Sulpice

“ At Sulpice I have seen, allied as I admit, with very narrow views, the perfection of goodness, politeness, modesty, and sacrifice of self. There is enough virtue in St. Sulpice to govern the whole world, and this fact has made me very discriminating in my appreciation of what I have seen elsewhere. I have never met but one man in the present age who can bear comparison with the Sulpicians, that is M. Damiron, and those who knew him, know what the Sulpicians were. ”

“ Sulpice had often heard the greenroom of the ballet spoken about, and he was at once completely disillusioned. The glaring, brutal light ruthlessly exposed the worn and faded hangings; and the pretty girls in their full, short, gauzy petticoats, with their bare arms, smiling and twisting about, their satin-shod feet resting upon gray velvet footstools, seemed to him, as they occupied the slanting floor, to move in a cloud of dust, and to be robbed of all naturalness and freshness. ”

“ With large, brilliant, black eyes lighting up a thin, fair face, a full beard, a high forehead with a deep furrow between the eyebrows, giving to his usually wandering, keen and restless glance a somewhat contemplative expression, Sulpice was a decidedly attractive man. He was not a handsome or a charming fellow, but a good-natured, agreeable, refined man, a fine conversationalist, persuasive, enthusiastic and alert; learned without being pedantic, a man who could inspire in a young girl a perfect passion. Adrienne joyfully married him, as he had sought her from love. ”

“ The soirée at Sabine Marsy's had caused Vaudrey to feel something like the enervation that follows intoxication. The next morning he awoke with his head heavy, after a night of feverish sleep, interrupted by sudden starts, wherein he saw that pretty, fair girl standing before him devouring sherbet and smiling gayly.
Every morning since he had been at the ministry, Sulpice had experienced a joyous sensation at finding himself again on his feet and rejoicing in life. ”

“ That depends on the women—and on men," she added, showing her white teeth while smiling graciously.
She dropped her spoon in the saucer and handed the sherbet to a servant. With an involuntary movement—or perhaps, after all, it was a shrewdly calculated one—she almost grazed Sulpice's cheek and lips when she extended her round and firm arm, and Sulpice, who was somewhat bewildered, was severely tempted, like some collegian, to kiss it in passage. ”

“ In those days Sulpice made no plans for his future, where he would go, what he would do, or what would become of him; but he felt within himself unbounded hope, a hope as limitless and bright as the azure sky above him, the inspiration of devotion, love and poetry. He asked himself whether he should be a missionary or a representative of the people. It seemed to him that his heart was large enough to contain a world, and as he grew up he began to ask himself the terrible question: "Will a woman ever love me?" ”

“ For the common Sulphur, whether of an impure, or pure Metal whilst conjoyned with its own body, mixt with Salt Peter only in the burning heat of Fire is easily changed into a most hard and most fixed Earth, but this Earth is thenceforth by the Aire easily changed into a most limpid Water: and this Water afterward, by a more strong Fire, according to the Nature of the Metallick pure or impure Sulphur mixt is converted into Glass, admirably Well tinged with various Colours. ”

“ Crossing the meadow we climbed a gentle slope of clay and sulfur [173] to the very edge of the solfatara. What a weird and impressive scene it is! Every beauty of form and color, every horror of sound and odor are here united. Unnumbered tons of sublimed sulfur are piled in banks and pyramids at the base of the cliffs. Great pools of boiling bolus hiss, splutter and stink. The air is foul with hot hydrogen sulfid and stifling with sulfur dioxid. Wavering columns of steam render the walking dangerous as oftentimes one can not see the place where he is about to set his foot. ”

“ Combined with metals (sulphides) , it is common in all mineral districts. Iron pyrites (FeS2) is the most abundant source of this element. Sulphates, such as gypsum, are fairly common, but have no value so far as the sulphur in them is concerned. In coal it exists as an impurity, occurring partly as a constituent of organic compounds.
Sulphur, whether free or combined with metals, forms, on burning, sulphurous oxide (SO2) , which by the action of oxidising agents and water is converted into sulphuric acid. ”

“ Now we know that Sulphur is a Father of all Metals, and that when Mercury and Salt in a due proportion is join’d with him, then he makes a Metal. We also know that all Sulphur inwardly is red, though it do not appear so outwardly till it be joined with Salts. We have an instance of this in Lead, in which no redness appears at all, but when the same is calcined with Salt, its blackness is turn’d to a lively red, as may be seen in Red Lead. For Fire and Salt have the power to exalt all Sulphurs. ”

“ The sulphur earth, or impregnated clay, averages from 6 feet to 3 feet in thickness, and contains 50 or 60 per cent. of pure sulphur.’
“Sulphur is found also at Námafjall, in the north of Iceland,{366} in geological circumstances analogous to those of the beds at Krísuvík. It is found there generally in concrete masses of a citron-yellow colour, quite pure, sometimes very plentiful, and generally associated with lime and silica. It is to be regretted that the Danish Government does not favour this industry, which would furnish as fine sulphur as that of Sicily, and doubtless at a lower price. ”

“ Sulphur is now generally regarded as emanating from the stage of intermittent lethargy of a volcano, and the sulphides of iron, copper, arsenic, zinc, selenium, etc., fall in the same category as sulphur; they are secondary, not primary, formations. In the stage further off we have the host of sulphates produced by the oxidation of the sulphur into sulphuric acid, and its subsequent reaction on the metals and earths with which it becomes associated. ”

“ Sulphur almost pure, called native or virgin sulphur, is found in volcanoes and grottoes, in the form of transparent crystals; but the greatest quantity which exists naturally is combined with metals in ores. Sulphur is both fusible and volatile,—which qualities enable us to procure it from those minerals by the process of sublimation: it unites easily, in different degrees, with all metallic matters, excepting gold, platina, and zinc.
Sublimation, the act of bringing a solid substance into the state of vapor by heat, and condensing it again by cold. ”

“ But the Quantity of Sulphur we obtain’d by Digestion was much too great to have been latent in the Oyl of Vitriol. And that Vitriolate Spirits are not necessary to the Constitution of such a Sulphur as ours, I could easily manifest, if I would acquaint you with the several wayes by which I have obtain’d, though not in such plenty, a Sulphur of Antimony, colour’d and combustible like common Brimstone. ”

“ Also if such a Sulphur is hidden in any vegetable, which answers to a mineral Sulphur in its nature and properties, why also might it not come to pass, that this same Sulphur might be perfected into mature gold, alike equal to the other? from hence it most evidently appeareth that in any Herb, although the most abject one, which is promoted by the Sun unto its maturity, a spark of the immature beams of Sol may be found, which through the operation of art, are to be changed into pure gold. ”

“ Sulphur, sometimes in the form of milk of sulphur, was used; in another, the common flower of sulphur; sometimes acetate of lead, at other times oxide of that metal. In all the chemical change is the same, namely, the solution of the metal entering into the filament by absorption, there unites with sulphur, forming a sulphuret of the material used. Hair is porous; sulphur exists in hair of all colours, but is in excess in red and blonde hair. ”

“ Sulphur is a combustible substance, having a very great tendency to combination; it is naturally in a solid state in the ordinary temperature, and requires a heat somewhat higher than boiling water to make it liquify. Sulphur is formed by nature in a considerable degree of purity in the neighbourhood of volcanos; we find it likewise, chiefly in the state of sulphuric acid, combined with argill in aluminous schistus, with lime in gypsum, &c. From these combinations it may be procured in the state of sulphur, by carrying off its oxygen by means of charcoal in a red heat ”

“ A stranger who takes the White Sulphur, as a specimen, as to external appearance, of the other springs, would be disappointed, when, after the first glance, he gets a full view of the Salt Sulphur. Nature has not been so lavish of her gifts as at the White Sulphur, and art has as yet added but little to its outward charms. ”

“ Much sulphur is found in this earth, together with various mineral salts, as hydro-chlorate of soda, sulphate of soda—sulphates of lime and magnesia—carbonate of iron—silex—alum—bitumen, &c.
Besides the general effects of hot, warm, and tepid baths of mineral water, the mud-baths exhibit effects peculiar to themselves. They may be taken at a higher temperature than water-baths, without inconvenience. They are never employed cold. ”

“ That of our first description, or sulphur vivum, is sometimes called quick sulphur from its undergoing no change by fire, since its productions by nature; and in some countries it is called virgin sulphur, because the women and girls in Campania frequently make a kind of paint of it, for no less delicate purpose than that of beautifying the face. Should either kind be met with in an impure state the following method may be applied for the purpose of purification. ”

“ But the Sulphur of Antimony which is vehemently vomitive, and the strongly scented Anodyne Sulphur of Vitriol inclines me to think that not only Mineral Sulphurs differ from Vegetable ones, but also from one another, retaining much of the nature of their Concretes. The salts of metals, and of some sort of minerals, You will easily guesse by the Doubts I formerly express’d, whether metals have any salt at all, that I have not been so happy as yet to see, perhaps not for want of curiosity. ”

“ Ten grains of the crystals of sulphuretted sulphite, when treated with liquid oxymuriate of lime to saturation, require 2+ grains of oxygen and yield 8 grains of sulphate of barytes, together with an excess of sulphuric acid which with muriate of barytes gives 8 grains more of sulphate. From these facts it may be concluded that the sulphuretted sulphite consists of one atom barytes, 2 sulphur, 2 oxygen, and 2 water, and that 4 more of oxygen are derived from the oxymuriatic acid to convert the sulphurous oxide into sulphuric acid. ”

“ But as the whole of the sulphur is in the form of flowers, and the earth immediately below it has nearly the same appearance, and cannot therefore be easily distinguished from the sulphur, the peasants do not, therefore, I think, separate the sulphur from the earth with as much care as where it is found in a more solid condition, and where the earth is more easily detected. ”

“ When heated to the temperature of 560° F. it takes fire, burns away with a dull blue flame of a suffocating odour, and leaves no residuum. When more strongly heated, sulphur burns with a vivid white flame. It is not affected by air or water.
Sulphur is an abundant product of nature; existing sometimes pure or merely mixed, and at others in intimate chemical combination with oxygen, and various metals, forming sulphates and sulphurets. See Ores of Copper, Iron, Lead, &c., under these metals. ”

“ And to these two I shall add but this obvious and known Observation, that common Sulphur (if it be pure and freed from its Vinager) being leasurely sublim’d in close Vessels, rises into dry Flowers, which may be presently melted into a Bodie of the same Nature with that which afforded them. Though if Brimstone be burnt in the open Air it gives, you know, a penetrating Fume, which being caught in a Glass-Bell condenses into that acid Liquor called Oyl of Sulphur per Campanam. ”

“ It is thought that when the masses of halite and anhydrite pushed toward the earth’s surface, some of the upper part of the halite dissolved. The anhydrite, however, did not dissolve, and it remained on top of the salt column. Then, a part of this anhydrite was altered into the gypsum, limestone, and sulfur that now are found in some of the cap-rocks. Laboratory experiments have shown that the sulfur in the cap-rocks likely formed through the action of sulfate-reducing bacteria. These bacteria, in the presence of petroleum, converted the sulfate in some of the anhydrite into hydrogen sulfide. ”

“ Many mineral springs owe their medicinal properties to the hydrosulphuric acid which they contain, and whose decomposition frequently gives rise to the formation of sulphur. When the large marble slab which covers the imperial source at Aix-la-Chapelle is removed at the end of every twenty years, about two hundred pounds of sulphur are collected from the walls above the spring.
Combinations of sulphur with metals, particularly with iron and copper (pyrites) , occur in much more considerable masses and in a far greater number of localities than the pure uncombined mineral. ”

“ The earths also become positive when rubbed with sulphur; in short, everything which, in the genesis of the earth, ranks below sulphur, is positive. Heated bodies rubbed with cold, and rough bodies with smooth, must become negative.
813. Bodies become positive with sulphur, simply because the essence of sulphur is of a negative character, or because, in other words, it is nothing else but negativity; the persistency of one pole and the counter-resistance to every other, is called isolation. The metals are conductors, because they stand opposed to sulphur. ”