128 LIMESTONE FAMILY. which it is peculiarly qualified, on account of the remark able facility with which it absorbs water. With isinglass or white of eggs, it forms a valuable lute or cement. In the gilding of wood, it is necessary, before laying on the gold, to cover it with a succession of coats of a mixture of whiting and size. The mineral is also used as a filter ing-stone ; and in a purified state, it is employed as a remedy to correct acidity in the stomach, and the mor bid states which arise from this. Observations. It is conjectured that the name Creta, is derived from the island of Candia, (Creta of the ancients), where this mineral is said to occur. Ancient writers seem to use the word creta in different senses, as appears from the following observations : “ The word creta, though applied by Wallerius and others to chalk, is generally used by the early naturalists to express clay: ‘ Proderit sabulosis lo- cis cretam ingerere; cretosis ac nimium densis, sabulum * where, as sabulum certainly means sand, it is nearly evi dent, from the reciprocal use of the substances mention ed, compared with the opposite properties of sand and clay, that creta signifies the latter. ‘ Lateres non sunt e sabuloso, neque arenoso, multoque minus calculoso du- cendi solo ; sed e cretoso -f\ 1 Again, it may be observed, with respect to the following line, ‘ Ilinc humilom Myconcn, crelasaquc rura Cimoli that the Cimolian earth is described in various passages of Pliny, 8tc. under characters peculiar to clay. There * Columella, p. 73. f Plin. Nat. Iliat ed. Brot. vol. vj. p. 174. ? Ovid, Metam. lib. vii.
