IO BOLES.

It is a most pure and valuable Earth, of a very considerable weight, and a closecompact texture, it is indeed the hardest of all the Boles : in colour it is of strong butsomewhat yellowish red, much approaching to that of saffron in the cake ; of a sur-face the least smooth or glofly of all the Boles, difficult to be broken, and some-thing staining the fingers in handling; it is not easily diffusible in water, but in smallpieces melts readily enough in the mouth, with a manifestly Astringent taste, and notthe least grittyness; apply’d to the tongue it adheres very firmly to it, and whenmoist looks much darker than before.

Examin’d by the Microscope it appears of a regular but rough surface, and evenfirm texture.

It makes not the least effervescence with Acids, and in burning acquires a darkercolour with little or no additional hardness, but in a great fire is converted into a deepgreen clear glass.

It is dug in great abundance in the north east parts of Armenia, where it never liesvery deep, and often appears on the surface: The strata of it are often six, seven, oreight foot thick, and the Bole is always of the deepest colour at the bottom, andpaler toward the top, tho’ never degenerating into white or yellow, but constantlykeeping its saffron colour in different degrees to the very top.

It is a very excellent Astringent, and has been ever accounted good in the plague,malignant fevers, dysenteries, spitting of blood and Haemorrhages of all kinds, but itis seldom or never to be found genuine in our shops.

I have already observ’d, that not this, but the yellow Bole of Armenia, was thetrue Armenian Bole of Galen, for that author first brought it into use among thephysicians, and made it known to the world as a medicine. It has indeed been fup-pos’d by some eminent critics, That Dioscorides, tho' he knew no other Earth un-der the name oigpeviov, but the Lapis Armenus us’d as a blue in painting ; yet wasacquainted with an Armenian Bole, tho’ not under that name: This they infer fromhis having mentioned two kinds of Grpiment, one of which they are willing toimagine was this Armenian Earth; but Reason will teach us to dissent from them inthis particular; and surely it cannot be possible on a strict examination of thatwhole sentence, to think that the Author cou’d have had any substance of thiskind in his eye. After having given an excellent description of Orpiment, and onethat ffiews he was well acquainted with that Fossil in all its purity; he adds, thatthere are properly two kinds of it, one the pure one he had just before describ’d, andthe other form’d into irregular glebes, in figure resembling the lumps of Ochre, andin colour approaching to Sandarach, his words are, Ij-i / dv™ e’t'fa <Suo to /E om zrgoeto o\ t« xfo'a oWaf«>ci£ov. If it were possible indeed to conceive Dioscorides here

meant any Bole Armenic at all, one wou’d be ready to acknowledge the red one,describ’d in this chapter to have been the substance; for it is evident what is trulythe Armenian Bole of the antients, cou’d have no title to the of

this Sentence : but surely it is impossible to be the case, that an author who had justbefore given so excellent a description of Orpiment, and prov’d he so well knew thenature of that body, ssiou’d think a pure genuine Earth a kind of it; and indeed, ifwe look a little farther into the text, we shall find yet more reason to conclude hecou’d mean no such substance, for he sums up his account of Orpiments withoutexcluding this kind, by saying they wou’d take fire in burning, and even flame; thingsequally certain in Orpiments, and impossible in Earths ; and that they were Corrosive,Styptic and Escharotic. I need not say, that it was impossible so accurate ajudge as Dioscorides, cou’d suppose a simple Earth cou’d possess these qualities, or addthat, since it is evident that he no where, except it be in this place, mentions theArmenian Bole of later ages, it is evident he knew it not.

Notwithstanding, however, that the true Armenian Bole was never written of tillthe time of Galen, the Earth described in this chapter, and which we have erroneouslysince learned to call Armenian Bole, it is evident was known much earlier, even in theDays of Theophrastus; but that not as a medicine, or under the name of Bole Armenic,but as a thing useful to mechanics, and called the Lemnian Reddle <^> M^tx, asubstance known to all the old authors, but carefully distinguished by them from the Lem-nian Earth, the r« Xnpvtx as that was call’d by way of distinction, and never us’d inmedicine. The true history of Bole Armenic therefore appears to be this, that Galenfound it a yellow Earth, and introduced it with great success into the practice of physic,

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