578 BOOK XII 



it is put aside for dissolving the new ore, for it is far preferable to fresh water. 

 The solidified vitriol is hewn out, and having once more been thrown into the 

 caldron, is re-heated until it liquefies ; when hquid, it is poured into 

 moulds that it may be made into cakes. If the solution first poured out is 

 not satisfactorily thickened, it is condensed two or three times, and each 

 time liquefied in the caldron and re-poured into the moulds, in which 

 manner pure cakes, beautiful to look at, are made from it. 



The vitriolous pyrites, which are to be numbered among the mixtures 

 [mistura), are roasted as in the case of alum, and dissolved with water, and 

 the solution is boiled in leaden caldrons until it condenses into vitriol. Both 

 alum and vitriol are often made out of these, and it is no wonder, for these 

 juices are cognate, and only differ in the one point, — that the former is less, the 

 latter more, earthy. That pyrites which contains metal must be smelted in the 

 furnace. In the same manner, from other mixtures of vitrioUc and metallifer- 

 ous material are made vitriol and metal. Indeed, if ores of vitriolous pyrites 

 abound, the miners split small logs down the centre and cut them off in lengths 

 as long as the drifts and tunnels are wide, in which they lay them down trans- 

 versely ; but, that they may be stable, they are laid on the ground with the wide 

 side down and the round side up, and they touch each other at the bottom, 

 but not at the top. The intermediate space is fiUed with pyrites, and the same 

 crushed are scattered over the wood, so that, coming in or going out, the 

 road is fiat and even. Since the drifts or tunnels drip with water, these 

 pyrites are soaked, and from them are freed the vitriol and cognate things. If 

 the water ceases to drip, these dry and harden, and then they are raised 

 from the shafts, together with the pyrites not yet dissolved in the water, or 

 they are carried out from the tunnels ; then they are thrown into vats or 

 tanks, and boiling water having been poured over them, the vitriol is freed 

 and the pyrites are dissolved. This green solution is transferred to other vats 

 or tanks, that it may be made clear and pure ; it is then boiled in the lead 

 caldrons until it thickens ; afterward it is poured into wooden tubs, where 

 it condenses on rods, or reeds, or twigs, into green vitriol. 



Sulphur is made from sulphurous waters, from sulphurous ores, and 

 from sulphurous mixtures. These waters are poured into the leaden caldrons 

 and boiled until they condense into sulphur. From this latter, heated 

 together with iron-scales, and transferred into pots, which are afterward 

 covered with lute and refined sulphur, another sulphur is made, which we 

 call caballiniim}^ 



The ores^^ which consist mostly of sulphur and of earth, and rarely of 

 other minerals, are melted in big-beUied earthenware pots. The furnaces, 



^'■'Agricola (De. Nat. Fus., 221) says ; — " There is a species of artificial sulphur made 

 " from sulphur and iron hammer-scales, melted together and poured into moulds. This, 

 because it heals scabs of horses, is generally called caballinum." It is difficult 

 to believe such a combination was other than iron sulphide, but it is equally difficult 

 to understand how it was serviceable for this purpose. 



i^Inasmuch as pyrites is discussed in the next paragraph, the material of the first 

 distillation appears to be native sulphur. Until the receiving pots became heated above the 

 melting point of the sulphur, the product would be " flowers of sulphur." and not the wa:,- 



