[ 261 ]
within Houſes. Some Kinds of it are alſo uſed by Painters in their Buſineſs; and by the Fullers, about Cloaths.
CXVI. It is alſo excellent, and ſuperior to all other Things, for making Images; for which it is greatly uſed, and eſpecially in Greece, becauſe of its Pliableneſs and Smoothneſs.
CXVII. Theſe Qualities of the Gypſum, therefore, fit it for theſe and ſuch other Uſes; for it ſeems naturally to have, as it were together, the Heat, and Tenacity of Lime, and the more viſcous Earths. But it poſſeſſes both theſe Qualities in a much ſuperior Degree to either of the others, which have them ſingly; for it acquires, on being moiſtened, a Heat much greater than that of Lime, and is much more tenacious than the moſt viſcous of the Earths.
erroneouſly put for εἰς τὸν οἶνον, and he has tranſlated the Paſſage accordingly; the κονίασω is from the Opinion of Salmaſius, and ſeems to have been the very Meaning of the Author; for having been juſt before mentioning its Uſe on the Outſides of Houſes, and being going on to recount its other various Qualities; there was nothing ſo natural for him to mention next, as its Uſe in ornamenting the inner Parts of them, the very Thing for which it is moſt famous now.
The Gypſum is nothing more than a Selenite,
