death of perhaps fourscore persons, as these ptomaines are the deadliest poisons known to science.
Resuming
our consideration of the Jasper varieties, these are many, and charming
: red, yellow, green, and variegated, often offering strange accidental
combinations to the artist; the most remarkable of all, perhaps, being
in the profile of Louis XVI—with a blood-red crescent streak right
across the throat. Furthermore, there are the Feldspars ; the
Chrysolite ; the Chymo-phane, very lovely, but not much used ; the
Chryso-beryl; Jet, which is only a variety of coal; and Coral, which is
only carbonate of lime built up as the house, and home of a small
polypus. This Coral we shall discuss more at length in future pages.
Likewise as to Amber, which appertains to the same group of Quartzes,
formerly Amber was believed to be the tears of some defunct sea-bird,
or exudations from the heated earth, or honey from the mountains of
Ajan, melted by the sun, and congealed by the sea ; notions, which
whilst fanciful, and poetic, are now quite discredited, Amber being
accepted as an honest resin, light, electric, and attractive of hue.
Other belongings to the same group (of Jaspers) are the Malachite, a
bright green carbonate of copper, with soft green velvet-green
veinings, in the richest play of line and marking; whilst another such
member is the Lapis-Lazuli, composed of alumina, silica, and sulphur;
making as a pigment the painter's heaven of ultra-marine.
THE TURQUOISE.
Finally, as belonging to the same group, notice directs itself to the Turquoise ; waxen blue, and so
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