Z I M
of Rondelet'ius, and the rionda 7 of the Italians. Aftedty Gen. Pifc. p. 35.
ZIBELLINA, or the Muftela Zib^llina, in zoology, the name of the creature whofe furr is the fable, fo much valued among us.
It is an animal of the weafel-kind, of the fize of a cat, and of a dufky yellow colour, with a mixture of a deep brown ; the anterior part of the head, and the ears, are of a brownifh- grey, and the hairs about its eyes, nofe, and mouth, very long. Ray's Syn. Quad. p. 201.
ZIBETHICUM Animal, in zoology, the name of the creature commonly, butvery improperly, called the civet cat ; for it does not at all belong to the cat kind ; but wholly to that of the dog ; the head and nofe are plainly of the figure of the dog's; and the figure, number, and difpofition of the teeth, are plainly the fame as in the wolf, fox, and dog. Its colour varies very much ; its more ufual one, however, is that of a pale grey, variegated with long black ftreaks, though in the females it is often yellowifh, and fometimes whitilh, and the fpots black and round, like thofe of the leopard, or cat of mountain.
The whole (hape of the creature approaches to that of the wolf or dog ; its fnout is long and fmall ; its ears are final! and roundifh ; its hairs are like thofe of the badger, but very felt. It body is thick and fle/hy, and fomething rcfunblcs the fhape of a hog's; its feet are fmall, and its legs very fhort. The bags which contain the civet are placed between the anus and pudenda, and arc found equally in the males and females ; but in the male they are twice as large as in the female } they have a large cavity in their internal part, and their orifice is fmall and cartilaginous. The perfumed liquor which is found in thefe bags, feems to be fecreted from a number of glands, which lie between the two (kins, of which they are com- posed. See Tab. of Quadrupeds, N°. 16. It is remarkable, that in this creature, as in the badger, its nofe and belly are black, whereas in almoft all other animals thefe parts are either whitilh, or much paler than the reft. Thefe creatures copulate backwards. Ray's Syn. Quad.
p. 178-
Z1BIBI/E, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome authors to a large fort of raifms, refcmbling the ftones of dates in {hape ; they have much pulp, butvery little moirture.
ZICCARA, a name of an Indian fruit, refcmbling a pine-cone, and containing twenty, thirty, or more, kernels, of no known ■ufe in medicine.
ZIORACH, in natural hiftory, the name given by Cuba, and fome other authors, to that fpecies of the fyngnathus of Ar- tedi, commonly called the hippocampus.
ZIBTUS, in ichthyology, a name given by Albertus to the xi- pbias, or fword-fifh.
ZIGER, a word ufed by fome of the old writers, to exprefs a very fine kind of caffia, extremely aromatic to the tafte, and of a purplifh black in colour.
ZIGURELLA, in zoology, the name by which fome have cal- led the julis, a fmall but very beautiful fifh, common about Genoa, and in fome degree approaching to the nature of the turdus or wrafte. Witlughby, Hift. Pile. p. 324. See the article Julis.
It is a fpecies of the labrus, according to Artedi, and is dt- flingiuihed by the name of the palmar is labrus, with two large teeth in the upper jaw. See the article Labrus.
ZlMENT-fP^ater, or CoppER-Water, in natural hiftory, the name by which fome have called water found in places where there are copper-mines, and lightly impregnated with particles of that metal.
The moft famous fpring of this kind is about a mile di- ftantfrom Newfol in Hungary, in the great copper-mine cal- led by the Germans, herrn grundt. It is not eafy to fay at what time thefe waters were difcovered, fiuce there is no au- thentic account of it. Kircher, Brown, Toll, and others, mention them as well known in their times ; but it is probable that they were not difcovered in the days of Agricola, fmce he no where makes the leaft mention of them ; and it is not probable that fo great a curiofity, and that lb immediately in his own way, would have efcaped him, if known at that time, efpecially as he has commemorated the like virtue in the Schmolnich waters, much lefs famous for it, and of much lefs power than thofe of Newfol. The water in this mine is found at different depths, and is received into bafons, for thepurpofe of feparating the copper from it : in fome of thefe it is much more highly fated with this metal than in others, and will make the fuppofed change of iron into that metal much fooner. The moil: common pieces of iron ufed in the experiments, are horfe-fhoes, nails, and the like j and they are found very lit- tle altered in fhape, after the operation, except that their fur- faces are more railed. Philof. Tranf. N 3 , 479. p. 355. The water which performs this wonderful change, appears greenifh in the bafons where it ftands; but if a glafs of it be taken up, it looks clear as cryftal : it has no fmell, but has a very ftrong vitriolic and aftringent tafte, infomuch that the lips and tongue are bliftered and fcorched on taftino- it. The people who tafte this water do not perceive the effecT: upon their lips, while they are in the mine, otherwife than by a
Z I M
gentle itching ; but as fdon as they come into the open air, the places where it has touched begin to fwell, and matter is at length found in puftules in them.
There is great difference however in the ftrength of the Water, at different times, both as to its burning; ths lips, and its power upon the iron ; when the fprings yield but a fmall quantity, it is always much the ftrongeft ; but when there
very large ftream of them, they are always
flows ;
languid and' weak. The caverns in winch the bafons are placed to receive this water, are of no offenfive fmell ; and what appears fomewhat fingular, are free from vitriol* which abounds fo much in other parts of the mine. There are no cryftals, nor filaments of it, feen on the walls ; and the ftones, which are in other places blue with the admix- ture of it in their granules, are here white, frqm its abfence. This is probably owing to the humidity of the air in thefe places, which wafhes away all' the panicles of that fait, and carries them to parts of the mine, where they may concrete more eafily.
T he lides of the caverns near the floor or bottom, very often afford-a yellowifh earthy fubftance of a foliated texture, re- fembling ifiugla/s, and of an infipid tafte. The miners are well acquainted with the virtues of this wa- ter, in changing the metals \ but they alfo ufe it as a me- dicine ; whatever ficknefs they are feized with, they firft at- tempt its cure by a large dofe of this water, which ufually both vomits and purges them very brifkly. They alfo ufe it in- diforders of the eyes, in fome of which it muft be of great power ; but in others, it is very impro- per; fo that upon the whole, they do more harm than food with it. °
The copper produced from thefe waters is valued by the people much beyond any other copper, as bemg much more dudtilc, and running eafier in the fire, the people in the neighbourhood have many veffels of it ; but it h to be ob- ferved, that its ductility and hardnefs grow after it is taken out of the water ; for, while immerfed in it, it is fflable.
It is obferved, that after great rains the fprings are always fuller than at other times, and the virtues of the water con- fiderably lefs.
A pound of this water when flrongeft being evaporated over a gentle fire becomes firft turbid and cloudy, and afterwards depofits a yellowifh fediment, when evaporated to drinefs. This fediment is found to weigh two fcruples and a half and when warm water is poured upon this and afterwards filtred, there will be left about fix grains of yellowifh earth in the filtre ; and the greenifh foiution being again evapo- rated to a pellicle, and this repeated feveral times, fomewhat more than two fcruples of a bluifh -green vitriol will be fe- parated in fmall cryftals.
A fmall quantity of oil of tartar being added to a pound of this water, the whole becomes turbid, and on filtration, leaves a large reiiduum in the filtre ; this when dried will be found to weigh about two fcruples and a half, and to be a cupre- ous vitriol with a very fmall admixture of a neutral fait. Finally, if a pint of this water be put into a bottle, and a fmall piece of iron thrown into it, fome bubbles will be im- mediately found (landing on the iron, and it will be by de- grees changed to a copper colour ; the fecond day will fhew the water confiderably turbid, and it will afterwards look whitiih, and white filaments will gather about the bottom and fides of the glafs, and about the iron, which by that time will look throughout of a coppery colour. From thefe experiments we may eafily underftand what the true nature of the water is, that it contains a large quantity of the vitriol of copper, which it probably owes to a foiu- tion of that metal, by means of the acid of the common pyrites and water ; when this is known, the effects are not difficultly accounted for, there being no real change of one metal into another; but the true ftate of the cafe beino- that the particles of one metal are difiblved and carried away, and thofe of another metal depofited in their place : A wa- ter thus impregnated is a menftruum capable of difTolving iron, and in the foiution of that metal becomes fo weak- ned as to let go the copper it before contained, in fmall parcels. This is feen to be the cafe, by examining the changed met:*! while it lies in the water,' the copper then appearing not a foft malleable and even mafs,. but a cono-e- ries of granules clofely placed together, and refemblin°- the fmall granules or ova in the fpawn of fifties ; and it is very- friable and fragile while in this ftate.
This foiution of one metal and depofttion of the particles of another in its place, is a thing very familiar in chemiftry, and is ken ever}' day in numerous inftances ; but in none fo familiar as in a like cafe, or foiution of iron and of cop- per in the fame menftruum. Thus, if a piece of copper be dilfolved in aqua fortis, and when this foiution is perfected ' a piece of iron be thrown into the liquor, the fame thing will be feen that is in this fpring, for the iron will be dii- folved, and the copper which was before difiblved in the menftruum will be ilowly precipitated and depofited in the place of it.
This
