Nephrite

Nephrite, a mineral usually called Jade (q.v.), and known also as Beilstein, or Axestone. It is a hard, tough mineral found in Turkestan, in Siberia, in Bhutan, in New Caledonia, in the Marquesas, in British Columbia, and in Alaska. It is a composition of silicate of calcium and magnesium, with lime, alumina, sodium, and protoxide of iron. The bright green of some of the more highly-prized specimens is probably due to oxide of nickel. Some specimens in India (where it is not native) strike fire with steel, and are therefore not pure nephrite. What is most generally known as oriental jade is a pale-greenish nephrite, more or less opaque, very hard, but with a peculiar greasy feeling to the touch. This quality is more often seen in vases, &c., the finer and rarer colours being used for personal ornaments. Much of what is called Oceanic jade, because found in the South Sea Islands and New Zealand, is not true nephrite, but is nevertheless a beautiful and valuable mineral. Nephrite (Greek nephros, 'kidney') was supposed to be a charm against nephritic diseases, and had many other virtues ascribed to it; in China to this day jade ornaments are believed to afford protection from lightning. The old Aryan belief in this may account for the wide distribution of jade ornaments although deposits of the mineral are so limited. The specimens of nephrite obtained from prehistoric 'finds' in Europe were believed to have been imported from Asia. But recently the mineral has been discovered in place at Jordansmühl in Silesia; and the water-worn fragments found at Neuenburger See have probably been derived from some local source not yet detected.