238 BOOK VII. 



powder is made from them, one part of which added to two parts of ore 

 liquefies it and cleanses it of dross. But the most powerful flux is one which 

 has two drachmae of sulphur and as much glass-galls, and half an uncia of each of 

 the following, — stibium, salt obtained from boiled urine, melted common salt, 

 prepared saltpetre, litharge, vitriol, argol, salt obtained from ashes of musk ivy, 

 dried lees of the aqua by which gold-workers separate gold from silver, 

 alum reduced by fire to powder, and one unda of camphor^* combined with 

 sulphur and ground into powder. A half or whole portion of this mixture, 

 as the necessity of the case requires, is mixed with one portion of the ore 

 and two portions of lead, and put in a scorifier ; it is sprinkled with powder 

 of crushed Venetian glass, and when the mixture has been heated for an hour 

 and a half or two hours, a button will settle in the bottom of the scorifier, and 

 from it the lead is soon separated. 



There is also a flux which separates sulphur, orpiment and realgar from 

 metalliferous ore. This flux is composed of equal portions of iron slag, 

 white tophus, and salt. After these juices have been secreted, the ores 

 themselves are melted, with argol added to them. There is one flux which 

 preserves stibium from the fire, that the fire may not consume it, and 

 which preserves the metals from the stibium ; and this is composed of equal 

 portions of sulphur, prepared saltpetre, melted salt, and vitriol, heated 

 together in lye until no odour emanates from the sulphur, which occurs after 

 a space of three or four hours.^^ 



It is also worth while to substitute certain other mixtures. Take two 

 portions of ore properly prepared, one portion of iron filings, and likewise 

 one portion of salt, and mix ; then put them into a scorifier and place them 

 in a muffle furnace ; when they are reduced by the fire and run together, a 

 button will settle in the bottom of the scorifier. Or else take equal portions 

 of ore and of lead ochre, and mix with them a small quantity of iron filings, 

 and put them into a scorifier, then scatter iron filings over the mixture. Or 

 else take ore which has been ground to powder and sprinkle it in a crucible, 

 and then sprinkle over it an equal quantity of salt that has been three or 

 four times moistened with urine and dried ; then, again and again alternately, 

 powdered ore and salt ; next, after the crucible has been covered with a 

 lid and sealed, it is placed upon burning charcoal. Or else take one portion of 

 ore, one portion of minute lead granules, half a portion of Venetian glass, 

 and the same quantity of glass-galls. Or else take one portion of ore, one 

 portion of lead granules, half a portion of salt, one-fourth of a portion of argol, 

 and the same quantity of lees of the aqua which separates gold from silver. 

 Or else take equal portions of prepar^^d ore and a powder in which there 



^'Camphor (camphora). This was no doubt the well-known gum. Agricola, how- 

 ever, believed that camphor (De Nat. Fossilium, p. 224) was a species of bitumen, and he 

 devotes considerable trouble to the refutation of the statements by the Arabic authors that 

 it was a gum. In any event, it would be a useful reducing agent. 



^^Inasmuch as orpiment and realgar are both arsenical sulphides, the use of iron " slag," 

 if it contains enough iron, would certainly matte the sulphur and arsenic. Sulphur and 

 arsenic are the " juices " referred to (see note 4, p. i). It is difficult to see the object 

 of preserving the antimony with such a sulphurizing " addition," unless it was desired to 

 secure a regulus of antimony alone from a given antimonial ore. 



