Editing Sulfur (section)

===Antiquity===
[[File:MODOAzufre.jpg|thumb|Pharmaceutical container for sulfur from the first half of the 20th century. From the [[Museo del Objeto del Objeto]] collection]]

Being abundantly available in native form, sulfur was known in ancient times and is referred to in the [[Torah]].<ref>{{Bibleverse|Genesis|19:24}}, {{Bibleverse|Deuteronomy|29:23}}</ref> [[English translations of the Bible|English translations of the Christian Bible]] commonly referred to burning sulfur as "brimstone", giving rise to the term "[[fire and brimstone|fire-and-brimstone]]" [[sermon]]s, in which listeners are reminded of the fate of [[Damnation|eternal damnation]] that await the unbelieving and unrepentant. It is from this part of the Bible<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sulfur in the Bible (14 instances) |url=https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/words/Sulfur |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=bible.knowing-jesus.com}}</ref> that [[Hell]] is implied to "smell of sulfur" (likely due to its association with volcanic activity). According to the [[Ebers Papyrus]], a sulfur ointment was used in ancient [[Egypt]] to treat granular eyelids. Sulfur was used for [[fumigation]] in preclassical [[Greece]];<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ed0yC98aAKYC&pg=PA242 |title= Archaeomineralogy |isbn= 978-3-540-78593-4 |page= 242 |last1= Rapp |first1= George Robert |date= 4 February 2009|publisher= Springer }}</ref> this is mentioned in the ''[[Odyssey]]''.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+22.480 ''Odyssey'', book 22, lines 480–495]. www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved on 16 August 2012.</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] discusses sulfur in book 35 of his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', saying that its best-known source is the island of [[Melos]]. He mentions its use for fumigation, medicine, and bleaching cloth.<ref>''Pliny the Elder on science and technology'', John F. Healy, Oxford University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-19-814687-6}}, pp. 247–249.</ref>

A natural form of sulfur known as {{transliteration|zh|shiliuhuang}} ({{lang|zh|石硫黄}}) was known in China since the 6th century BC and found in [[Hanzhong]].<ref name="Zhang-1986">{{cite journal|author= Zhang, Yunming|date= 1986|title= The History of Science Society: Ancient Chinese Sulfur Manufacturing Processes|journal= [[Isis (journal)|Isis]]|volume= 77|issue= 3|doi= 10.1086/354207|page=487|s2cid= 144187385}}</ref> By the 3rd century, the Chinese had discovered that sulfur could be extracted from [[pyrite]].<ref name="Zhang-1986" /> Chinese [[Daoists]] were interested in sulfur's flammability and its reactivity with certain metals, yet its earliest practical uses were found in [[traditional Chinese medicine]].<ref name="Zhang-1986" /> The ''[[Wujing Zongyao]]'' of 1044 AD described various formulas for Chinese [[black powder]], which is a mixture of [[potassium nitrate]] ({{chem|K|N|O|3}}), [[charcoal]], and sulfur.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Needham |first1=Joseph |author2-link=Robin D. S. Yates |first2=Robin |last2=Yates |year=1994 |title=Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 6, Military Technology: Missiles and Sieges |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521327275 |oclc=489677531 |pages=120}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| align             = 
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| footer            = Alchemical signs for sulfur, or the [[Combustibility and flammability|combustible]] elements, and brimstone, an older/archaic name for sulfur<ref>{{cite book |last1=Koch |first1=Rudolf |title=The book of signs : which contains all manner of symbols used from the earliest times to the Middle Ages by primitive peoples and early Christians |date=1955 |location=New York |isbn=0-486-20162-7 |publisher=Dover Publications }}</ref>
| image1            = Sulphur symbol (fixed width).svg
| caption1          = Sulfur
| image2            = Black sulfur symbol (fixed width).svg
| caption2          = Brimstone
| total_width       = 280
}}
Indian alchemists, practitioners of the "science of chemicals" ({{langx|sa|रसशास्त्र|rasaśāstra}}), wrote extensively about the use of sulfur in alchemical operations with mercury, from the eighth century AD onwards.<ref name="White-1996">{{cite book |last=White |first=David Gordon |title=The Alchemical Body — Siddha Traditions in Medieval India |date=1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-89499-7 |pages=passim}}</ref> In the [[rasa shastra|{{transliteration|sa|rasaśāstra}}]] tradition, sulfur is called "the smelly" ({{lang|sa|गन्धक}}, {{transliteration|sa|gandhaka}}).

Early [[Europe]]an [[alchemy|alchemists]] gave sulfur a unique [[alchemical symbol]], a triangle atop a cross (🜍). (This is sometimes confused with the astronomical crossed-spear symbol ⚴ for [[2 Pallas]].) The variation known as brimstone has a symbol combining a [[two-barred cross]] atop a [[infinity symbol|lemniscate]] (🜏). In traditional skin treatment, elemental sulfur was used (mainly in creams) to alleviate such conditions as [[scabies]], [[ringworm]], [[psoriasis]], [[eczema]], and [[acne]]. The mechanism of action is unknown—though elemental sulfur does oxidize slowly to sulfurous acid, which is (through the action of [[sulfite]]) a mild reducing and antibacterial agent.<ref>{{cite journal|doi= 10.1016/S0190-9622(88)70079-1|last1= Lin|first1= A. N.|last2= Reimer|first2= R. J.|last3= Carter|first3= D. M.|title= Sulfur revisited|journal= Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology|volume= 18|issue= 3|pages= 553–558|date= 1988|pmid= 2450900}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi= 10.1016/S0190-9622(08)81225-X|last1= Maibach|first1= H. I.|last2= Surber|first2= C.|last3= Orkin|first3= M.|title= Sulfur revisited|journal= Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology|volume= 23|issue= 1|pages= 154–156|date= 1990 |pmid= 2365870|doi-access= free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1= Gupta|first1= A. K.|last2= Nicol|first2= K.|title= The use of sulfur in dermatology|journal= Journal of Drugs in Dermatology|volume= 3|issue= 4|pages= 427–31|date= 2004 |pmid= 15303787}}</ref>