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is from the Country a little above Epheſus; it is but in ſmall Quantities, and is had only from one Place. It is only a Sand, ſhining like Scarlet, which they collect, and rub to a very fine Powder, in Veſſels of Stone only; and afterwards waſh in other Veſſels of Braſs, or ſometimes of Wood: What ſubſides they go to work on again, rubbing it and waſhing it as before. And in this Work there is much Art to be uſed; for from
theirs, as well as ours, was a denſe heavy mineral Subſtance, of a ſhining red Colour; from which Quickſilver was extracted. This Subſtance was alſo called Minium. In After-times, becoming ſubject to Adulterations with Lead Ore calcined to a Redneſs, after the two Names had long-been uſed in common, the Word Minium became at laſt appropriated to the calcined Lead Ore only; and the Cinnabar was uſed only to ſignify what we now underſtand by it, the Subſtance from which Quickſilver was to be extracted.
The Word Cinnabar κιννάβαρι, however, among the old Writers in Medicine, frequently is uſed to ſgnify a Thing of a very different Kind, a vegetable Juice, called by us Dragons-blood; and long idly believed to be really the Blood of Dragons. This generally was, however, called Κιννάβαρι Ἰνδικὸν, from its Country, to diſtinguiſh it from the other, or mineral Cinnabar, γίνεται δὲ ἐν ἀυτῇ καὶ Κιννάβαρι τὸ λεγόμενον, Ἰνδικὸν ἀπ` τῶν δένδρων ὡς δάκρυ συναγόμενον, Dioſcorides.
This Cinnabar they therefore knew as a perfectly diſtinct Subſtance, though called by the ſame Name. And the mineral native Cinnabar, the Thing here ſpoken of, was, we find, a hard ſtony Subſtance: Ours is a compact weighty Body, found ſometimes pure, and ſometimes incorporated with different other Subſtances, or containing other Subſtances incorporated with it.
The pure Cinnabar is generally of a bright red, ſometimes deeper, ſometimes paler, but
