[ad. mod.L. lithologia or F. lithologie: see LITHO- and -LOGY.]
1. That department of mineralogy that treats of the nature and composition of stones and rocks. Also, the lithological characters of rocks, etc.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., III. 104. Mr. Scheutzer … in his … De Querelis Piscium, seem’s to have quite different Fancies of that subterraneous Ichthyologico-Lithology.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. Theory, 82. A specific difference which it is the business of lithology to mark by some appropriate character, annexed to the generic name of granite.
1870. Athenæum, 22 Jan., 127/3. Considering first the petrology and lithology of rock masses, Prof. Molloy divides the compounds of the earth’s crust into … 3 groups.
1876. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., xvi. 287. In different districts the lithology of these groups will be found to vary.
1877. Le Conte, Elem. Geol., Introd. (1879), 2. A knowledge of mineralogy and lithology is required to understand structural geology.
2. That department of medical science that is concerned with the study of calculi in the human body. Also, a treatise on calculi.
1802. Hooper, Quincy’s Lex.-Med., Lithology, a discourse or treatise on stones.
1828–33. Webster, Lithology … 2. A treatise on stones found in the body. Coxe.
1855. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Lithologia.… Term for the consideration of the nature and different qualities of stones, or of calculi; lithology.
1890. J. S. Billings, Nat. Med. Dict., II. 76.
