HIDDENITE. 



HOLLAND, JOSIAH G. 



401 



lished St. Aloysius Orphan Asylum,, and a 

 Catholic periodical. On March 19, 1844, he 

 was consecrated as the first Catholic Bishop of 

 Milwaukee, by Bishop Purcell. As soon as 

 the bishop entered upon his duties, he began 

 to display great zeal and enthusiasm. In 1817 

 St. Mary's Church was consecrated, the num- 

 ber of priests increased to thirty, the corner- 

 stone of a new cathedral laid, and St. Ma- 

 ry's Hospital founded. In 1848 he visited 

 Europe for funds a second time, but was not 

 altogether successful, on account of the French 

 Revolution. On his return he ordered the 

 work of the cathedral to be stopped for a time, 

 as the money intended for it was wanted for 

 the more urgent need of an orphan asylum. 

 Hoping to replace the funds necessary to com- 

 plete the cathedral, the bishop went to Mexico 

 and Cuba, where he collected money enough 

 for the requirements of his diocese. In 1855 

 the new cathedral was consecrated. His next 

 work was the diocesan seminary, which by the 

 year 1860 was freed from all money incum- 

 brances, and had one hundred and twenty-five 

 students. In 1875 he was made first Arch- 

 bishop of Milwaukee, and in February, 1879, 

 celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his priest- 

 hood. On this occasion of his "golden jubi- 

 lee " more than a hundred clergymen and nine 

 bishops were present. Services of great solem- 

 nity were conducted in St. John's Cathedral, 

 a fine edifice founded by Archbishop Henni. 

 In a diocese established only thirty-seven years, 

 through the untiring toil and wise adminis- 

 tration of its first bishop, a cathedral church 

 has been built and consecrated, 262 ordinary 

 churches, 24 chapels, and 25 stations estab- 

 lished, an ecclesiastical seminary, 13 religious 

 communities, 11 charitable institutions, a nor- 

 mal school, 3 male academies, and 5 female. 

 There are 185 secular and 38 regular priests. 



HIDDENTTE. A new mineral, which has 

 hitherto been found only in a single narrow 

 vein in Alexander County, North Carolina, has 

 been introduced by the jewelers, and accepted 

 as a gem of the highest order. It is a green 

 stone of extraordinary brilliancy, hardness, 

 and transparency, possessing a peculiar color, 

 very vivid and intense. The new gem is called 

 hiddenite, from the name of its discoverer, W. 

 E. Hidden. It was at first classed as diopside, 

 from its green hue, transparency, and nearly 

 identical crystalline form and properties; but 

 was afterward, when it was attempted to de- 

 tect the cause of its color by chemical analysis, 

 identified as a variety of spodumene. This 

 mineral species differs only a fraction of a de- 

 gree from diopside in its prismatic angle, and 

 resembles it also in possessing an easy cleavage 

 in two directions. The present emerald-green 

 variety is of a uniform prismatic crystalline 

 form. The crystals show a considerable vari- 

 ety in habit. Twin crystals are common. The 

 planes of the fundamental prism are pitted 

 with remarkable little depressions of rhom- 

 boidal shape, the outlines of which are paral- 

 VOL. xxi. 26 A 



lei to the prismatic edges. The same wedge- 

 shaped hollows occur with less frequency on 

 the other planes, and appear also in the cleav- 

 age. The crystals vary in length from to 2 

 or 3 inches. They are usually very slender, 

 though sometimes having a thickness in the 

 direction of the clinodiagonal axis of -J- to i 

 inch; in the other transverse direction they 

 are much thinner. No previously discovered 

 variety of spodumene has any value for jew- 

 elers' purposes. Like beryl, it is a mineral 

 which occurs in large crystals, but either 

 opaque or with only a trace of color. The 

 beauty and rarity of the hiddenite distinguish 

 it from the other varieties of spodumene as 

 the emerald is distinguished from the other 

 beryls. The latter species is of much com- 

 moner occurrence than spodumene. The hid- 

 denite is the most beautiful and valuable of 

 American gems, and is the only precious stone 

 found solely in the United States. It possesses 

 all the qualities most valued in precious stones 

 rarity, brilliancy, and evenness of color, 

 transparency, and excessive hardness, and im- 

 mediately took rank among the most costly 

 gem-stones. It has brought the same price 

 per carat as diamonds, and one large stone, 

 weighing 2 karats, has been sold for over 

 $125 a carat, though not a perfect specimen. 

 The name given to it by lapidaries is the lithia- 

 emerald. It was so named on account of the 

 presence of over seven per cent of lithia in the 

 stone, a substance which is not found in the 

 beryl emerald. Lapidaries find it a difficult 

 stone to cut, on account of its perfect cleavage 

 in two directions. The coloring matter to 

 which its peculiar and beautiful green hue is 

 owing has not been discovered, but is probably 

 vanadium, the coloring agent in variscite. The 

 discovery of the new mineral was first an- 

 nounced by Professor Hidden in 1879, but it 

 was first observed by I. A. D. Chamberlain in 

 1876. The color of the finest crystals is a deep 

 emerald- green. Owing to their dichroism, the 

 gems cut from them possess a peculiar fire, 

 which is wanting to the true emerald. 



HOLLAND, JOSIAH GILBERT, born in Bel- 

 chertown, Massachusetts, July 24, 1819; died 

 in New York city, October 12, 1881, aged six- 

 ty-three. Dr. Holland graduated at the Berk- 

 shire Medical School in Pittsfield, Massachu- 

 setts, and practiced his profession three years. 

 He then removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, 

 where he edited a literary paper for a short 

 time. Going to Vicksburg, Mississippi, he lived 

 there a year as Superintendent of Public 

 Schools, after which he returned to Spring- 

 field and became, in 1849, associate editor of 

 the " Republican," and, two years later, one 

 of the owners of that paper. His connection 

 with the "Republican" continued until 1866, 

 when he sold his entire interest in it, and with- 

 drew from newspaper business, although his 

 career in journalism had been prosperous and 

 lucrative. During his association with the 

 " Republican," Dr. Holland entered upon the 



