Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HE-PAT'IC, or HE-PAT'IC-AL, a. [L. hepaticus; Gr. ηπατικος, from ηπαρ, the liver.]

Pertaining to the liver; as, hepatic gall; hepatic pain; hepatic artery; hepatic flux. Quincy. Arbuthnot. Hepatic air or gas, is a fetid vapor or elastic fluid omitted from combinations of sulphur with alkalies, earths and metals. Nicholson. Encyc. This species of air is now called sulphureted hydrogen gas. Fourcroy. Hepatic mercurial ore, compact sulphuret of mercury or cinnabar, a mineral of a reddish, or reddish brown, or dark red color. Its streak is dark red, and has some luster. It occurs in compact masses, with an even or fine grained fracture. Hepatic pyrite, hepatic sulphuret of iron. During the process of decomposition of this ore, by which the sulphur is more or less disengaged, the pyrite is converted, either wholly or in part, into a compact oxyd of iron of a liver brown color; hence its name. Cleaveland.