HEMATITE.
The
hematite is a sesqui-oxide of iron occurring with a fibrous or radiated
structure in mammillated or globular masses, and greatly resembles
malachite in the mode of its formation.
It
is a very common stone, of a dark-red colour, verging upon black.
Properly speaking it is not a precious stone, but it is mentioned here
because it is the first stone that ever was engraved. It is the
material of the cylinders and the vases engraved by the Chaldeans, the
Assyrians, the Medes and Persians, and Phenicians, in the remote time
to which we refer the origin of art.
