54 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JAN. 25, 
those of the elements and a very few more, shal] uniformly end in 
-ite, and that the termination -ine shall as uniformly be used for all 
variety names, and those whose specific character is not fully settled. 
Accordingly, he gives us gypsite, serpentite, wadite, orthoclasite, 
spodumenite, epidotite and many similar changes, while marmolite, 
picrolite, nacrite, and others are made to end in -ine, marmoline, 
picroline, nacrine. It is hardly necessary to say that these sugges- 
tions have not been generally or fully accepted. 
With reference to a considerable number of names the full infor- 
mation wanted is not easy to obtain, and in some cases perhaps it 
cannot be found at all. When it is not given in Dana’s Mineralogy 
the student may be sure that he will have to hunt to find it. This 
is particularly true of obsolete names, information about which must 
be sought in the earlier volumes of scientific journals. 
The first publication of Taylor’s name killinite is in 1818, in vol. 
xiii, p. 4, of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, a fact 
not stated in any work on mineralogy, as far as I have examined 
them. There are some names also about which very erroneous 
ideas as to derivation prevail, and which need correction. The name 
chabazite was given in the form chabasie, by Bose d’ Antic, in 1780, 
Journal d’Histoire Naturelle, vol. ii, p. 181, and is derived from 
yoBalios, the name given to one of the stones mentioned in the 
Orphic poem [epi adov. The name as we now have it in the poem 
is yaaafids, and the mineral should therefore have been called chala- 
zite. Kidd ealled attention to the blunder in 1809, Kidd’s Min- 
eralogy, vol. i, p. 249; but the original name has held its place. 
It is but fair to say that the form yaBafcos was used in the current 
editions of the poem at the time the name was applied. The deriva- 
tion of the word datholite has often been incorrectly given. It is 
really a corruption of the original name datolith, given by Esmark 
in 1806, from ddréouar, to divide, and acdos, alluding to the granular 
structure of one of its varieties. Werner added the h for no appa- 
rent reason, and the changed form was adopted by most authors 
until Prof. Dana unriddled the matter and gave it its correct form 
again. But wise writers have tried to find another derivation for 
it, and one author of note says it is from 8a60s, which he says means 
turbid, because the mineral is not clear and transparent. Another 
wiser one says there is no such Greek word as 6490s, which is true, 
and that it is from the compound word $a-90,20s, meaning very tur- 
bid, which is no more a proper derivation than the other. The 
word feldspar has been changed into felspar for no better reason 
than that the latter form was thought the right one. It was used 
by Wallerius in his Mineralogy of 1747, p. 65, in the Swedish form 
felt-spat, meaning field-spar. It did not originate with him probably, 
but may have been a popular name in his time. Da Costa used 
it in 1757, in the German form feld-spath, and this form was cur- 
rent until 1794, when we find, in Kirwan’s Mineralogy, vol. i, 
p. 317, the following note: ‘‘This name seems to be derived from 
