no 



BOOK V. 



appearance of having been melted in a furnace, and if it is not lacking in 

 scales resembling mica. The solidified juices, azure, chrysocolla, orpiment, 

 and realgar, also frequently contain gold. Likewise native or rudis gold is 

 found sometimes in large, and sometimes in small quantities in quartz, 



Blue and green copper minerals were distinguished by all the ancient mineralogists. 

 Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, etc., all give sufficient detail to identify their cyanus and 

 caeruleum partly with modern azurite, and their chrysocolla partly with the modern mineral 

 of the same name. However, these terms were also used for vegetable pigments, as well 

 as for the pigments made from the minerals. The Greek origin of chrysocolla (chrusos, gold 

 and kolla, solder) may be blamed with another and distinct line of confusion, in that this 

 term has been applied to soldering materials, from Greek down to modern times, some of the 

 ancient mineralogists even asserting that the copper mineral chrysocolla was used for this 

 purpose. Agricola uses chrysocolla for borax, but is careful to state in every case (see note 

 xx., p. x) : " Chrysocolla made from nitrum," or " Chrysocolla which the Moors call Borax." 

 Dioscorides and Pliny mention substances which were evidently copper sulphides, but no 

 description occurs prior to Agricola that permits a hazard as to different species. 



LEAD MINERALS. 



Plumbarius lapis 

 Galena 

 Plumbum nigrum 



lutei coloris . . 

 Plumbago metallica 

 Cerussa 

 Ochra facticia 



or ochra plumbaria Pleigeel 



Giant* . . . . Galena 

 Glanfz und pleiertz Galena 



Pleiertz oder pleischweis Cerussite (Pb C0 3 ) 



Galena 

 Galena 



Yellow lead ore 



Pleiweis 



Artificial White-lead . 



Molybdaena 



Plumbago fornacis 



Spuma argenti . . 



Lithargyrum 



Minium secundarium Menning 



Herdplei 

 Glett 



Massicot (Pb O) 



Part litharge . . 



Litharge 

 Minium (Pb 3 O 4 ) 



White-lead (see 

 note 4, p. 440) 

 *Lead-ochre (see 

 note 8, p. 232) 

 Hearth-lead (see 

 note 37, p. 476) 

 Litharge (see note 



on p. 465) 

 Red-lead (see note 

 7. P- 232) 



So far as we can determine, all of these except the first three were believed by Agricola 

 to be artificial products. Of the first three, galena is certain enough, but while he obviously 

 was familiar with the alteration lead products, his descriptions are inadequate and much 

 confused with the artificial oxides. Great confusion arises in the ancient mineralogies over 

 the terms molybdaena, plumbago, plumbum, galena, and spuma argenti, all of which, from 

 Roman mineralogists down to a century after Agricola, were used for lead in some form. Further 

 discussion of such confusion will be found in note 37, p. 476. Agricola in Bermannus and 

 De Natura Fossilium, devotes pages to endeavouring to reconcile the ancient usages of these 

 terms, and all the confusion existing in Agricola's time was thrice confounded when the 

 names molybdaena and plumbago were assigned to non-lead minerals. 



TIN. Agricola knew only one tin mineral : Lapilli nigri ex quibus conflalur plumbum 

 candidum, i.e., " Little black stones from which tin is smelted," and he gives the German 

 equivalent as zwitter, " tinstone." He describes them as being of different colours, but 

 probably due to external causes. 



ANTIMONY. (Inter pretatio, spiesglas.) The stibi or stibium of Agricola was no 

 doubt the sulphide, and he follows Dioscorides in dividing it into male and female species. 

 This distinction, however, is impossible to apply from the inadequate descriptions given. 

 The mineral and metal known to Agricola and his predecessors was almost always the sulphide, 

 and we have not felt justified in using the term antimony alone, as that implies the refined 

 product, therefore, we have adopted either the Latin term or the old English term " grey 

 antimony." The smelted antimony of commerce sold under the latter term was the 

 sulphide. For further notes see p. 428. 



BISMUTH*. Plumbum cinereum (Inter pretatio, bismut). Agricola states that this 

 mineral occasionally occurs native, " but more often as a mineral of another colour " (De 

 Nat. Fos., p. 337), and he also describes its commonest form as black or grey. This, 

 considering his localities, would indicate the sulphide, although he assigns no special name to 

 it. Although bismuth is mentioned before Agricola in the Nutzliche Bergbuchlin, he was the 

 first to describe it (see p. 433). 



QUICKSILVER. Apart from native quicksilver, Agricola adequately describes cinna- 

 bar only. The term used by him for the mineral is minium nativum (Interpretatio, 

 bergzinober or cinnabaris). He makes the curious statement (DeNat. Fos. p. 335) that rudis 

 quicksilver also occurs liver-coloured and blackish, probably gangue colours. (See p. 432). 



