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Topazius, Peridot

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TOPAZIUS.
339
of the army of Alexander. When he with his host had pene­trated into the Land of Darkness, where flows the Green Foun­tain of Life, a voice was heard that the gravel under their feet, green from the reflexion of the fountain, was the ' Gravel of Eepentance ' (Hassbaen. Medamet). When they returned to the light they found this voice verified ; for both they that had picked up this gravel repented, and they that had picked up none : the former, because they had got nothing but Chrysolites (instead of Emeralds) ; the latter, because they had got nothing at all. Hence is it called the ' Stone of Eepentance.' "
Epiphanius relates a curious notion as to his Topazius, which he strangely makes a gem red of colour beyond the Carbuncle, ·' that if rubbed down upon a physician's hone it does not give out a red juice in accordance with its own colour, but one like milk, and fills as many cups as he that rubs it down may choose, and yet loses nothing at all of its original weight. This juice is a remedy for all diseases of the eyes, and, taken internally, for the dropsy ; and is an antidote against the poison of the ' marine grape.' "3
The modern Topaz is a totally distinct substance from the Topazius ; being a combination of alumina and silica with fluoric acid, extremely hard (reaching 8 on the scale, while the latter only 6), highly electric, and of a vinous orange colour, without any admixture Of green. Those used in jewelry come from Brazil. An inferior kind is found in Saxony. It is needless to add that it was totally unknown to the ancients, or to the medi­aeval writers even as late as De Boot, whose Topaz is either the Oriental yellow Corundum or the large Bohemian yellow Crystals.
As early as the 11th century we find Marbodus describing as the Chrysolithus, the stone now known by that name, Pliny's Chrysopterus. lie also divides the Topazius into two kinds : one
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