126 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS METALS, &c.
but
obtained the pigment. This was in a silver-mine at Ephesus. But when
Pliny wrote, Minium was brought to Rome only from Sisapon in Bœtioa
(Almaden) : the mine being the property of the State. The ore was not
allowed to be prepared on the spot, but brought in sealed packages to
Borne, where it was ground and washed ; and the price fixed by law to
70 sesterces (17-1/2 denarii) the pound weight. As much* as 2000
lbs. were annually exported from Spain. This kind was exclusively used
as a pigment : an inferior sort, the Secundarium, found in the same
mines, only assumed a vermilion colour after it had been roasted : this
was used for adulterating the native Minium, and also for making
Hydrargyrum (see Gilding). This was extracted in two ways ; either by the toet process, by pounding the Minium in a bronze mortar with a pestle of the same metal ; or by sublimation, being
placed in an iron saucer (concha) inside an earthen pot, having a top
carefully luted down : then a fire being made under the pot and blown
with bellows, the Quicksilver sweated in drops through the pores of the
earthen covering, and was wiped oif and collected.
The
Stimmi or Stibium met with in the silver-mines, " like a froth, and
bright white," of two kinds, the male and female—the former rougher and
lighter and more sandy in texture, the latter brighter and full of
cracks— was our Sulphuret and Oxide of Antimony, which, on the same
account, the Germans term Spiess-glass or Bod-glass.
