78 DOMAIN III. ARGILLACEOUS. 



Mr. Sowerby has a large regular crystal of this 

 kind, equal in beauty to a topaz. 



Smectite, from Cimolus, one of the islands of 

 the Grecian archipelago. 



MODE VI. ICONITE. 



This substance is only known by the little 

 images brought from China, whence the name 

 is imposed. From its unctuous appearance it 

 was long imagined to belong to the Magnesian 

 Domain, till Klaproth's analysis assigned it to 

 the Argillaceous. It contains, silex, 62; argil, 

 24; lime, 1; water, 10; a combination which 

 nearly corresponds with the smectite of Cimo- 

 lus. The abundance of water seems, in this and 

 some other substances, to impart an unctuous 

 appearance; but the refinements in modern 

 chemistry may perhaps discover something par- 

 ticular in the composition of this water*. 



The Germans denominated this substance 



BiWstein. bildstem, that is, image-stone, which Klaproth 



lias translated agalmatolite, while he might have 



used the far shorter term here adopted. It must 



* The analysis approaches that of chalcedony, which has also an 

 unctuous appearance, perhaps from the admixture of argil. 



