Book III about halite and nitrium, alum and acrid juices and related minerals, sulphur, bitumen, realgar, and orpiment; the fourth, chrysocolla, aerugo, caeruleum, ferrugo Page 61



	BOOK III	49

	are found in many localities, all in certain localities. Some species are formed from others. Sory and melanteria form from pyrite which is the source of all the juices; chalcitis, from sory; varieties of atramentum sutorium from chalcitis, melanteria and sory. Some of these minerals occur as white efflorescences while others are green and even blue. Misy forms as an efflorescence, not only on sory, melanteria and chalcitis but also on all varieties of atramentum sutorium, both natural and artificial. We have mentioned all the juices that belong to this group but have said nothing about the earths, stones, etc. that may have absorbed these juices, all of which actually belong here. Even wood may absorb these juices. These minerals differ among themselves. Sory, melanteria, chalcitis and misy are always natural minerals and only atramentum sutorium may be either an artificial or a natural mineral. Sory and melanteria have the same color, gray and black; chalcitis red and copper colored; misy, yellowish and golden; atramentum sutorium, various colors. White atramentum sutorium is called \emoiov because it resembles the color of the white violet. It may also be pale to deep green or blue. The finest white variety occurs in the form of icicles at Goslar and resembles transparent quartz.¹⁷ Both the blue and green varieties may be transparent. Because of this transparency atramentum sutorium was given the name vitriolum in olden times. The blue mineral is wont to shine in a wonderful manner. All five minerals are astringent and acrid, atramentum sutorium being the most strongly astringent. All have a natural odor similar to that given off by a bolt of lightning while the odor of sory is the most penetrating. Atramentum sutorium is soft and tenuous similar to down or hair; melanteria, similar to plant down and with a certain saltiness. While all five minerals may be light and porus sory, chalcitis and misy may occur massive. Sory may be as hard as a stone because of excessive congealing and for that reason is the most dense, misy the most tenuous, chalcitis intermediate. Although sory and melanteria have the same color the former is more dense and has a stronger odor. Both artificial and natural atramentum sutorium may be dense and hard as well as loose-textured and light. The natural and sometimes the artificial white variety is sub-unctuous. Sory may have a certain unctuousness at times.¹⁸ ¹⁷ This is probably the first description of the mineral goslarite. ¹⁸ Sulphate minerals have been classified under one of these five names by miners and mineralogists since the first century and two names, melanterite and misy, are still used by miners in much the same sense as they were in the time of Dios-corides and Pliny. It was not until the last quarter of the nineteenth century that definitive studies of the iron sulphate minerals began to appear. Prior to this period there was confusion in the application of these names and it is evident that in the time of Agricola oxidation minerals other than sulphates were sometimes included in these five species. Since color was the primary basis of this classification all water-soluble metallic sulphates were placed in one species or the other solely on this basis. Agricola undoubtedly writes of minerals found in the oxide zone of the various veins in the