330 M E M O I R S of the 
confiib, evaporate in the Iblution, nor can they be retained with- 
out fome additament, and even that impairs its folidity, but he 
thinks, that Ibch a fkill is not to be dilpaired of, could a like 
gentle heat be applied as nature makes ule of in animals ; for a 
ball of amber found in the ventricle of a fheep, confifted of feyeral 
li-n^ll birs, which every where fhewed the traces of their junc- 
tures, and this fhews that nature does not apply a fire fit to melt, 
but fuch a gentle heat as is proper to glue things together; much 
lefs is amber to be reduced to the clafs of earths, or falts, as being 
more compa<fl than earth, fatter than fait, and moifter than either 5 
it comes nearer the nature of bitumens and fulphurs, yet differs 
from thefe in hardncfs, there being no pure bitumen or fulphur 
fo firm as that is. 
Amber for its hardnefs may be clafled amongft flones, and for 
its brightnels amongft gems, tho' fome forts of it are brittle; yet 
amber polifhers find the white fort lo hard as to blunt their edge- 
tools; pop-guns and mortars made of it receive no damage 
from the explofion; amber is chiefly valued for its hardnefs and 
Iblidity; the chief virtue the ancients found in amber, and which 
diftinguiflied it from other gems was its attra6tive force, fo that 
they called all thofe bodies electrical that had the faculty of at- 
tra(fting ; which power of attra6"tion the moderns who have been 
more exact in their experiments have difcovered in feveral other 
gems, ftones, glals, refinous and bituminous bodies, fulphur, al- 
phaltus and lac 5 yet amber attracts more ftrongly than other 
gems. 
Amber has a peculiar fragrancy, which no other gem yields, no 
nor any of the aromatics; as thyme, myrrh, camphire or maftic 5 
there is fomcthing of a refemblance of Imell in the refinous glebes 
fonnd in ant-hills, but when you rub or burn them the difference 
isdire61:Iy perceived; the fmell of the yellow or fiery fort differs 
from that of the white ; the effluvia of the former are fat, and 
therefore fofter, but thofe of the latter are fait and more acrid, 
and they differently afil^61: the nofe ; amber has alio a peculiar 
tafte, which yet varies according to the proportion of the oily and 
falinc particles ; the white fort is pungent upon the fibres of the ' 
tongue, but the yellow not ih-^ amber differs from moft other 
gems in the variety of its colours, and is never black, the opaque 
Ibrt is rarely found, the pellucid is the pureft; and in fine you 
can Icarcely name a gem that equals it in Jightnefs. 
Its chief virtue, and to which no other gem comes up, is in cur- 
ing the diftcmpcrs of animals; crude amber is oflcrvice, applied 
cither inwardly or outwardly; the Indians and Cbinefe are fo 
\ery 
