a calcareous stone, of which there are many beautiful varieties. The word comes from the French marbre, and from the Latin marmor, of the Greek μαρμαρος, to "shine or glitter." See MINERALOGY Index.

Eoicic MARBLE, an extraordinary species of fossil which has surprised all the naturalists who have seen it. There are several tables of it preserved in the house of Prince Borghese at Rome, and shown to the curious. F. Jacquier, a celebrated mathematician, has given a description in the Literary Gazette of Paris, but the naturalists cannot be contented with it. If permission was given to make the requisite experiments, ments, this curious phenomenon might be better illustrated. There are five or six tables of that marble; their length is about two feet and a half, the breadth about ten inches, and the thickness a little less than three. They were dug up, as the Abbé Fortis was told, in the feud of Mondragone ; the grain is of Carrarese marble, or perhaps of the finest Greek. They seem to have suffered some attack of fire; though the first degree of pulverization observable in the angles, can, perhaps, scarcely be called that of imperfect calcination. They are very dry, do not yield to external impression, resound to the hammer, like other congenerous marble, and are perhaps susceptible of a polish. Being set on end, they bend oscillating backward and forward; when laid horizontally, and raised at one end, they form a curve, beginning towards the middle; if placed on a table, and a piece of wood or any thing else is laid under them, they make a falient curve, and touch the table with both ends. Notwithstanding this flexibility, they are liable to be broken if indiscreetly handled; and therefore one table only, and that not the best, is shown to the curious. Formerly they were altogether in the prince's apartment on the ground floor.

Colouring of MARBLE. This is a nice art; and in order to succeed in it, the pieces of marble on which the experiments are tried, must be well polished, and free from the least spot or vein. The harder the marble is, the better will it bear the heat necessary in the operation; therefore alabaster and the common soft white marble are very improper for performing these operations upon.

Heat is always necessary for opening the pores of marble, so as to render it fit to receive the colours; but the marble must never be made red hot; for then the texture of it is injured, and the colours are burnt, and lose their beauty. Too small a degree of heat is as bad as one too great; for, in this case, though the marble receives the colour, it will not be fixed in it, nor strike deep enough. Some colours will strike even cold; but they are never so well sunk in as when a just degree of heat is used. The proper degree is that which, without making the marble red, will make the liquor boil upon its surface. The menstruums used to strike in the colours must be varied according to the nature of the colour to be used. A lixivium made with horses or dogs urine, with four parts of quicklime and one of potashes, is excellent for some colours; common ley of wood-ashes is very good for others; for some, spirit of wine is best; and lastly, for others, oily liquors, or common white wine.

The colours which have been found to succeed best with the peculiar menstruums, are these: Stone-blue diffolved in fix times the quantity of spirit of wine, or of the urinous lixivium, and that colour which the painters call litmus, diffolved in common ley of wood-ashes. An extract of saffron, and that colour made of buckthorn berries, and called by painters sap-green, both succeed well when diffolved in urine and quicklime; and tolerably well when diffolved in spirit of wine. Vermilion, and a very fine powder of cochineal, also succeed very well in the same liquors. Dragon's blood succeeds in spirit of wine, as does also a tincture of logwood in the same spirit. Alkanet-root gives a fine colour; but the only menstruum to be used for it is oil of turpentine; for neither spirit of wine, nor any lixivium, will do with it. There is another kind of sanguis draconis, commonly called dragon's blood in tears, which, mixed with urine, gives a very elegant colour.

Besides these mixtures of colours and menstruums, there are other colours which must be laid on dry and unmixed. These are, dragon's blood of the purest kind, for a red; gamboge, for a yellow; green wax, for a green; common brimstone, pitch, and turpentine, for a brown colour. The marble for these experiments must be made considerably hot, and then the colours are to be rubbed on dry in the lump. Some of these colours, when once given, remain immutable, others are easily changed or destroyed. Thus, the red colour given by dragon's blood, or by a decoction of logwood, will be wholly taken away by oil of tartar, and the polish of the marble not hurt by it.

A fine gold colour is given in the following manner: Take crude sal ammoniac, vitriol, and verdigris, of each equal quantities. White vitriol succeeds best: and all must be thoroughly mixed in fine powder.

The staining of marble to all the degrees of red or yellow, by solutions of dragon's blood or gamboge, may be done by reducing these gums to powder, and grinding them with the spirit of wine in a glass mortar. But, for smaller attempts, no method is so good as the mixing a little of either of those powders with spirit of wine in a silver spoon, and holding it over burning charcoal. By this means a fine tincture will be extracted; and with a pencil dipt in this, the finest traces may be made on the marble while cold; which, on the heating of it afterwards, either on sand, or in a baker's oven, will all sink very deep, and remain perfectly distinct on the stone. It is very easy to make the ground colour of the marble red or yellow by this means, and leave white veins in it. This is to be done by covering the places where the whiteness is to remain with some white paint, or even with two or three doubles only of paper; either of which will prevent the colour from penetrating. All the degrees of red are to be given to marble by this gum alone; a slight tincture of it, without the assistance of heat to the marble, gives only a pale flesh colour: but the stronger tinctures give it yet deeper; to this the assistance of heat adds greatly; and finally, the addition of a little pitch to the tincture, gives it a tendency to blackness, or any degree of deep red that may be desired.

A blue colour may be given also to marble by diffusing turpentine in lixivium, in lime and urine, or in the volatile spirit of urine; but this has always a tendency to purple, whether made by the one or the other of these ways. A better blue, and used in an easier manner, is furnished by the Canary turpentine, a substance well known among the dyers. This needs only to be diffused in water, and drawn on the place with a pencil: it penetrates very deeply into the marble; and the colour may be increased, by drawing the pencil wetted afresh several times over the same lines. This colour is subject to spread and diffuse itself irregularly: but it may be kept in regular bounds, by circumferencing its lines with beds of wax, or any such substance. It is also to be observed, that this Marble colour should always be laid on cold, and no heat given even afterwards to the marble: and one great advantage of this colour is, that it is therefore easily added to marbles already stained with other colours, is a very beautiful tinge, and lasts a long time.