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and to have ſuffered Changes by means of Fire, as [1]Sandarach, Orpiment, and others of that Kind; all of them, however, plainly ſpeaking, owe their preſent Form to the Exhalation of their more humid Parts; and theſe, in particular, ſeem to have been dried, and, as it were, ſmoaked, They are found in Mines of Gold and Silver, and ſome in thoſe of Copper alſo.
XC. Of this kind are [2]Orpiment,
- ↑ Orpiment and Sandarach have been ſpoken of in general already; they are found in different Degrees of Purity and Beauty: In ſome Places, inſtead of the fine foliaceous Flakes, or ſhining Glebes, in which they are dug in Mines, they are taken up impure, ill-coloured, and in form of a coarſe Powder; the yellow looking more like dirty Fragments of common Brimſtone, and the red like duſty Pieces of a bad Bole, than like what they really are. Theſe are, however, purchaſed by our Painters for Cheapneſs; and they ſay, with proper Management, make as good Colours as the finer Pieces; though, in their Barrels, they look more like Aſhes than the beautiful Subſtances they really are. Theſe come from ſome Part of Germany. And if the Orpiments and Sandarachs which happened to come in Theophraſtus's way, were of this Kind, there is nothing ſtrange in his ſuppoſing them to have been acted upon by ſubterranean Fires. We know at preſent ſeven diſtinct Kinds; a plated and ſpangled yellow; a ſpangled red; a ſolid red: and a yellow, a green, and a white of theſe coarſer kinds. All the yellow are red when burnt: but thoſe here named are red naturally.
- ↑ The Ochre here meant is the common yellow Kind. A Confirmation that the ἀῤῥενικὸν of the Antients was Orpiment, and not a white Arſenick, as ſome have erroneouſly judged, is this Paſſage of this Author, where he ſays, It is, when powdered, of the Colour of the yellow Ochre.
The Yellow Ochre of many Parts of this
