Note 13 — BOOK XII.

Inasmuch as pyrites is discussed in the next paragraph, the material of the first distillation appears to be native sulphur. Until the receiving pots became heated above the melting point of the sulphur, the product would be "flowers of sulphur," and not the wax-like [Pg 579]product. The equipment described for pyrites in the next paragraph would be obviously useful only for coarse material.

But little can be said on the history of sulphur; it is mentioned often enough in the Bible and also by Homer (Od. XXII., 481). The Greeks apparently knew how to refine it, although neither Dioscorides nor Pliny specifically describes such an operation. Agricola says (De Nat. Fos., 220): "Sulphur is of two kinds; the mineral, which the Latins call vivum, and the Greeks apyron, which means 'not exposed to the fire' (ignem non expertum) as rightly interpreted by Celsius; and the artificial, called by the Greeks pepyromenon, that is, 'exposed to the fire.'" In Book X., the expression sulfur ignem non expertum frequently appears, no doubt in Agricola's mind for native sulphur, although it is quite possible that the Greek distinction was between "flowers" of sulphur and the "wax-like" variety.