a sort of native fossil stone, which may be split into threads and filaments, from one inch to ten inches in length, very fine, brittle, yet somewhat tractable, silky, and of a greyish colour, not unlike tale of Venice. It is almost insipid to the taste, indissoluble in water, and endowed with the wonderful property of remaining unconsumed in the fire, which only whitens it. There are some sorts of asbestos whose whose filaments are rigid and brittle; others more flexible.

The industry of mankind has found a method of working this untoward mineral, and employing it in divers manufactures, chiefly cloth and paper. The manufacture is undoubtedly difficult enough. Pliny calls the asbestos inventum rarum, textu difficilissimum. Wormius affirms us, that the method of making cloth of asbestos is now entirely unknown. And indeed one would scarce imagine the thing practicable, without the mixture of some other plant matter, as wool, hemp, or flax, along with the asbestos, the filaments of this latter appearing too coarse and brittle to make any tolerable fine work. However this be, Bapt. Porta affirms us, that in his time the spinning of asbestos was a thing known to everybody at Venice. Sig. Cagagnatta, superintendent of some mines in Italy, is said to have carried the manufacture to such perfection, that his asbestos was soft and tractable, much resembling lamb-skin dressed white: he could thicken and thin it at pleasure, and thus either make it into a very white skin or a very white paper.

This kind of linen cloth was chiefly esteemed by the ancients; though then better known and more common than among us, being held equally precious with the richest pearls: nor is it now of mean value, even in the country where it is most generally made, a China cover (i.e., a piece of 23 inches and three-quarters long) being worth 80 tale, i.e., L. 36:13:4. Pliny says, he himself had seen napkins thereof, which, being taken foul from the table after a feast, were thrown into the fire, and by that means were better scoured than if they had been washed in water, &c. But its principal use, according to Pliny, was for the making of shrouds for royal funerals, to wrap up the corpse, so that the ashes might be preserved distinct from those of the wood, &c. Whereof the funeral pile was composed: and the princes of Tartary, according to the accounts in the Philosophical Transactions, still use it at this day in burning their dead. Some of the ancients are said to have made themselves clothes of it, particularly the Brachmans among the Indians. The wicks for their perpetual lamps, according to Dr Lister, were also made of it: some to this day use it for the wicks of such lamps as they would not have any trouble with; because the asbestos never wasting, there is no occasion for shifting the wick. Septalla, canon of Milan, had thread, ropes, nets, and paper, made of the asbestos. A handkerchief or pattern of this linen was long since presented to the Royal Society, a foot long and half a foot broad. This gave two proofs of its resisting fire; though, in both experiments, it lost above three drams in its weight. When taken out red-hot, it did not burn a piece of white paper on which it was laid. Mr Villette pretends that his large burning concave usually vitrifies the asbestos.

The method of preparing the incombustible paper and cloth is thus described by Cianpini: The stone is laid to soak in warm water; then opened and divided by the hands, that the earthy matter may be washed out. The ablation being several times repeated, the flax-like filaments are collected and dried; and they are most conveniently spun with an addition of flax. Two or three filaments of the asbestos are easily twisted along with the flaxen thread, if the operator's fingers are kept oiled. The cloth also, when woven, is asbestos preferred by oil from breaking or wasting. On exposure to the fire, the flax and the oil burn out, and the cloth remains pure and white. Probably from the dilution of some extraneous matter of this kind proceeded the diminution of weight in the handkerchief just recited; for pure asbestos leaves nothing. The shorter filaments which separate in washing the stone may be made into paper in the common manner.

The asbestos is found in Crete and Cyprus; in Tartary; at Namur in the Low Countries; in Thuringia among the mines; in the Old Noricum; in Egypt; in the mountains of Arcadia; at Puteoli; in the island of Corfu; in the island of Anglesey in Wales; in Aberdeenshire in Scotland; at Montaubon in France; and in the kingdom of Siberia.