[ad. Gr. λιθικός, f. λίθος stone.] A. adj.
1. Chem. and Path. Of or pertaining to ‘stone’ or calculi in the bladder. † Lithic acid: an obsolete name for uric acid.
1797. Wollaston, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVII. 386. A peculiar concrete acid, which, since his [Scheele’s] time has received the name of lithic. Ibid., 393. The appearance of the lithic strata … shews that they are … an accidental deposit.
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 350. Small quantities of uncombined lithic, or, as it is now called, uric acid.
1821. W. Prout, Gravel, Calculus, etc. 223. A small or moderately sized lithic calculus in the bladder.
1845. Budd, Dis. Liver, 37. The efficacy of alkalies in preventing the deposit of lithic gravel in the urine.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 445. Urinary deposits, which consist of the normal elements of the Urine,—namely, Lithic Acid, and the Phosphates.
1876. Gross, Dis. Bladder, 180. The uric, or lithic, acid calculus.
2. gen. Of or pertaining to stone; consisting of stone. Lithic age, the ‘stone age’ of Archæology.
1862. Lowell, Biglow P., 93. This remarkable example of lithick literature. [Quasi-archaic.]
1865–7. J. Fergusson, Hist. Archit. (1874), I. 35. The best lithic ornaments are those which approach nearest to the grace and pliancy of plants.
1874. Contemp. Rev., XXIV. 762. The architecture … of St. Paul’s is lithic, and suitable to no other material than stone.
1883. N. Joly, Man bef. Metals, I. i. § 3. 23. Even in our day groups of men exist who are still in their lithic age.
B. sb. A medicine given for stone in the bladder (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1893).
