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 liquid, 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 vitriolic and metalliferous 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 transversely ; 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 filled with pyrites, and the same
crushed are scattered over the wood, so that, coming in or going out, the
road is flat 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 caballinum.12
The ores13 which consist mostly of sulphur and of earth, and rarely of
other minerals, are melted in big-bellied earthenware pots. The furnaces,
12Agricola (De Noi. Fos., 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.
18Inasmuch 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 wax-
