Excerpt from The Onyx Marbles: Their Origin, Composition, and Uses, Both Ancient and ModernAgain, this stone is called 'alabastrites' by some, and is hollowed out into vessels for holding unguents, it having the reputation of pre serving them from corruption better than anything else. In a calcined state it is a good ingredient for plasters. That which is of a honey color is the most esteemed, covered with spots curling in whirls and not transparent. Alabastrite is considered defective when it is of a white or horn color, or approaching to glass in appearance.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.