The rock-like mineral, known as Agalmatolite, derives its name from the Greek word aγuλμa, an image. It has also received the trivial name of Pagodite from Pagoda ; it having been long used by the Chinese as the substance from which they carve their images and pagodas.

The earlier mineralogists confined the above names to hydrated silicates of alumina and potash, doubtless a product of the decomposition, or alteration, of orthoclase felspar ; an intermediate stage in its conversion into the kaolin which is so abundant in the Celestial Empire.

Jameson, Phillips, Allan, Nicol, and all the fathers of mineralogy, admitted no other substance under the name. Nicol, who was a thoroughly well-read mineralogist, writes : “Many substances are named Agalmatolite which are really distinct;” and he clearly defines the species, which he makes the same as that called Agalmatolite in the present communication.