Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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              <s>
                <pb pagenum="217"/>
              in silver mines; it creeps unobserved and brings destruction upon those
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              who imprudently sit on it. </s>
              <s>But, as the same writer tells us, springs of warm
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              and salubrious waters gush out in certain places, which neutralise the venom
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              inserted by the ants.</s>
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              <s>In some of our mines, however, though in very few, there are other
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              pernicious pests. </s>
              <s>These are demons of ferocious aspect, about which I have
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              spoken in my book
                <emph type="italics"/>
              De Animantibus Subterraneis.
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              </s>
              <s> Demons of this kind
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              are expelled and put to flight by prayer and fasting.
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              26
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              </s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>Some of these evils, as well as certain other things, are the reason why
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              pits are occasionally abandoned. </s>
              <s>But the first and principal cause is that
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              they do not yield metal, or if, for some fathoms, they do bear metal they
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              become barren in depth. </s>
              <s>The second cause is the quantity of water which
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              flows in; sometimes the miners can neither divert this water into the
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              tunnels, since tunnels cannot be driven so far into the mountains, or they
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              cannot draw it out with machines because the shafts are too deep; or if they
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              could draw it out with machines, they do not use them, the reason
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              undoubtedly being that the expenditure is greater than the profits of a
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              moderately poor vein. </s>
              <s>The third cause is the noxious air, which the owners
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              sometimes cannot overcome either by skill or expenditure, for which reason
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              the digging is sometimes abandoned, not only of shafts, but also of tunnels. </s>
              <s>The
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              fourth cause is the poison produced in particular places, if it is not in our
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              power either completely to remove it or to moderate its effects. </s>
              <s>This is the
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              reason why the caverns in the Plain known as Laurentius
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              27
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              used not to be
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              </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
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