Obs. Also 7 lithanthrix, 8 lithonthrax. [Mod.L., f. Gr. λίθ-ος stone + ἄνθραξ charcoal.] Used as a scientific name for mineral coal (i.e., ‘coal’ in the mod. sense), in distinction from xylanthrax (charcoal).
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., I. xlvi. 89. The Chiefest commodity … are those Stones Linthancraces [sic: ? read lithantraces], which wee call Sea-coales.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), Lithanthrix, a stony Coal, being a kind of Gagate. Ibid. (1706), (ed. Kersey), Lithanthrax, stony Coal, a kind of Jeat; Pit-coal, or Sea-coal.
a. 1728. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Fossils, I. (1729), I. 165. Lithonthrax, or Coal.
1802. A. Ellicott, Jrnl. (1803), 24. Mines of pit coal (lithanthrax), are … inexhaustible from Pittsburgh many miles down the river.
