(_De Natura Fossilium_, p. 170). "_Cadmia fossilis_ has an odour like garlic" ... (p. 367). "We now proceed with _cadmia_, not the _cadmia fornacis_ (furnace accretions) of which I spoke in the last book, nor the _cadmia fossilis_ (calamine) devoid of metal, which is used to colour copper, whose nature I explained in Book V, but the metallic mineral (_fossilis metallica_), which Pliny states to be an ore from which copper is made. The Ancients have left no record that another metal could be smelted from it. Yet it is a fact that not only copper but also silver may be smelted from it, and indeed occasionally both copper and silver together. Sometimes, as is the case with pyrites, it is entirely devoid of metal. It is frequently found in copper mines, but more frequently still in silver mines. And there are likewise veins of _cadmia_ itself.... There are several species of the _cadmia fossilis_ just as there were of _cadmia fornacum_. For one kind has the form of grapes and another of broken tiles, a third seems to consist of layers. But the _cadmia fossilis_ has much stronger properties than that which is produced in the furnaces. Indeed, it often possesses such highly corrosive power that it corrodes the hands and feet of the miners. It, therefore, differs from pyrites in colour and properties. For pyrites, if it does not contain vitriol, is generally either of a gold or silver colour, rarely of any other. _Cadmia_ is either black or brown or grey, or else reddish like copper when melted in the furnace.... For this _cadmia_ is put in a suitable vessel, in the same way as quicksilver, so that the heat of the fire will cause it to sublimate, and from it is made a black or brown or grey body which the Alchemists call 'sublimated _cadmia_' (_cadmiam sublimatam_). This possesses corrosive properties of the highest degree. Cognate with _cadmia_ and pyrites is a compound which the Noricians and Rhetians call _zincum_. This contains gold and silver, and is either red or white. It is likewise found in the Sudetian mountains, and is devoid of those metals.... With this _cadmia_ is naturally related mineral _spodos_, known to the Moor Serapion, but unknown to the Greeks; and also _pompholyx_--for both are produced by fire where the miners, breaking the hard rocks in drifts, tunnels, and shafts, burn the _cadmia_ or pyrites or galena or other similar minerals. From _cadmia_ is made black, brown, and grey _spodos_; from pyrites, white _pompholyx_ and _spodos_; from galena is made yellow or grey _spodos_. But _pompholyx_ produced from copper stone (_lapide aeroso_) after some time becomes green. The black _spodos_, similar to soot, is found at Altenberg in Meissen. The white _pompholyx_, like wool which floats in the air in summer, is found in Hildesheim in the seams in the rocks of almost all quarries except in the sandstone. But the grey and the brown and the yellow _pompholyx_ are found in those silver mines where the miners break up the rocks by fire. All consist of very fine particles which are very light, but the lightest of all is white _pompholyx_."