So far as we can determine, all of these except the first three were believed by Agricola
to be artificial products. Of the first three, galena is certain enough, but while he obviously
was familiar with the alteration lead products, his descriptions are inadequate and much
confused with the artificial oxides. Great confusion arises in the ancient mineralogies over
the terms molybdaena, plumbago, plumbum, galena, and spuma argenti, all of which, from
Roman mineralogists down to a century after Agricola, were used for lead in some form. Further
discussion of such confusion will be found in note 37, p. 476. Agricola in Bermannus and
De Natura Fossilium, devotes pages to endeavouring to reconcile the ancient usages of these
terms, and all the confusion existing in Agricola's time was thrice confounded when the
names molybdaena and plumbago were assigned to non-lead minerals.
Tin. Agricola knew only one tin mineral: Lapilli nigri ex quibus conflatur plumbum
candidum, i.e., " Little black stones from which tin is smelted," and he gives the German
equivalent as zwitter, " tinstone." He describes them as being of different colours, but
probably due to external causes.
Antimony. (Interpreiatio,—spiesglas.) The stibi or stibium of Agricola was no
doubt the sulphide, and he follows Dioscorides in dividing it into male and female species.
This distinction, however, is impossible to apply from the inadequate descriptions given.
The mineral and metal known to Agricola and his predecessors was almost always the sulphide,
and we have not felt justified in using the term antimony alone, as that implies the refined
product, therefore, we have adopted either the Latin term or the old English term " grey
antimony." The smelted antimony of commerce sold under the latter term was the
sulphide. For further notes see p. 428.
Bismuth*. Plumbum cinereum (Interpreiatio,—bismut). Agricola states that this
mineral occasionally occurs native, " but more often as a mineral of another colour " (De
Nat. Fos., p. 337), and he also describes its commonest form as black or grey. This,
considering his localities, would indicate the sulphide, although he assigns no special name to
it. Although bismuth is mentioned before Agricola in the Nützliche Bergbüchlin, he was the
first to describe it (see p. 433).
Quicksilver. Apart from native quicksilver, Agricola adequately describes cinnabar only. The term used by him for the mineral is minium nativum (Interpreiatio,—
bergzinober or cinnabaris). He makes the curious statement (De Nat. Fos. p. 335) that rudis
quicksilver also occurs liver-coloured and blackish,—probably gangue colours. (See p. 432).
