330 DOMAIN JV. TALCQUS. 



it must have been soft, and was used for mor- 

 tars, as, from its natural benignity, it seemed 

 peculiarly fitted for pounding medicines. If we 

 compare these indications with any Egyptian 

 stone, we shall find they agree with this only, 

 the colour being frequently black or dark, and 

 sometimes spotted with golden mica, of a soft 

 nature, and used for mortars, one of the remains 

 being of that description." 



It has already been mentioned in theclescrip- 

 tion of green porphyry, that the Theban ophite 

 of Lucan, and the dark ophite of Pliny, were 

 spotted ollites, which in fact bear far more re- 

 semblance to the skin of a snake than green por- 

 phyry, to which the appellation has been care- 

 lessly transferred. 



?hite Boot, physician to the emperor Rodolph II. 



1576 1612, published a treatise on precious 

 stones, certainly very able and acute for that 

 period, for he was the first who, in treating of 

 the diamond (lib. ii. c. 1. p. 11?. edit. 1636. 

 8vo.), remarked that it belongs to the inflam- 

 mable substances ; an idea also, upon quite dif- 

 ferent and original grounds, adopted by the 

 greaj: Newton. This author, after quoting Di- 

 oscorides and Pliny, observes that the ophite is 

 a grey stone, found at Zoblitz, and used in 

 making pots or vases, and the reputation of its 



