The birefringent effect (using calcite) was first described by the Danish scientist Rasmus Bartholin in 1669.
calcite |
Cave popcorn, small nodes of calcite, aragonite or gypsum that form on surfaces in caves
John William Dawson (1865) described the banded structures of coarsely crystalline calcite and serpentine as a gigantic Foraminifera, making it the oldest known fossil.
He called the new mineral silico-boro-calcite; it was given the name howlite by James Dwight Dana shortly thereafter.