Calamy, Lapis Calaminaris, or Cadmia Foliflora, a sort of stone or mineral, containing zinc, iron, and sometimes other substances. It is considerably heavy, and the more so the better; moderately hard and brittle, or of a concretion between stone and earth; the colour is sometimes whitish or grey; sometimes yellowish, or of a deep yellow; sometimes red; sometimes brown or blackish. It is plentiful in several places of Europe, as Hungary, Transylvania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Bohemia, Saxony, Goslar, France, and England, particularly in Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Somersetshire, as also in Wales. The calamine of England, however, is by the best judges allowed to be superior in quality to that of most other countries. It seldom lies very deep, being chiefly found in clayey grounds near the surface. In some places it is mixed with lead-ores. It is the only true ore of zinc, and is used as an ingredient in making of brads.—Newmann relates various experiments with this mineral, the only result of which was to show that it contained iron as well as zinc. The most remarkable are the following. A saturated solution of calamine in the marine acid, concentrated by evaporating part of the liquor, exhibits in the cold an appearance of fine crystals, which on the application of warmth dissolve and disappear. A little of this concentrated solution tinges a large quantity of water of a bright yellow colour; and at the same time deposits by degrees a fine, spongy, brownish precipitate. Glue dissolved in this solution, and afterwards precipitated, forms an extremely flippery tenacious mass, which does not become dry, and, were it not too expensive, might be of use for entangling flies, caterpillars, &c. Sulphur boiled in the solution seems to acquire some degree of transparency.—This mineral is an article in the materia medica; but, before it comes to the shops, is usually roasted or calcined, in order to separate some arsenical or sulphureous matter which in its crude state it is supposed to contain, and to render it more easily reducible into a fine powder. In this state it is employed in collyria against fluxions of thin acrid humours upon the eyes, for drying up moist running ulcers, and healing excoriations. It is the basis of an officinal epulotic Cerate. Though the lapis calaminaris is the only native ore of zinc, there is another substance from which that semi-metal is also obtained. This is called cadmia fornacum, or cadmia of the furnaces, to distinguish it from the other. This is a matter sublimed when ores containing zinc, like those of Rammelsberg, are melted. This cadmia consists of the flowers of the semi-metal sublimed during the fusion, and adhering to the inner surfaces of the walls of furnaces, where they suffer a semi-fusion, and therefore acquire some solidity. So great a quantity of these are collected, that they form very thick incrustations, which must be frequently taken off. The name of cadmia of the furnaces has also been given to all the roots and metallic sublimes formed by melting in the great, although there is certainly a difference in these matters.