Cbap. 30.] MOLAU STONES. 359 



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

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

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

 even ; and that, at Volsinii, molar stones 42 for grinding are 

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

 tiou made of millstones that have moved of themselves. 



CHAP. 30. MOLAtt STONES. PYKITKS ; SEVEN IIEMKDIKS, 



In no country are the molar stones 43 superior to those of 

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

 there are some provinces, too, where they aie 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. 44 There is no 

 stone of a more durable nature than this ; fur 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 stono tho tame of 

 "pyrites,*' 4 * from the circumstance that it has a great aiKnity 

 to lire ; 4C but there is also another kind of pyrites, of a more 

 porous nature, and another, 47 again, which resembles copper. 

 This last, it is said, is found in the mines, near Acamas, 4 * 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 ail 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 stones are also mentioned by Isidorus, 

 Orig. B. xvi. c. 4. 



4 - Identified by Ajasson and Dcfontaines with Quartz molar agate, very 

 abundant in this volcanic region of Italy. 



43 " Molares." "Millstone." 



41 Or SCTJU ntine. Sec Chapter 11 of this Boole. 



45 Not the Pyrites of modern Mineralogy, combinations of sulphur \vith 

 Yariou* mineral ores. 4<J The Greek for "fire" being Trf-p. 



47 Sulphate of copper, probably, our Chalcopyritc, or yellow copper 

 pyrites. 4:J See B. v. c. 35. 



