Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AN-THROP'O-LITE, n. [Gr. ανθρωπος, man, and λιθος, a stone.]

A petrifaction of the human body or skeleton, or of parts of the body. Some naturalists have asserted that skeletons of the animal frame have been found petrified in old mines; but the fact is not credited, and the existence of such petrifactions is denied. – Encyc. Capt. Wilford informs us, that in digging a well near the Ganga, some persons found, at the depth of 90 feet, on an old bed of that river, the bones of men and quadrupeds supposed to be petrifactions. Asiat. Res. 8, 294. The skeleton of a man has been found in a limestone rock of recent formation, in Guadaloupe. – Ed. Encyc. Human bones have also been found by Prof. Buckland, in the open cave of Paviland, Glamorganshire. He considers them postdiluvian. – Quart. Rev. v. 29, p. 148.