20 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
the gypsum of Volterra was made into vases in which lamps 
were placed, throwing a soft light over the room. In Arabia 
the building of Arsoffa Emi, supposed to be an old monastery, 
is constructed of gypsum, 
‘‘and when the sun shines on it the walls give such a lustre that they dazzle the 
eyes, but the softness of the stone and redness of the mortar have conspired to 
make it a very ruinous pile at present, though of no great antiquity; the stone 
having split and mouldered away in the wall and the foundatiom has failed in 
many places.”’ ? 
The writings of Theophrastus and Pliny show that the Greeks 
were familiar with the use of plaster, made by calcining the 
gypsum stone, in making casts. They state that the first plas- 
ter casts were made by Lysistratus of Sicyon, who was a brother 
of the famous sculptor, Lysippus. He made first a cast in plas- 
ter from the object and from this obtained a second one in wax. 
Rhaecas and Theodorus of Samos worked by the same method, 
but the art appears to have attracted very little attention and 
was soon neglected and in course of time forgotten. It was 
revived by Verocchio (1422-1488) and others when the method 
of casting in plaster proved of great service in obtaining copies 
of the specimens of ancient sculpture which were then dis- 
covered. | 
The compact variety of gypsum, or alabaster, is frequently re- 
ferred to in the ancient writings ; though this word was so often 
used to describe the stalactitic carbonate of lime, that it is not 
always possible to tell from the meagre descriptions whether 
the alabaster mentioned is the sulphate or carbonate of lime. 
The derivation of the word is a much disputed question. 
According to some writers it is derived from the two Greek 
words, « = without, and A«Ba — handles, referring to a box 
without handles made from this material and used to hold per- 
fume. This derivation is said to be inconsistent with the rules 
of formation of the Greek language, and the derivation was 
probably given long after the word itself was coined. A simi- 
lar derivation, more consistent with Greek rules, gives an 
origin based on physical character, from « = not, and AapBave 
2. Rees’ Cyclopedia of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, 1814. 
