For the cause of this is the moisture which has evaporated there; and being confined by the surrounding material, it rolled itself up, hardening first on the outside and coiling inwards, and received vital spirit, as we have said in the fourth book of the Meteorology.

A reference to spontaneous generation in purifying material.

Moon-shell points to a relationship between the moon and certain forms of marine animals.

Limited in what I can do, not been able to find a copy online of the Meteorology. Also an extensive work on the generation of animals I cant accesses.

Stuck with the book of minerals managed to expand that today, to include  Liber De Causis Proprietatum Elementorum (On the Causes of the Properties of the Elements).

What I need to get a handle on is the sense of place.

Moreover, we find in stones powers which are not those of any element at all- such as counteracting poison, driving away abscesses, attracting or repelling iron; and, as we shall show later, it is the common opinion of all wise men that this power is the consequence of the specific form of this or that stone.

Moving from stone to biological life can I include, second sight/ counteracting poison, driving away abscesses/ attracting or repelling iron?

Powers that are a consequence of the specific form of the this and the that.

To what degree are these specific powers and specific forms associated with place?

And that it is the viscous and unctuous moisture which gives coherence to the material of stone is indicated by the fact that the  animals called shellfish are very commonly produced with their shells in stones. These are extremely common in the stones found [ at Paris], in which there are many small holes shaped like the shells which some people call moon-shells. For the cause of this is the moisture which has evaporated there; and being confined by the surrounding material, it rolled itself up, hardening first on the outside  and coiling inwards, and received vital spirit, as we have said in the fourth book of the Meteorology.

Last section on a passage in which Albertus details how the stones of the earth require a ‘gluing together.’

Stones are formed of earth or water, yet most forms of stone sink demonstrating they are “rich in materials of the earth.”

Its clear however that earth is not the only material as earth does not cohere into solid stone. Subtle mixing of elements and the cause is moisture, which causes the earth to flow into every other part.

“The watery moisture existing within the dryness gives it coherence.

Earth does not become stone it is dry, breaking into little pieces. But within the earth are found viscous and sticky substance that joins with the earthy part like the links in a chain.

Moon-shells, fossil’s found in the Paris Basin, are used by Albertus to demonstrate his thesis on the viscous nature of things.