BOOK XXXIII. XXXII. 99-xxxiii. loi 



veins of silver which contains a hiimour, in round 

 drops, that is always liquid, and is called quicksilver. 

 It acts as a poison on everything, and breaks vessels 

 by penetrating them with malignant corruption. 

 All substances float on its surface except gold, which 

 is the only thing that it attracts to itself; conse- 

 quently it is also excellent for refining gold, as if it is 

 briskly shaken in earthen vessels it rejects all the 

 impurities contained in it. When these blemishes 

 have been thus expelled, to separate the quicksilver 

 itself from the gold it is poured out on to hides that 

 have been well dressed, and exudes through them 

 like a kind of perspiration and leaves the gold behind 

 in a pure state. Consequently when also things 

 made of copper are gilded, a coat of quicksilver is 

 appHed underneath the gold leaf and keeps it in its 

 place with the greatest tenacity : but if the gold- 

 leaf is put on in one layer or is very thin it reveals 

 the quicksilver by its pale colour. Consequently 

 persons intending this fraud adulterated the quick- 

 silver used for this purpose with white of egg ; and 

 later they falsified also hydrargyrum or artificial 

 quicksilver, which we shall speak about in its proper § 12.3. 

 place. Otherwise quicksilver is not to be found in 

 any large quantity. 



XXXIII. In the same mines as silver there is found Antimony. 

 what is properly to be described as a stone, made 

 of white and shiny but not transparent froth ; several 

 names are used for it, stimi, stibi, alabastrum and 

 sometimes larbasis. It is of two kinds, male and 

 female." The female variety is preferred, the male 



" Probably stibnite (sulphide of antimony), and native 

 metallic antimony respectively (K. C. Bailey, The Elder 

 Plini/s Chapters on Chemical Subjects, I, p. 213). 



77 



