BOOK III. 



49 



A, B, C. D — The mountain. E, F, G, H, I, K — Venn cumnlata. 



accumulations is usually formed a " vena cumulata." 



" As to those that are found in underground canales which do not appear to have been derived 

 " from the earth or rock adjoining, these have undoubtedly been carried by the water for a 

 " greater distance from their place of origin ; which may be made clear to anyone who seeks 

 " their source." 



On the origin of solidified juices he states (De Ortu, p. 43) : " I will now speak of 

 " solidified juices (sweet concreti). I give this name to those minerals which are without 

 " difficulty resolved into liquids (hiimore). Some stones and metals, even though they are 

 " themselves composed of juices, have been compressed so solidly by the cold that they can only 

 " be dissolved with difficulty or not at all. . . . For juices, as I said above, are either 

 " made when dry substances immersed in moisture are cooked by heat, or else they are 

 " made when water flows over ' earth,' or when the surrounding moisture corrodes metallic 

 " material ; or else they are forced out of the ground by the power of heat alone. There- 

 " fore, solidified juices originate from liquid juices, which either heat or cold have condensed. 

 " But that which heat has dried, fire reduces to dust, and moisture dissolves. Not only 

 " does warm or cold water dissolve certain solidified juices, but also humid air ; and a juice 

 " which the cold has condensed is liquefied by fire and warm water. A salty juice is con- 

 " densed into salt ; a bitter one into soda ; an astringent and sharp one into alum or into 

 " vitriol. Skilled workmen in a similar way to nature, evaporate water which contains 

 " juices of this kind until it is condensed ; from salty ones they make salt, from 

 " aluminous ones alum, from one which contains vitriol they make vitriol. These workmen 

 " imitate nature in condensing liquid juices with heat, but they cannot imitate nature in 

 " condensing them by cold. From an astringent juice not only is alum made and vitriol, but 

 " also sory, chalcifis, and misy, which appears to be the ' flower ' of vitriol, just as melanteria 

 " is of sory. {See not^ on p. 573 for these minerals.) When humour corrodes pyrites so that 

 " it is friable, an astringent juice of this kind is obtained." 



On the Origin of Stones {De Ortu, p. 50), he states : " It is now necessary to 

 " review in a few words what I have said as to all of the material from which stones are 

 " made ; there is first of all mud ; next juice which is solidified by severe cold ; then frag- 

 " ments of rock ; afterward stone juice (succus lapidescens), which also turns to stone when 

 " it comes out into the air ; and lastly, everything which has pores capable of receiving a 

 " stony juice." As to an " efficient force," he states (p. 54) : " But it is now necessary 

 " that I should explain my own view, omitting the first and antecedent causes. Thus the 



