in natural history, bodies which are insipid, not ductile, nor inflammable, nor soluble in water. But as this is the definition given of earths by chemists and naturalists, we must refer the reader to the articles EARTH, and MINERALOGY, Part II. cl. 1. for a view. view of the classification of stones. Here we will only make a few observations concerning their natural history.

As philosophers have perplexed themselves much about the origin and formation of the earth (a subject certainly far beyond the ken of the human intellect, at least if we believe that it was made by the Almighty power of God), so they have also proposed theories to explain the origin of stones. When philosophers limit their inquiries within the boundaries of science, where they are led by the sober and safe conduct of observation and experiment, their conclusions may be solid and may be useful; but when, throwing experiment and observation aside, they rear a theory upon any nothing, or upon a single detached fact, their theories will vanish before the touch of true philosophy as a romantic palace before the rod of the enchanter. Sometimes from whim, or caprice, or vanity, they attempt to confound every thing: They wish to prove that the soul is mere matter, that plants are animals, and that fossils are plants, and thus would banish two substances, spirit and dead matter, entirely from the world; as if the Author of Nature were actuated by fond views of parsimony in the works of creation, though we evidently see that a generous production is one of the characteristic marks of these works. We leave the talk of confounding the different classes of being to those philosophers whose minds are too contracted to comprehend a great variety of being at one view, or who prefer novelty to everything else. We content ourselves with the old opinion, that the soul is a spiritual substance; that plants are plants, and that stones are stones.

We have been led into these remarks by finding that some philosophers say that stones are vegetables; that they grow and increase in size like a plant. This theory, we believe, was first offered to the world by M. Tournefort, in the year 1702, after returning from his travels in the east. It was founded on a curious fact. In surveying the labyrinth of Crete, he observed that the names which visitors had engraved upon the rock were not formed of hollow but of prominent letters like baso relievos. He supposes that these letters were at first hollowed out by knives; that the hollows have since been filled up by the growth of the stone; and hence he concludes that stones vegetate. We wish we were fully assured of the fact that the letters were at first hollowed, before we attempt to account for their promiscuity. But even allowing the supposition to be true that they were at first hollow, we reply it is only a single fact, and that it is altogether unphilosophical to deduce a general system from a single fact.

In the second place, this protuberancy of the character is very improperly called vegetation, for it is not produced by a process in any respect like the vegetation of a plant. Vegetation supposes vessels containing fluids and growth by expansion; but who ever heard of vessels in a stone, of fluids moving in them, or of the different parts expanding and swelling like the branch or trunk of a tree? Even the fact which Tournefort mentions proves nothing. He does not pretend to say, that the rock itself is increasing, but only that a few small hollows are filled with new stony matter, which rises a little above the surrounding surface of the rock. This matter evidently has been once liquid, and at length has congealed in the channel into which it had run.—But is not this easily explained by a common process, the formation of stalactites? When water charged with calcareous matter is exposed to the action of air, the water evaporates, and leaves the calcareous earth behind, which hardens and becomes like a stone.

Having thus examined the principal fact upon which M. Tournefort founds his theory, it is unnecessary to follow him minutely through the rest of his subject.—He compares the accretion of matter in the labyrinth to the consolidation of a bone when broken, by a callus formed of the extravasated nutritious juice. This observation is thought to be confirmed, by finding that the projecting matter of the letters is whitish and the rock itself greyish. But it is easy to find comparisons. The difficulty, as Pope says, is to apply them. The resemblance between the filling up of the hollow of a stone, and the consolidation of a broken bone by a callus, we confess ourselves not philosophers enough to see. Were we writing poetry in bad taste, perhaps it might appear. The circumstance, that the prominent matter of the letters is whitish, while the rock is greyish, we flatter ourselves strengthens our supposition that it consists of a deposition of calcareous matter. Upon the whole, we conclude, we hope logically, that no such theory as this, that stones are vegetables, can be drawn from the supposed fact respecting the labyrinth. We have to regret, that the account which we have seen of the subject is so imperfect, that we have not sufficient materials for a proper investigation. Tournefort has not even told us of what kind of stone or earth the accretion consists; yet this single information would probably have decided the question (a).

(a) To give a more distinct notion of Tournefort's theory, we shall subjoin his conclusions: From these observations (he says) it follows, that there are stones which grow in the quarries, and of consequence that are fed; that the same juice which nourishes them serves to rejoin their parts when broken; just as in the bones of animals, and the branches of trees, when kept up by bandages; and, in a word, that they vegetate. There is, then (he says), no room to doubt but that they are organized; or that they draw their nutritious juice from the earth. This juice must be first filtrated and prepared in their surface, which may be here effected as a kind of bark; and hence it must be conveyed to all the other parts. It is highly probable the juice which filled the cavities of the letters was brought thither from the bottom of the roots; nor is there any more difficulty in conceiving this than in comprehending how the sap should pass from the roots of our largest oaks to the very extremities of their highest branches. Some stones, then (he concludes), must be allowed to vegetate and grow like plants: but this is not all; (he adds), that probably they are generated in the same manner; at least, that there are abundance of stones whose generation is inconceivable, without supposing that they come from a kind of seeds, wherein the organic parts of the stones are wrapped up as those of the largest plants are in their seeds. Artificial Stone. See Stucco.

Elastic Stone. See Elastic Marble.

Philosopher's Stone. See Philosopher's Stone.

Precious Stones. See Gem.

Rocking Stones, or Logan, a stone of a prodigious size, so exactly poised, that it would rock or shake with the smallest force. Of these stones the ancients give us some account. Pliny says, that at Harpala, a town of Asia, there was a rock of such a wonderful nature, that if touched with the finger it would shake, but could not be moved from its place with the whole force of the body. Ptolemy Hephaestion mentions a grygonian stone near the ocean, which was agitated when struck by the stalk of an asphodel, but could not be removed by a great exertion of force. The word grygonus seems to be Celtic; for gwingog signifies molitanus, the rocking-stone.

Many rocking stones are to be found in different parts of this island; some natural, others artificial, or placed in their position by human art. In the parish of St Levan, Cornwall, there is a promontory called Ca-tille Treryn. On the western side of the middle group, near the top, lies a very large stone, so evenly poised that any hand may move it from one side to another; yet it is so fixed on its base, that no lever nor any mechanical force can remove it from its present situation. It is called the Logan-stone, and is at such a height from the ground that no person can believe that it was raised to its present position by art. But there are other rocking stones, which are so shaped and so situated, that there can be no doubt but they were erected by human strength. Of this kind Borlase thinks the great Quoit or Karn-lehou, in the parish of Tywidnek, to be. It is 39 feet in circumference, and four feet thick at a medium, and stands on a single pedestal. There is also a remarkable stone of the same kind in the island of St Agnes in Scilly. The under rock A is 10 feet 6 inches high, 47 feet round the middle, and touches the ground with no more than half its base. The upper rock C rests on one point only, and is so nicely balanced, that two or three men with a pole can move it. It is eight feet six inches high, and 47 in circumference. On the top there is a bason D hollowed out, three feet eleven inches in diameter at a medium, but wider at the brim, and three feet deep. From the globular shape of this upper stone, it is highly probable that it was rounded by human art, and perhaps even placed on its pedestal by human strength. In Sithney parish, near Helston, in Cornwall, stood the famous logan, or rocking stone, commonly called Men Amber, q.d. Men an Bar, or the top-stone. It was eleven feet by five and four high, and so nicely poised on another stone that a little child could move it, and all travellers who came this way desired to see it. But Shrubfall, Cromwell's governor of Pendennis, with much ado caused it to be undermined, to the great grief of the country. There are some marks of the tool on it, and, by its quadrangular shape, it was probably dedicated to Mercury.

That the rocking stones are monuments erected by the Druids cannot be doubted; but tradition has not informed us for what purpose they were intended. Mr Toland thinks that the Druids made the people believe that they alone could move them, and that by a miracle; and that by this pretended miracle they condemned or acquitted the accused, and brought criminals to confess what could not otherwise be extorted from them. How far this conjecture is right we shall leave to those who are deeply versed in the knowledge of antiquities to determine.

Sonorous Stones, a kind of stone remarkable for emitting an agreeable sound when struck, and much used in China for making musical instruments which they call king.

The various kinds of sonorous stones known in China differ considerably from one another in beauty, and in the strength and duration of their tone; and what is very surprising, is, that this difference cannot be discovered either by the different degrees of their hardness, weight, or fineness of grain, or by any other qualities which might be supposed to determine it. Some stones are found remarkably hard, which are very sonorous; and others exceedingly soft, which have an excellent tone; some extremely heavy emit a very sweet sound; and there are others as light as pumice-stone which have also an agreeable sound.

The chemists and naturalists of Europe have never yet attempted to discover whether some of our stones may not have the same properties as the sonorous stones of the extremities of Asia. It however appears, that the Romans were formerly acquainted with a sonorous stone of the clas of biancoche. Pliny (says the Abbé du Bos, in his Reflections on Poetry and Painting, when speaking of curious stones) observes that the stone called chalcophoros, or brazen sound, is black; and that, according to the etymology of its name, it sends forth a sound much resembling that of brass when it is struck. The passage of Pliny is as follows:

Chalchophoros nigra est; sed efla aris tinuitum reddi.

Some sonorous stones were at length sent into France, and the late Duke de Chaulnes examined them with particular attention. The following are some of his observations: "The Academy of Sciences, Mr Romé de Lisle, and several other learned mineralogists, when asked if they were acquainted with the black stone of which the Chinese king was made, for answer cited the passage of Pliny mentioned by Boethius de Bott, Linnaeus, and in the Dictionary of Bomare, and added what Mr Anderson says in his Natural History of Iceland respecting a bluish kind of stone which is very sonorous. As the black stone of the Chinese becomes of a bluish colour when filed, it is probably of the same species. None of the rest who were consulted had ever seen it. The Chinese stone has a great resemblance at first sight to black marble, and like it is calcareous; but marble generally is not sonorous. It also externally resembles touchstone, which is a kind of basaltic, and the basaltes found near volcanos; but these two stones are vitrifications."

The duke next endeavoured to procure some information from the stone-cutters. They all replied, that blue-coloured marble was very sonorous, and that they had seen large blocks of it which emitted a very strong sound; but the duke having ordered a king to be constructed of this kind of stone, it was found that it did not possess that property. By trying the black marble of Flanders, a piece was at length found which emitted an agreeable sound: it was cut into a king, which is almost as sonorous as those of China. All these observations... Stone.

tions give us reason to believe that the stones of which the king are formed are nothing else but a black kind of marble, the constituent parts of which are the same as those of the marble of Europe, but that some difference in their organization renders them more or less sonorous.

Swine-Stone (lapis fulvus), or fetid stone, so called from its excessively fetid smell, calcareous earth impregnated with petroleum. It is found, 1. Solid, with the particles scarcely visible, of a black colour, as the marble does in Flanders, and in the province of Jutland in Sweden. 2. With visible grains of a blackish brown colour, found likewise in some places of Sweden. 3. With coarse scales, found also in Sweden. Great part of the limetones found in England belong to this class, and emit a very fetid smell when struck violently, but it soon goes off in the fire.

Stone Marrow. See Clay, species 4.

Stone-Ware, a species of pottery so called from its hardness. See Delft-Ware, Porcelain, and Pottery.

Clay is a principal ingredient in pottery of all kinds which has the property of hardening in the fire, and of receiving and preserving any form into which it is moulded. One kind of clay resists the most violent action of the fire after being hardened to a certain degree, but is incapable of receiving a sufficient degree of hardness and solidity. A second kind assumes a hardness resembling that of flint, and such a compactness that vessels made of it have a glossy appearance in their fracture resembling porcelain. These two species owe their peculiar properties of resisting heat without melting, to sand, chalk, gypsum or ferruginous earth, which they contain. A third species of clay begins to harden with a moderate fire, and melts entirely with a strong fire. It is of the second species that stone-ware is made.

The most famous manufactory of stone-ware, as well as of other kinds of pottery, is at Burslem in Staffordshire. This can be traced with certainty at least two centuries back; but of its first introduction no tradition remains. In 1686, as we learn from Dr Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire published in that year, only the coarse yellow, red, black, and mottled wares, were made in this country; and the only materials employed for them appear to have been the different coloured clays which are found in the neighbourhood, and which form some of the measures or strata of the coal-mines. These coarse clays made the body of the ware, and the glaze was produced by powdered lead-ore, sprinkled on the pieces before firing, with the addition of a little manganese for some particular colours. The quantity of goods manufactured was at that time so inconsiderable, that the chief sale of them, the Doctor says, was "to poor rate-men, who carried them on their backs all over the country."

About the year 1690, two ingenious artisans from Germany, of the name of Eller, settled near Burslem, and carried on a small work for a little time. They brought into this country the method of glazing stone-ware, by casting salt into the kiln while it is hot, and some other improvements of less importance; but finding they could not keep their secrets to themselves, they left the place rather in disgust. From this time various kinds of stone-ware, glazed by the fumes of salt in the manner above-mentioned, were added to the wares before made. The white kind, which afterwards became, and for many succeeding years continued, the staple branch of pottery, is said to have owed its origin to the following accident. A potter, Mr Astbury, travelling to London, perceived something amiss with one of his horse's eyes; an hoister at Dunstable said he could soon cure him, and for that purpose put a common black flint stone into the fire. The potter observing it, when taken out, to be of a fine white, immediately conceived the idea of improving his ware by the addition of this material to the whitest clay he could procure: accordingly he sent home a quantity of the flint stones of that country, where they are plentiful among the chalk, and by mixing them with tobacco-pipe clay, produced a white stone ware much superior to any that had been seen before.

Some of the other potters soon discovered the source of this superiority, and did not fail to follow his example. For a long time they pounded the flint stones in private rooms by manual labour in mortars; but many of the poor workmen suffered severely from the dust of the flint getting into their lungs, and producing dreadful coughs, consumptions, and other pulmonary disorders. These difficulties, and the increased demand for the flint powder, induced them to try to grind it by mills of various contrivances; and this method being found both effectual and safe, has continued in practice ever since. With these improvements, in the beginning of the present century, various articles were produced for tea and coffee equipages. Soon after attempts were made to furnish the dinner table also; and before the middle of the century, utensils for the table were manufactured in quantity as well for exportation as home consumption.

But the salt glaze, the only one then in use for this purpose, is in its own nature so imperfect, and the potters, from an injudicious competition among themselves for cheapness, rather than excellence, had been so inattentive to elegance of form and neatness of workmanship, that this ware was rejected from the tables of persons of rank; and about the year 1760, a white ware, much more beautiful and better glazed than ours, began to be imported in considerable quantities from France.

This inundation of a foreign manufacture, so much superior to any of our own, must have had very bad effects upon the potteries of this kingdom, if a new one, still more to the public taste, had not appeared soon after. In the year 1763, Mr Josiah Wedgwood, who had already introduced several improvements into this art, invented a species of earthen ware for the table quite new in its appearance, covered with a rich and brilliant glaze, bearing sudden alternations of heat and cold, manufactured with ease and expedition, and consequently cheap, and having every requisite for the purpose intended. To this new manufacture the queen was pleased to give her name and patronage, commanding it to be called Queen's ware, and honouring the inventor by appointing him her majesty's potter.

The common clay of the country is used for the ordinary sorts; the finer kinds are made of clay from Devonshire and Dorsetshire, chiefly from Biddeford; but the flints from the Thames are all brought rough by sea, either to Liverpool or Hull, and so by Burton. There is no conjecture formed of the original rea- son of fixing the manufacture in this spot, except for the convenience of plenty of coals, which abound under all the country.

The flints first are ground in mills, and the clay prepared by breaking, washing, and sifting, and then they are mixed in the requisite proportions. The flints are bought first by the people about the country, and by them burnt and ground, and sold to the manufacturers by the peck.

The mixture is then laid in large quantities on kilns to evaporate the moisture; but this is a nice work, as it must not be too dry; next it is beat with large wooden hammers, and then is in order for throwing, and is moulded into the forms in which it is to remain: this is the most difficult work in the whole manufacture. A boy turns a perpendicular wheel, which by means of thongs turns a small horizontal one, just before the thrower, with such velocity, that it twirls round the lump of clay he lays on it into any form he directs it with his fingers.

There are 300 houses which are calculated to employ, upon an average, twenty hands each, or 6000 in the whole; but of all the variety of people that work in what may be called the preparation for the employment of the immediate manufacturers, the total number cannot be much short of 10,000, and it is increasing every day. Large quantities are exported to Germany, Ireland, Holland, Russia, Spain, the East Indies, and much to America; some of the finest sorts to France.

**Stone in the Bladder.** See Medicine, n° 400. Surgery-Index; and Alkalai, n° 17, 18, 19.

**Stone,** in merchandize, denotes a certain weight for weighing commodities. A stone of beef at London is the quantity of eight pounds: in Herefordshire 12 pounds; in the North 16 pounds. A stone of glaigs is five pounds; of wax eight pounds. A stone of wool (according to the statute of 11 Hen. VII.) is to weigh 14 pounds; yet in some places it is more, in others less; as in Gloucestershire 15 pounds; in Herefordshire 12 pounds. Among horse-couriers a stone is the weight of 14 pounds.

The reason of the name is evident. Weights at first were generally made of stone. See Deut. xxv. 13, where the word "wei," translated "wei," properly signifies a stone.

**Stone-Chatter,** in ornithology. See Motacilla.

**Stonehenge,** a celebrated monument of antiquity, stands in the middle of a flat area near the summit of a hill six miles distant from Salisbury. It is inclosed by a circular double bank and ditch near 30 feet broad, after crossing which we ascend 30 yards before we reach the work. The whole fabric consisted of two circles and two ovals. The outer circle is about 188 feet diameter, consisting when entire of 60 stones, 30 uprights and 30 imposts, of which remain only 24 uprights, 17 standing and 7 down, 3½ feet afurred, and 8 imposts. Eleven uprights have their 5 imposts on them by the grand entrance. These stones are from 13 to 20 feet high. The lesser circle is somewhat more than 8 feet from the inside of the outer one, and consisted of 40 lesser stones (the highest 6 feet), of which only 19 remain, and only 11 standing: the walk between these two circles is 300 feet in circumference. The Adytum or Cell is an oval formed of 10 stones (from 16 to 22 feet high), in pairs, with imposts, which Dr Stukeley calls trilithons, and above 30 feet high, rising in height as they go round, and each pair separate, and not connected as the outer pair; the highest 8 feet. Within these are 19 more smaller single stones, of which only 6 are standing. At the upper end of the Adytum is the altar, a large slab of blue coarse marble, 20 inches thick, 16 feet long, and 4 broad; pressed down by the weight of the vast stones that have fallen upon it. The whole number of stones, uprights, imposts, and altar, is exactly 140. The stones are far from being artificial, but were most probably brought from those called the Grey Weathers on Marlborough Downs, 15 or 16 miles off; and if tried with a tool they appear of the same hardness, grain, and colour, generally reddish. The heads of oxen, deer, and other beasts, have been found on digging in and about Stonehenge; and human bones in the circumjacent barrows. There are three entrances from the plain to this structure, the most considerable of which is from the north-east, and at each of them were raised on the outside of the trench two huge stones with two smaller within parallel to them.

It has been long a dispute among the learned, by what nation, and for what purpose, these enormous stones were collected and arranged. The first account of this structure we meet with is in Geoffrey of Monmouth, who, in the reign of King Stephen, wrote the history of the Britons in Latin. He tells us, that it was erected by the counsel of Merlin the British enchanter, at the command of Aurelius Ambrosius the last British king, in memory of 460 Britons who were murdered by Hengist the Saxon. The next account is that of Polydore Virgil, who says that the Britons erected this as a sepulchral monument of Aurelius Ambrosius. Others suppose it to have been a sepulchral monument of Boadicea the famous British Queen. Inigo Jones is of opinion, that it was a Roman temple; from a stone 16 feet long, and four broad, placed in an exact position to the eastward, altar-fashion. Mr Charlton attributed it to the Danes, who were two years masters of Wiltshire; a tablet, on which were some unknown characters, supposed to be Punic, was dugged up near it in the reign of Henry VIII., but is lost; probably that might have given some information reflecting its founders. Its common name, Stonehenge, is Saxon, and signifies a "stone gallows," to which those stones, having transverse imposts, bear some resemblance. It is also called in Welsh choir gour, or "the giants dance."

Mr Grofe thinks that Dr Stukeley has completely proved this structure to have been a British temple in which the Druids officiated. He supposes it to have been the metropolitan temple of Great Britain, and translates the words choir gour "the great choir or temple." The learned Mr Bryant is of opinion that it was erected by a colony of Cuthites probably before Antiquities the time of the Druids; because it was usual with them to place one vast stone upon another for a religious memorial; and these they often placed so equably, that even a breath of wind would sometimes make them vibrate. Of such stones one remains at this day in the pile of Stonehenge. The ancients distinguished stones erected with a religious view, by the name of amber; by which was signified anything solar and divine. The Grecians called them ἀμφικλείς πέτραι αμβροσίας. Stonehenge, according STO

According to Mr. Bryant, is composed of these amber stones; hence the next town is denominated Ambrebury; not from a Roman Ambrosius, for no such person ever existed, but from the ambrosia petrae, in whose vicinity it stood. Some of these were rocking stones; and there was a wonderful monument of this sort near Penzance in Cornwall, which still retains the name of main-amber, or the sacred stones. Such a one is mentioned by Apollonius Rhodius, supposed to have been raised in the time of the Argonautae, in the island Tenos, as the monument of the two-winged sons of Boreas, slain by Hercules; and there are others in China and other countries.