S JADE. 
such importance in England that its exportation was 
prohibited under severe penalties. It was then em- 
ployed for most of those purposes for which soap has 
since been so extensively applied. In the dressing of 
cloth it is now so indispensable, that foreigners, although 
they can procure the wool, are never able, without 
fuller's earth, to reach the perfection of the English 
cloths: and, in this country, incalculable quantities of it 
are consumed. As an article of domestic utility, it 
might be much mare frequently used than it is, as a 
substitute for soap, in the cleaning and scouring of 
wooden floors and wainscots. 
There are extensive beds of fuller's earth in several 
of the counties of England. London is principally 
supplied from those of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. At 
Wavedon, near Woburn, in Bedfordshire, a peculiarly 
fine kind is dug up from pits at the depth of ten or 
twelve feet below the surface of the ground ; and no 
country in the world is known to produce fuller's earth 
of quality so excellent as that obtained in England. 
TALC FAMILY. 
ISO. JADE, or NEPHRITE, is a very hard and tough 
species of' stone, of greenish or olive colour, somewhat unctuous 
to the. touch, and looking as if it had imbibed oil. 
It is found massiv. in blunt-edged or rounded pieces. 
Nothing has so much tended to make this stone known, 
as a superstitious notion that a piece of it suspended to 
the neck will dissolve stones in the kidneys. Hence 
has been attained its appellation of nephrite, or divine 
stone; and hence have originated all those numerous 
amulets in the form of oval plates, hearts, iishes, birds, 
&c. pierced with holes for ribbons to pass through, 
which 'are seen .in collections of the curious. Some of 
the Indian nations make talismans of jade. 
From the roughness and tenacity of this stmie, in 
addition to its hardness, it is very difficult to be cut 
and polished ; and even the best polish which it is 
