Book X lapis sabinicus, lapis selentinus, lapis liparaeus and other mixtures of stone, metal and earth Page 229



	BOOK X	217

	place it also produces black melanterite which in turn produces a white efflorescence that resembles salt. Assius lapis that will eat away the flesh, and for that reason is called sarcophagus, forms in part from cadmia as we know.²⁹ Pliny writes that a cadaver buried in this material will be completely consumed except the teeth in forty days. Cadmia is evidently atramentiferous since it produces a white efflorescence similar to salt. According to Galen assius lapis takes its name from Assum where it is found. According to Pliny this is a town of Troy and according to Cornelius Alexander a town of Mysia. Actually it is not found in this single locality, as Pliny writes, but also in the stones of Lycia and in the Orient where the people use it to eat away the flesh of living people who have been tied to stakes. It is also called asius because it is found in Asia but this is probably a corruption of the word assius from which a letter has been dropped by transcribers either through ignorance or negligence. In medical writings this is called assius, asius, and sarcophagus, names derived from the places where it is found and from its properties. Pliny is in error in placing sarcophagus in a class separate from assius lapis as I shall explain at greater length elsewhere. It is commonly the color of white pumice or tuff with yellow veins in the lower portion. Since it is incoherent and soft it is light and friable. One variety, found on the surface of stones, resembles very fine flour and will adhere to the teeth. This is called flowers of assius lapis. It is, in part white, in part yellowish like pumice and when placed on the tongue is mordacious with a salty taste. Dioscorides calls this salsugo. Galen believed that it formed from sea foam that collected on stones and was later dried by the sun and for this reason had qualities of both the sun and the sea. The stone dries, dissipates, and liquefies moist flesh while flowers of assius lapis is the more efficacious although it is not so mordacious and is very tenuous. At one time this stone was used to make carnivorae arcae (carnivorous burial urns) in which the bodies of the dead were placed and quickly consumed. It was also used to make the vessels into which gouty feet were sometimes placed. Nature produces the fifth species by congealing a mixture of a stone, a metal, and salt; the sixth from a stone, a metal, and soda. Similar species are made from a stone, a metal, and other congealed juices. I cannot say where these mixtures can be found but I am sure they exist. So much concerning mixed genera and their species. I shall now take up compound genera. A compound, uniform substance consists of either two, three, or four simple substances, two to six mixed substances or one or more simple and one or more mixed substances. So many natural substances are found in ²⁹ Assius lapis is, in part, quick lime. Agricola has confused the artificial product with various natural minerals with similar appearance and properties but different compositions. Minute quantities of natural quick lime have been reported from Mt. Vesuvius.