BOOK III. 



49 





A, B, C, D THE MOUNTAIN. E, F, G, H, I, K Vena cumulata. 

 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 (sued concreti). I give this name to those minerals which are without 



" difficulty resolved into liquids (humore). 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, chalcilis, and misy, which appears to be the ' flower ' of vitriol, just as melanteria 



' is of sory. (See note 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 (succuslapidescens), 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 



