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218
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DE NATURA FOSSILIUM
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these
compounds that it is of value to consider them carefully. Otherwise the
quality and nature of many things cannot be explained satisfactorily.
When two simple substances are compounded they must be two of the
following, earth, stone, metal, or congealed juice.
I
shall take up first earths to which a congealed juice has been added.
If the congealed juice is salt the earth is called saline; if soda,
alkali; if alum, aluminous; if atr-amentum sutorium, atramentiferous; if sulphur, sulphurous; if bitumen, bituminous; and if one of the acrid juices such as chrysocolla, aerugo, caeruleum, orpiment, or realgar, similar terms are used.
Melia is
one of the aluminous earths or species. It is gray and harsh so that it
makes a harsh sound when rubbed between the fingers similar to that of
pumice. Ampelitis cinerea is a bituminous earth with a white to reddish brown color.
The
congealed juices contained in an earth are either visible to the eye or
can be seen when the earth is broken apart if they have formed in small
masses. On the other hand when an earth has absorbed these liquids in
such a manner that they are distributed throughout the mass we
recognize the well known ones by color, the rest by taste. Earths
containing these are found in places where the same congealed juice is
mined or where waters, flowing from the earth, contain them. Saline
earths are common in Germany in the mountains near Seburg where there
is a salt lake to the north. When the weather is clear those mountains
glitter with salt. All the country between Seburg and Salsamund and
between Salsamund and Halle is salt.
The Egyptian mud used to treat tumors contains soda. Halinitrum, as
I have said, occurs in Germany as an efflorescence on the ground near
Stassfurt. An aluminous earth, from which they produce alum, is mined
near the famous town of Luneburg and near the Elbe at Brambach, Saxony;
near Salfeld and Blaa, Voightland; near Radeberg, Misena; and at
Schlachic, Bohemia. The earth that occurs in the commonwealth of
Parasimus on the Scythian peninsula, according to Pliny, is obviously
aluminous since it is used to heal all types of wounds. At Goslar,
Saxony, a red earth is found that contains an atramentum sutorium essence
and closely resembles red ocher. A sulphurous earth is found at the
foot of Vulcan, Campania, underlying the plowed fields of Ariccia. The
latter earth will burn when placed on a fire. A similar earth is found
at Narni together with an aluminous earth that Pliny writes becomes
drier with rains. Actually the aluminous earths are not washed away
readily by rains as can be observed in certain parts of Hildesheim.
Bituminous
earth is found at Halle in the district occupied by the Hermunduri,
particularly in a pit to the south and near Satelum, Elbo-ganum. Earths
containing acrid juices, chrysocolla, aerugo, and caeruleum are found in gold, silver, and copper mines while earths containing realgar and orpiment are found in characteristic veins.
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