364 PLIST'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book 



tites,"* while raw, and as " miltites " 63 when calcined ; a sub- 

 stance good for bums, and more efficacious than rubrica 92 for all 

 the purposes for which that mineral is employed. The fifth 153 

 variety is schistos ; a substance which, takcii internally, arrests 

 hcemorrhoidal discharges. Upon the same authority, it is re*- 

 commended to take any kind of haematites, fasting, in doses of 

 three drachma*, triturated in oil, for affections of the blood. 8; 



The same author mentions also a kind of schistos which has no 

 affinity to haematites, and to which he gives the name of " an- 

 thracites."** It is a native of Africa, he says, and is of u 

 black colour. "When rubbed upon a water-whetstone, it yields 

 a black colour on the side which has adhered to the earth, and, 

 on the opposite side, a saffron tint. Ho states also that it is u 

 useful ingredient in ophthalmic preparations. 



CHAP. 39. (21) AKTITKS. TAl'IIIUSIAN STONK. CALLlMfS. 



The stone called asdics'* has a great reputation, in conse- 

 quence of the name which it bears. It is found in the nests 

 of eagles, as already mentioned in our Tenth Book. 81 Then; 

 are always two of these stones found together, they say, a male 

 stone and a female; and without them, it is said, the various 

 eagles that we have described would be unable to propagate. 

 Hence it is, too, that the young of the eagle are never more 

 than two in number. There are four varieties of 'the atitites : 

 that of Africa is soft and diminutive, and contains in the 

 interior in its bowels as it were a sweet, white, argillaceous 

 (arth. It is friable, and is generally thought to be of tho 

 female sex. The male stone, on the other hand, which is found 

 in Arabia, is hard, and similar to a nut-gall in appearance; 

 or else of a reddish hue, with a hard stone in the interior. The 

 third kind is a stone found in the Isle of Cyprus, and resembles 



*" 4 * Liver-stone." Not to be confounded with the Hepatite of modern 

 Mineralogy, or Sulpaate of liarytes. M " .Spleen-stone.*' 



8ee B. xxxv. c. 14. 



M Identified by Ajasson with Laminated protoxide of iron. It 1ms pro- 

 bably an alh'nity to the variety noticed above, in Notes 70 and 7S. 



** <)\vin solely, in all probability, to its name, " blood-stone." 



* s Ajasson is at a loss to know whether this is onr Anthiacito, a non- 

 bituminous coal, or borne kind of bituminous eoal. I>clafo.sse takes it to be 



** Or "raffle-stone." It is a (Jeodes, mentioned in Chapter 23 of this 

 ]!'Kk, a globular mass of clay iron-stone. .Sometimes it is hollow within, 

 :iml sometimes it encloses another stone, or a little water, or tome mineral 

 dust. " 7 Chapter 4. 



