389 
MAR 
Colour dull grey, brownifli or yellowifh, with fometimes 
a mixture of the two firft colours; the granulations are 
eafily detached, and in fmall pieces may be crumbled be¬ 
tween the fingers. What is ufually called Bath Jlone and 
Portland Jlone are varieties of this fpecies. 
2. Marmor granulare, or rough marble nearly opake, 
lamellar, (liining internally, hardifh, fpontaneoufly falling 
into granulations, not admitting a polifli. Found in vaft 
beds or Itrata in many mountains of Europe, &c. confti- 
tuting their principal parts, and never containing the vef- 
tiges of living bodies. The granulations of different 
fizes. Colour white, cinereous, black, brown, red, yel- ' 
lowifh, or variegated ; fraCture foliated, often fmall and 
fine, always ftraight. It is ufed for building, mending 
roads, burning into lime, and as a flux for iron-ftone. 
3. Marmor micans, or Parian and Carrara marble : dia¬ 
phanous, white, lamellar, fhining internally, hardifh, fpon¬ 
taneoufly falling into finer granulations, receiving a po- 
lifli. Found in ancient primitive mountains, in vaft ftrata, 
and rarely with the veftiges of animal bodies, in Finland, 
Saxony, Sweden, Bohemia, near Carrara, in the iflands 
Paros and Antiparos, and moft mountainous countries, 
and is frequently the material of ancient buildings; fome¬ 
times it contains a portion of quartz, fo that it effer- 
vefces flowly with acids, and ftrikes fire with fteel. When 
broken it is a little fhining, and has a lamellar grained 
texture. 
Parian marble, containing no iron, does not lofe its co¬ 
lour by expofure to air or moifture; whereas white calca¬ 
reous carbonats in general become yellow under the fame 
circumftances, in confequence of the alteration produced 
on the iron contained in them; on this account,and from 
the uniforn delicacy of its colour, Parian marble is parti¬ 
cularly applicable to the purpofes of ftatuary. The Ve¬ 
nus de Medicis and the Juno Capitolina are of this mar¬ 
ble. The ancients called it lychnites , becaufe its quarries 
were wrought at lamp-light. 
Carrara marble, in its general hiftory, correfponds very 
clofely with that of Parian marble ; but it is even whiter 
and of a finer grain than that, and appears to haye been 
ultimately preferred by ftatuaries on this account. The 
Antinous of the Capitol, and, according to Dolomieu, 
the Apollo Belvidere, are of Carrara marble. Some parts 
of the beds of this marble contain a confiderable propor¬ 
tion of filiceous particles; a fmall proportion is found in 
the analyfis of every part; in which it correfponds with 
the analyfis of Parian marble as given above. 
Cipolino marble appears to be a variety of the Parian and 
Carrara, ftratified or veined with greenifh mica ; and, from 
the fuppofed refemblance of thefe veins or bands to the 
laminae of an onion, ( cipolla in Italian,) it has received 
the name of Cipolino. Sauffure defcribes it as fometimes 
entirely white, fometimes partly bluifh ; and of a granu¬ 
lar texture. 
Pentelic marble. This is a variety of the Parian and 
Carrara. Its name is derived from mount Pentelicus, in 
the neighbourhood of Athens, where it was firft quarried ; 
and the principal monuments of Athens were of Pentelic 
marble, fuch as the Parthenon, the Propylees, and the 
Hippodrome. Among the ftatues of this marble in the 
Napoleon Mufeum, at Paris, are the Torfo ; a Bacchus in 
repofe; Jafon, (called Cincinnatus ;) a Paris; the Dif- 
cobolus repofing; the bas-relief known by the name of 
the Sacrifice; the Throne of Saturn; the Tripod of 
Apollo; and two beautiful Athenian infcriptions known 
by the name of Nointel Marbles, becaufe M. Nointel 
caufed them to be brought from Athens to Paris in 1672. 
White granular marble with black veins. This marble, 
which is met with at Carrara, is very commonly ufed in 
this country for chimney-pieces and hearths. The veins 
are often too irregularly diftributed to afford any proba¬ 
ble ground of conjecture in themfelves refpeCting their 
origin ; but in many inftances a tranfient view is fuffi- 
cient to (how that they are a connecting medium between 
numerous and irregularly-dilpofed fragments of white 
Vol.XIV. No. 98a. 
M O R. 
marble; and, keeping this obfervatibn in remembrance, the 
nature of the diltribution of the veins may often be traced 
by a nearer infpeCHon, where at firft fight every thing 
feemed irregular and confufed. It is worthy of remark, 
that the fragments of this marble are often mutually fo 
indented as to give the vein a ferrated appearance ; com¬ 
pared, not unaptly, by Mr. Playfair, to the futures of the 
human cranium. It has been argued from this appearance, 
that the mafs in which it occurs mull at foine time or 
other have been in a foft ftate, in order to have admitted 
fuch a mutual indentation of the fragments ; but in many 
inftances the correfpondence of the outline of the con¬ 
nected fragments is fo exaCt, and the direction of the out¬ 
line is at the fame time fo irregular, as to render it im¬ 
probable that the fragments w’ere ever feparated from 
each other ; fince it is difficult to fuppofe they could have 
met again fo exaCily in the fame points of contact.. In 
this cafe we are left to imagine that fome force Amply di¬ 
vided the mafs in various directions without fepafating 
the fragments from each other, further at leaft than to ad¬ 
mit the matter of which the vein is compofed ; yet this 
conclufion, confidering the exceedingly confufed appear¬ 
ance of the whole, feems equally difficult of admiflion. 
It appears indeed to be one of thofe phenomena that ad¬ 
mit not of fatisfaCfory explanation. 
The Brafilian ftone or elaftic marble, feems to be the. 
variety e of this fpecies. See Brasilian Stone, vol. iii. 
P- 3 S 2> 
4. Marmor phofphoreum, or phofphoric marble : com- 
paCl, diaphanous, fnowy, emitting light in the dark when 
rubbed together. Found in primitive ftrata in the moun¬ 
tains Vefuvius and Ottajano, and nearly diffolves in nitric 
acid with a ftrong effervefcence. If rubbed together iu 
the dark, or thrown in the form of powder upon heated 
iron, it emits a phofphorelcent light. 
5. Marmor dolomiasi, or dolomite : effervefcing flowly 
with acids, covering itfelf with a vitreous coating in the 
fire. Found in theTyrolefe mountains; with hardly any 
luftre or tranfparency, and breaking into convex frag¬ 
ments ; does not moulder by expofure to the atmolpheric 
air. A fragment of this kind of marble in the Oxford 
Collection contains numerous minute particles of mag¬ 
netic iron. Some, if thrown into liquid nitre of a red 
heat, give out a phofphorefcent appearance ; which, com¬ 
mencing at the edges of the fragment fubmitted to the 
experiment, proceeds to the centre ; this phofphorefcence 
is little more than momentary, and is not produced by 
heat; nor indeed by ignited nitre upon a fragment that 
has preyioufly been expofed to a red heat. 
Primitive marbles poffeffing the foregoing characters 
are called Dolomites, from M. Dolomieu ; who firft ob- 
ferved them among the remains of ancient fculpture at 
Rome; and afterwards in the mountains of the Tyrol, 
and in the Alps; but this clafs of marbles has not yet 
been'accurately defined. Many ftatues of Grecian work- 
manffiip are made of dolomite, of which there are no 
known quarries in Italy ; many of the relics of ancient 
ftatuary at Rome are however of dolomite, and hence 
thefe are fuppofed to have been brought from Greece. 
6. Marmor elafticum, or elaftic marble: elaftic, yellow- 
ifh-white, emitting a phofphorefcent light when thrown 
on red-hot iron. Found on Mount Gothard in Swifler- 
land, in large maffes; furface rough and uneven ; flightly 
flexible and evidently elaftic when its length exceeds 
eleven or twelve times its thicknefs; effervelces and dif¬ 
folves very flowly with acids. 
7. Marmor fquamofum, or fcaly marble: granular, 
compaCr, fcaly. Found in Grapenburg, Finland, and 
Sweden, conlfituting the principal part of Ample moun¬ 
tains, and containing no veftiges of living bodies ; colour 
white, or reddifli-yellow. Produces an indifferent quick¬ 
lime. 
8. Marmor porofum, or filtering-ftone : perforated with 
pores, without luftre, opake, not receiving a polilh. The 
different varieties are found in the quarries of Ruderf- 
5 G dorf 
