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CHALCEDONY, or CALCEDONY (sometimes called by old writers cassidoine)
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CHALCEDONY, or CALCEDONY (sometimes called by old writers cassidoine), a variety of native silica, often used as an ornamental stone. The present application of the term is comparatively modern. The " chalcedonius " of Pliny was quite a different mineral, being a green stone from the copper-mines of Chalcedon, in Asia Minor, whence the name. There has been some confusion between chalcedony andthe ancient "carcedonia," a stone which seems to have been a carbuncle from Africa, brought by way of Carthage (KapXi6wv). Our chalcedony was probably included by the ancients among the various kinds of jasper and agate, especially the varieties termed " leucachates "