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 71



	BOOK III	59

	Sulphur varies in color. Some is yellow such as that from the sulphur-bearing plain of Terra di Lavoro. This is called "virgin sulphur" because it is pure and also because virgins as well as matrons paint their bodies with it. Artificial sulphur is usually yellow. Some natural sulphur is gray as well as the artificial mineral from Pannonia. Some of the natural gray material is discolored with a blue tinge. Some is red as is the very purest artificial material. This is commonly transparent, as transparent as pyrargyrite. The artificial yellow material is not as transparent as the native mineral. The taste of sulphur is somewhat oily and unpleasant. It has a characteristic odor and density. The odor is that of thunder and lightning and is similar to the odor that comes from certain ores when they are roasted. When sulphur is burned it is very irritating to the nose. All sulphur is unctuous, porous and light, some more so than the rest depending upon the purity. Native sulphur often contains earth, alum, various iron sulphates, etc. The manufactured mineral obtained by distilling pyrite is no better and may have alum and iron sulphates mixed with it. Some native sulphur is as hard as stone and some is quite dense although portions of both of these may be tenuous. Some is soft, especially the light gray material. Other sulphur is intermediate. There is little variation in the form of native sulphur. It is dug from the earth in the form of shapeless masses and very rarely stalactites are broken from the roofs of caves or underground workings. Artificial sulphur is produced in the form of cylindrical sticks and in tabular masses. The round form is produced by distilling sulphur, drop by drop, through the openings of jars. Sometimes single drops are made which are similar in size and appearance to a dolichos seed, even with the same rounded tail. Sulphur is a friend of fire for when fragments are sprinkled around burning wood or coal they can entice and draw the fire across the intervening space. The purer the sulphur the easier it burns and the bluer the smoke. When it contains alum or atramentum sutorium it catches fire with difficulty and burns with a less brilliant flame. This gives off very little blue smoke. Fumes from sulphur that has been placed on a fire retard epilepsy according to Pliny. This mineral has many other uses. The Greeks and Romans, who were so superstitious, believed that the smoke from sulphur could purify the temples. Fullers, after first washing cloth in lye and the herb crow's-foot, usually fumigate it with the sulphur that is properly called earthy. Wool dyers use a variety of sulphur they call egula the same way since it makes the wool white and soft according to Pliny. We light candles and dry wood with sulphurous tapers and these are set afire by sparks from flint which has been struck with iron.⁸³ First we light the tinder and then the tapers from the tinder. The worst invention ⁸³ These tapers were made of either hemp twine or thin pieces of wood covered with sulphur.