346 



DOMAIN IV. TALCOUS. 



Useful in 

 the arts. 



Nephritic 

 stone. 



hue, of a square form, and not hexagonal, like 

 mica. There are also perpendicular veins, from 

 six to twelve inches in breadth, containing the 

 following substances: 1. Farinaceous steatite, 

 or soap earth, white and green. 2. Chalk of 

 Brianon. 3. Fibrous steatite, passing to as- 

 bestos. 4. Asbestos. 5. White and green ami- 

 anthus. As he wrote in 1772, in the mere dawn 

 of genuine mineralogy, his names are modified 

 by his descriptions. 



As serpentine, like ollite, resists fire, it would 

 be found of far more utility in domestic and pub- 

 lic monuments than marble; yet its use has 

 been unaccountably neglected, both in ancient 

 and modern times. The beautiful serpentines 

 of Portsoy, the singular white- veined marbles of 

 Durness, and the most elegant of all the marbles, 

 that of Tirey, with the fine green serpentine 

 marble of Anglesea, might supply the British 

 empire with decorations far exceeding the fa- 

 shionable imports from Italy, the insipid marbles 

 of Carrara and Sienna, especially at a period 

 when we should only enrich our enemies. 



Serpentine, like the other magnesian rocks, 

 impressed the ancients not irrationally with an 

 idea of medical qualities. Internally they would 

 act as absorbents; but the nephritic stone was 



