Troost on the Pyroxene* 
51 
On Pyroxene. By G. Troost, M. D. of New Harmony— 
Professor of Mineralogy to the Philadelphia Museum. 
Read April 23, 1827. 
The word Schorl has very properly been abandoned by 
most mineralogists, excepting Werner and some of his fol- 
lowers, as Jameson, and our countryman Cleaveland. A 
word which has caused so much confusion in the science, 
ought to have been discarded long since, as it conveys no 
idea; and its etymology is unknown, even in the language 
in which it was first employed. 
Among the mineral substances to which this name was 
formerly applied, is Pyroxene, then known by the name 
of Volcanic Schorl, the Augite of Werner and Cleaveland. 
It is unnecessary to dwell on the term Pyroxene, which 
signifies, according to Hauy, a guest, or stranger in the do- 
minion of fire;* every mineralogist knows what is meant 
by it 
As this species has now become the type of a large min- 
eral family, and which is, as yet, but imperfectly understood, 
I shall offer a description .of the substances now considered 
varieties of Pyroxene, though some still think them differ- 
ent species. In my arrangement, I shall principally follow 
Lemar, These substances are the ^Ikalite, or Diopside^ 
Baikalite^ Coccolite, Fassaite, or the Pyrgons, Sherzolitej 
Mussite, and SaJiUte. 
Pyroxene may be easily mistaken for Amphibole, as 
the former is an assemblage of substances, which, at first 
sight, seems to be very unlike, compared with each other^ 
but is distinguished from Amphibole, by the primitive 
nucleus of its crystals, in all its varieties. This is an ob- 
lique rhomboidal prism, in which the inclinations of the 
sides of the prism are to each other 87° 42' and 92° 18'; the 
* Hote ou etraiiger dans le domain de feu 
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