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Blood-ſtone, which is of a denſe, ſolid Texture, dry, or, according to its Name, ſeeming as if form'd of concreted Blood: There is alſo another Kind of it, called Xanthus, which is not of the Colour of the former, but of a yellowiſh White, which Colour the Dorians call Xanthus.
LXVII. To theſe may be added[1]
- ↑ The Nature and Origin of Coral has been as much conteſted as any one Point in natural Knowledge; the Moderns can neither agree with the Antients about it, nor with one another: And there are at this Time, among the Men of Eminence in theſe Studies, ſome who will have it to be of the vegetable, others of the mineral, and others of the animal Kingdom. It were eaſy to overthrow all that has been advanced, as to its belonging to the mineral Kingdom, but that there is not Room here for all one could wiſh to ſay. As no one, however, has been at more Pains to prove it of mineral Origin than our own Dr. Woodward, it may not be amiſs here, in few Words, to defend Theophraſtus's φύεται ἐν θαλάττῃ, againſt that Gentleman's Hypotheſis: and ſhew, as it evidently is ſo, that Theophraſtus was in the right, in determining that it was an organized Body; and conſequently the Doctor miſtaken, in imagining it to have been formed in the manner of Foſſils. And this I promiſe myſelf may be done even from his own Account. It
Ethiopian, which was the moſt eſteemed, and probably meant by the firſt Kind mentioned here, was of the ſame Nature with ours. The Xanthus or Xuthus, ξȣθὸς, here mentioned afterwards, was that which was afterwards called Elatites: It was naturally of a pale, yellowiſh Colour, but became red, as all ferrugineous Bodies do by burning.
Our Hæmatites is ſometimes of a plain ſtriated Texture, and ſometimes has its Surface riſing very beautifully into globular Tubera, or Inequalities, reſembling Cluſters of large Grapes. It is found in Spain, Italy, Germany, England, and elſewhere: That of our own Kingdom is very rich in Iron, ſome of it yielding 1220 of that Metal, and running into a malleable Iron on the firſt Fuſion.
