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NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
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CHEYSOCOLLA: Native Verdigris.
The mineral
which still retains its ancient title is a carbonate of copper,
sometimes opaque, sometimes translucent, and hard as quartz. The
ancients obtained the best quality from the copper-mines ; an inferior,
from those of gold. It was also prepared artificially by steeping the
ore during the entire winter, and evaporating the liquid by the summer
heat (Plin. xxxiii. 26). The best came from Armenia, the second quality
from Macedonia, but the chief supply was drawn from Spain. It was used
in painting, and is reckoned amongst those " florid " colours which on
account of their intrinsic value were furnished by the employer, not
by the artist. It entered into the list of medicines, as a caustic
application for wounds, ulcers, sore eyes ; and as an emetic, a very
effectual one certainly, but highly dangerous.
But its principal value was as a solder for gold (whence its name, signifying Gold-cement), for
which purpose it had been employed from the earliest times, being so
mentioned by Theophrastus (26). For this purpose it was steeped in a
little boy's urine, together with verdigris and nitrum, and then rubbed
down in a copper mortar with a copper pestle. This solder the Romans
called Santerna.* Gold
* Either a Punic or Spanish word, as are most of the Roman terms used in metallurgy ; unless from its termination in rna, the Etruscan language, delighting in such endings, has a better claim to it : and
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