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Show Asbestos. Asbestos Is n mineral of a fine fibrous character, the fibers being easily separated, clastic, flexible, and of a whitish-gray color. It Is composed com-posed chiefly of silica, lime, magnesia, and oxyde of Iron. The ancients converted con-verted It Into a kind of cloth, in which they wrapped tho bodies of their dead, while preparing them for tho funeral pile; the cloth being indestructible by fire, enabled them to preserve the ashes. Asbestos Is found more abundantly abun-dantly in Corsica than in any other locality. |