310
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY
millstone." According, however, to Liddell and Scott, the
original word, irvpirqs is an adjective, meaning "of or in the
fire," and they define irvpirqs liqoz as "a mineral which strikes
fire." Both flint and pyrites have therefore in some cases
received the same name, because both may be employed for
eliciting sparks.
Formerly pyrites was used for striking fire in muskets, just
as flint was subsequently employed. In France both minerals
were called Pierre a carabinier. This confusion between the two
minerals gives point to the story which is told of the old French
soldier, who, having heard that the stone became red after it had
been heated, tried the experiment by subjecting a flint to
calcination, whereupon he was of course disappointed by finding
it become white ! Calcined pyrites, it is true, yields red oxide of
iron, but calcined flint only dehydrated silica.
It is possible that the term pyrites, or firestone, may have
also been sometimes applied to other spark-yielding minerals,
such as emery. When we turn to the gossiping old Roman
naturalist, Pliny, we find the word pyrites applied in such a
way as to indicate several substances distinct from one another in
chemical and in physical properties. Some was probably our
Pyrites, for he speaks of a "fire-stone going under the name of
Pyrites or Marcasin, which resembleth brass-ore in the mine."'
And again, to quote Holland's quaint translation, "in the ranke
of these marcasines some range certaine stones, which we call
quicke fire-stones, and of all others they be most ponderous ; these
be most necessarie for the espialls belonging unto a campe, for if
they strike them either with an yron spike or another stone they
will cast forth sparks of fire, which lighting upon matches dipt
in brimstone, drie puffs or leaves, will cause them to catch fire
sooner than a man can say the word."4
It has been suggested that man's first knowledge of fire may
have been derived from the impact of pyrites and flint, two
mineral substances which occur in the chalk. A nodule of
pyrites and a nodule of flint accidentally brought into violent
collision might startle primitive man by yielding sparks. I must
confess, however, that I have never been able to elicit sparks in
this way.
The wide application of the word Pyrites, by old writers, is
4 Book xxxvi., cap. xix. See note at the end of the paper.