The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris.

  • Thaddeus Mason Harris
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    436/474 (page 396)
    That this extraordinary mineral, and its use, were well known to the ancients is evident from the following passage, cited and translated from Dioscorides, lib. iv. c. 156. *'The mineral called Amiantus is produced in Cyprus, and resembles the scissile, or plumose alum; and as it is flexible, they manufacture and make it into cloth, as an object of curiosity ; for if one throws this cloth into the fire, it burns, indeed, but without being consumed, and comes out more beautiful.” Pliny, N. H. l. xix. c. 1, speaking of the same, says, ‘‘ We meet also with a kind of cloth which is not consumable by fire. 'They call it Ziving (or em- mortal) ; and. I have at feasts seen towels made of it, burning in the fire, and in this manner more thoroughly cleansed, than they could have been with water. Of this are made the funeral vests of kings, to preserve the ashes of their bodies separate from the rest, It is rarely to be found, and hard to weave by reason of its shortness; and is exceeding costly?. From its peculiar property of not being destroyed by fire, the term zyzyDoc is figuratively used for zmperishable, indestructible. In 1 Peter, i. 3, 4, we read, * Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. ‘This blessed inhe- ritance is called aQ§aerov, ?ncorruptible, because it will not, like the earthly Canaan, be corrupted with the sins of its inhabitants, [ Levit. xviii. 28.] For into the heavenly country entereth nothing that defileth. [Rev. xxi. 27.] It 1s declared to be apsavtov, indestructible, because it shall neither be destroyed by the waters of a flood, as this earth hath been, nor by fire, as, in the end, the earth will be: and it is to be apagayrov, unfading, because its joys will not wither, but remain fresh through all eternity. Scheuchzer, in his Physica Sacra, conjectures that the DD 3 CARPAS, in Esther, 1. 6, may mean the cloth made of Asbestos, or Amiantus, ‘The Septuagint render it by a word derived from the Hebrew, xzpracimog, and the Vulgate ** carbasini?. But, though we may suppose this kind of cloth to be known to the Persians in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, yet it is hardly * It is thus described by Hierocles: XeovJas de coÜnri Awn rn ex rerewy 210a va. pangunare uua; nar Seemara, o Oe guy OQouvat iv, s& wy UPacwara yiyvelas, eme Tver xouopsva, quie Doars nabaigomeva aAA exeiday fume xa) xndreidos sje Ann, tj eAmÜevr us QAoya, Auxa xai Dia Qayn yiveras, i. e. Utuntur veste linea, ex lapidibus. Quod quidem texunt. Mollia sunt lapidum stamina, et membrane ex quibus panni fiunt, qui neque igue exuruntur, neque aqua expurgantur, sed cum sordes et ma- culas contraxerunt, in flammam injecti albescunt. | ? Valerius Maximus describes carbasus as a robe that the rich wore, made of fine linen. The word also is used for cloth of which sails are made. * Carbasa ventis Credit dubius navita vite.” SENECA, H. F. 150. Froin the Hebrew word above we may derive carpet.