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CXI. Gypſum is produced in great Quantities in the Iſland of Cyprus[1], where it lies open, and eaſy to be diſcovered, and come at, the Workmen having but very little Earth to take
- ↑ The Cyprian Gypfſum here mentioned I account a different kind from the Tymphean, and to be, indeed, the true genuine Gypſum made from the talcy Subſtance before mentioned. Pliny ſeems to favour this Diviſion of the Gypſums into three Kinds, where he ſays, lib. 36. c. 23. Cognata Calci res Gypſum eft; plura ejus genera. Nam e Lapide coquitur, ut in Syria ac Thuriis: & e terra foditur, ut in Cypro & Perrhibæis, e ſumma tellure & Tymphaïcum eſt. And according to this, the three Kinds before diſtinguiſhed may be called the Tymphæan, Cyprian, and Syrian. The Tymphæan is the earthy one already deſcribed, which might, very probably, be found near the Surface, as being truly an Earth, not a Stone. The ſecond is the true genuine Gypſum, made from the Talc, or Lapis Specularis, called alſo, for that Reaſon, Metallum Gypſinum. And the third, the Kind made from the Alabaſters and other Stones of a ſimilar Texture.
That this Cyprian Gypſum, or the Kind burnt from the Lapis Specularis, or genuine Metallum Gypſinum, was the fineſt and beſt of all the Kinds, we have alſo Pliny's Word, lib.
expreſsly ſays, Græcia pro Cimolia Tymphaïco utitur Gypſo, lib. 36. c. 17.
This therefore, or ſomething like this, muſt be the first of the three principal Gypſums of the Antients; the other two Kinds I ſhall have Occaſion to mention hereafter; but muſt firſt obſerve, in regard to this Paſſage, that it has been ſtrangely corrupted in different Copies; instead of Γίψον, it is in ſeveral Ψύχον; and what I have given Κιμωλίᾳ, from the very judicious Conjecture of De Laet, is in moſt Copies ῆ μόνον. The Uſe of our Fullers-earth about Cloaths, and, in all Probability, that of the Cimolia of the Antients, was the ſame: this is not only that trifling one, of the taking out accidental Spots of Greaſe got in the Wearing, but what is the moſt important of all things in the Woollen Cloth Manufacture, the cleanſing the Pieces of it, at the time of making, from that vaſt Quantity of Greaſe, Tar, and other Filth they are fouled with, from the Tar and Greaſe uſed externally in the Diſorders of the Sheep before ſhorn, and from the Oil neceſſary to be thrown into the Cloth in the working.
