Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HEP'A-TITE, n.

A gem or mineral that takes its name from the liver. Plin. L. 37, 11. Hepatite is a name given to the fetid sulphate of baryta. It sometimes occurs in globular masses, and is either compact or of a foliated structure. By friction or the application of heat, it exhales a fetid odor, like that of sulphureted hydrogen. Cleaveland.