a native fossil stone, which may be split into threads and filaments, from one inch to ten inches in length, very fine, brittle, yet somewhat flexible, silky, and of a grayish colour, not unlike tale of Venice. It is almost insipid to the taste, insoluble in water, and possesses the wonderful property of remaining unconfumed in the fire, which only whitens it.

The industry of mankind has found a method of working this mineral, and employing it in divers manufactures, chiefly cloth and paper. The manufacture is undoubtedly difficult enough. Pliny calls the asbestos inventu rarum, textu difficilissimum. Wormius assures us, that the method of making cloth of asbestos is now entirely unknown. And indeed one would scarcely imagine the thing practicable, without the mixture of some other pliant 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, Bart. Porta assures us, that in his time the spinning of asbestos was a thing known to every body at Venice. Sig. Caftagnatta, 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 drefed 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., 36l. 13s. 4d. 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 foured 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 distinct from that of 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 Lillier, 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. Septall, canon of Milan, had thread, ropes, nets, and paper made of the asbestos. A handkerchief or pattern of the 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 loft above three drachms of 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 Ciampini: 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 flaxlike 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 best preserved 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 dissipation 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 Corfia; in the island of Anglesey in Wales; in Aberdeenshire in Scotland; at Montauban in France; and in Siberia.