MONA^ITE^- 



BY H. B. C. NITZE. 



During- the past two years the mineral monazite has 

 come into considerable prominence, owing- to the demand 

 for it in the manufacture of mantles for the incandes- 

 cent §"as lig'ht, which is at present creating- such wide 

 spread interest the world over. 



In Bulletin No. 9 of the North Carolina Geolog^ical 

 Survey, 1895, I have published a monog-raph on the 

 subject of Moriazite and the Monazite Deposits of North 

 Carolina, and a similar chapter also appears by me in 

 "The Mineral Resources of the United States," Part 

 IV., Sixteenth Annual Report of the Director of the 

 U. S. Geolog-ical Survey, 1894-1895, pp. 667 to 694. 



In this place I propose to g-ive a g-eneral resume of 

 monazite, its properties, composition, occurrence and 

 use. 



NOMENCLATURE. 



The earliest identification of this mineral as a sepa- 

 rate species in th3 mineral king-dom was in 1823, al- 

 though at that time it was known as " Turnerite." 

 The name monazite was g-iven in 1829, and its meaning- 

 —from the Greek — is, "to be solitar3%" on account of 

 the g-reat rarity of the mineral at that time and long- 

 subsequently. Other names for this mineral, g-iven at 

 various times when they were thoug-ht to represent 

 separate and distinct species, were meng-ite, eremite, 

 edwardsite, cryptoiite. monazitoid, phosphocerite, ur- 



* Published by i)ertiussion of the State Geologfist of North Caro- 

 lina, who also allows the use of plates prepared for Bulletin 9 of the 

 N. C. Geolog-ical Survey. 



