alludes to Specular iron, red ochre, or 

 red hematite, another oxide of iron. 



* Sometimes it has, but in a very slight degree. 



:: Ajasson remarks tlat most probably the possessors of this pretended 

 variety knew the distinction between the two poles of the magnet, and 

 took care, when it was their inu-rebt to dobo, to place the opposite pole to- 

 wards that of the other loadstone. 



It was the belief of the Duke of NoyaCarniTa,thnt this stone \vns identi- 

 cal with Tourmaline : but, as Ikckmann says, tourmaline, when heated, first 

 attracts iron, and thin repels it. Jli*t. Inv. Vol. I. pp. 87, SS. Jio/in'.i hli- 

 tion. Ajatbon is of opinion that the T heauitdcs was neither more nor libs 



