[94] “White vitriol also is made at Goslar, but by one citizen only, named Henni Balder. It is not procured by the evaporation of copper like other vitriol; but when large quantities of ore are roasted in the furnaces, a red substance is from time to time collected on the refuse of the ore, and found in some places half an ell thick. This substance, which is saltish, is formed into a lye, and boiled in small leaden pans. The rest of the process I do not know, but I observed that it crystallizes like saltpetre, but is stronger and whiter. It is also cast into small cakes about the thickness of one’s hand. This vitriol is employed by the leather-dressers, and may be used for many things instead of alum; but it cannot be used in dressing white skins, because it makes them yellowish.” [95] Bruckmann, ii. p. 446. [Schwartze, in his Pharm. Tabell. 2nd edit. p. 779, states that white vitriol was known towards the end of the thirteenth or at the commencement of the fourteenth century.] [96] Calvor, Historische Nachricht, p. 199 and 200. Properly it is written and pronounced _jöckel_. It is very remarkable that in Iceland this word at present signifies icicles. [97] Chemie, von Kessel, iv. 2, p. 832, where may be found the old opinions on this subject. [98] Brandt, in Acta Upsaliens. 1735. Hellot, in Mémoires de l’Acad. des Sciences, Paris, 1735, p. 29. [Sulphate of zinc or white vitriol is at present manufactured in considerable quantity for pharmaceutical purposes, and for the calico-printer.] [99] A great many may be found collected in Fuchs, Geschichte des Zinks. Erfurt, 1778, 8vo. [100] Paracelsi Opera. Strasb. 1616, fol. I shall here transcribe the principal passage. Of zinc:--There is another metal, zinc, which is in general unknown. It is a distinct metal of a different origin, though adulterated with many other metals. It can be melted, for it consists of three fluid principles, but it is not malleable. In its colour it is unlike all others, and does not grow in the same manner; but with its _ultima materia_ I am as yet unacquainted, for it is almost as strange in its properties as _argentum vivum_. It admits of no mixture, will not bear the _fabricationes_ of other metals, but keeps itself entirely to itself. [101] De Re Metallica, lib. ix. p. 329. [102] In J. Hornung’s Cista Medica. Lipsiæ. [103] How much duke Julius, who in other respects did great service to his country, suffered himself to be duped by the art of making gold, appears from an anecdote given by Rehtmeier, p. 1016. Of this anecdote I received from M. Ribbentrop an old account in manuscript, which one cannot read without astonishment. There is still shown, at the castle of Wolfenbuttle, an iron stool, on which the impostor, Anna Maria Zieglerinn, named Schluter Ilsche, was burnt, February 5, 1575.