bottom is cinnabar, and the washings are what remains above in larger quantities.
The Greek phrase ev προς h> άλείψοντε? is somewhat obscure; the verb would normally mean "anointing," and here it seems to mean "wetting." But it is clear that the process involved successive washings and that it was a method of separating pure cinnabar from its impurities that depended upon the difference in their specific gravities. The specific gravity of pure cinnabar is slightly over eight, whereas the specific gravity of the gangue in which it is usually found is less than three. Therefore, when the crude mineral that had been ground was suspended in water, the cinnabar setded more rapidly than the impurities, which by skillful manipulation could be poured off with the water. The mineral had to be ground thoroughly before it was washed; this released the cinnabar enmeshed in the gangue and reduced all the material to particles of approximately the same size, so that sharp separation would occur on washing.
As the earliest account of the process of separating a pure mineral from its associated impurities, this description of the method used at the cinnabar mines near Ephesos is of considerable historical interest.
59. They say that Kallias, an Athenian from the silver mines, discovered and demonstrated the method of preparation.
Pliny,457 who is quoting Theophrastus at this point, makes it appear that Kallias' discovery was made at the silver mines in Attica, and apparently because of this incorrect quotation some have assumed that the process of separating pure cinnabar from the crude ore was discovered at the Laurion silver mines, or that it was discovered there and then used for the treatment of local ore. But neither die wording of this passage in Theophrastus nor the geological facts warrant either of these assumptions. Cinnabar does not occur now in the Laurion mining district, nor is there any evidence that it ever did occur there. Moreover, Theophrastus is obviously still speaking of the refining process used at the cinnabar mines near Ephesos. It is far more likely that Kallias, as
*"xxxm, 113.
