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Cyanus, Lazulite

Cyanus, Lazulite Page of 453 Agates, Jet Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
188
CYANUS.
duced by fusing together during two hours 15 parts carbonate of soda, 20 powdered flint, and 3 of copper-filings, yielding thus the true artificial Cyanos of the Greek mineralogist.
There can be no doubt that the Cyanos of the earlier Greeks was the mineral known to Pliny as Armenium : both names being mere epithets, the first denoting its colour (blue), the second its native country. " Armenia supplies the paint called by its own name. It is a stone coloured like the Chrysocolla, and the best quality, that which approximates nearest to that mineral, yet sharing that colour with a sky-blue. It is usually priced at 12 denarii per pound. That found in Spain is in the form of sand, but is prepared for use in the same manner. The cheapness of this brings it down to 6 denarii. It differs from Azure (Cajruleum) by reason of a slight tinge of whiteness, which renders this colour more soft. Its sole use in medicine is for promoting the growth of hair, especially of the eyelashes " (xxxv. 28).
But by a curious oversight Pliny has (xxxiii. 57) applied the exact words of the same chapter of Theophrastus describing the Cyanos to his paint, Cieruleum, for, after stating that it is found in silver-mines in the form of sand, he adds : " Of old times there were three kinds of it,—the Egyptian the most esteemed ; the Scythian ; this is easily dissolved, and in grinding up divides itself into four shades — a lighter, a darker, a thicker and a thinner —to the latter the Cyprian is even now preferred. To these are now added the Spanish, and that from Puteoli, for they have begun to manufacture it in those places. It is all, however, stained and boiled with a peculiar plant until it imbibes the colour : afterwards it is treated like the Chrysocolla. The test of the purity of Casruleum is for it to blaze if thrown upon hot coals ; the false kind is made by mixing the water in which dried violets have been boiled with Eretrian chalk. The effect of Casruleum in medicine is to cleanse ulcers, on which account it enters into the composition of certain ointments." All which notices go to prove that the base of the several blues of the Romans was Sulphate of Copper under various forms.
Cyanus, Lazulite Page of 453 Agates, Jet
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