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different Openings of the burning Mountains, through which the Flames have made their way: and thoſe made by burning the Lapis[1] Arabicus, a Stone, which when it has paſſed the Fire aſſumes the Form of the Pumice. The
- ↑ In the other Editions of this Author there is the Word Διαβάρου where I have given Ἀραβιοῦ; the former is the Name of no Stone in the World, and the latter of one very aptly placed in this Claſs of Foſſils; and which all the Antients have deſcribed, but this Author no where elſe has the Name of: There is therefore no queſtion but that this was the original Reading, and the common Text, Διαβάρου, no more than an Error which got early into the Copies, and has been ever ſince (as Errors uſually are) carefully and exactly preſerved. This is alſo the Opinion of De Laet, who, however careleſs of this Author in his Liber de Gemmis, yet is a thoughtful and good Critic on him in many Places in his Edition of this Treatiſe.
This Arabicus, or, as it is ſometimes called, Arabus Lapis, is deſcribed alſo by Dioſcorides, Pliny, Iſidorus, &c. as a white Stone, reſembling the pureſt Ivory, which when burnt became ſpungy, porous, and friable; in ſhort, aſſumed the Form of the Pumice; and was uſed, like it, as a Dentrifice. Dioſcorides,
and Texture as its conſtituent Parts diſpoſed it moſt readily to fall into. As to thoſe found floating on the Sea, I have obſerved how hardly the Author has fared about them in De Laet's Hands; but Boetius has yet infinitely more puzzled this Cauſe in regard to him, and ſeems even to have miſunderſtood the Miſunderſtandings of others concerning him; for he tells us, L. 2. p. 400, ſpeaking of the Pumice in general, Ἁλκυόνιον a Theophraſto vocari putant, quod e marina ſpuma coactus ſit: And this is one of the many Inſtances in which this good old Writer is ſo ſtrangely miſrepreſented, that it is impoſſible, from the Accounts of others, to make the leaſt Gueſs at what he has left us. The very Word Ἁλκυόνιον is no where to be found in this whole Book; and what he is generally charged with is, not the calling the Pumice Alcyonium, as this Author imagines; but the Alcyonium a Pumice: And even that Accuſation, we ſee, from a careful Review of his own Words, is wholly groundleſs and erroneous.
