Abstract
IN this part of Prof. Tschermak's text-book the discussion of the optical and physical characters of minerals is continued and concluded in a manner more scanty than was perhaps to be anticipated from the first part. The results of many of the most recent additions to our knowledge of the structure of mimetic and twin-crystals, such as milarite, microcline, &c., as shown by their optical properties, are, however, included. In the chemical introduction which follows, too much space is devoted to the exposition of the fundamental principles of chemistry, such as those of equivalents, atoms, and the theory of types; as also to the principal simple tests for the various elements. A fair knowledge of chemistry is absolutely necessary to the mineralogist, and Prof. Tschermak might well have expected his students to bring such a knowledge with them. In this case his exposition is unnecessary, while if the student is ignorant of chemistry, it is hardly likely to be adequate, and it undoubtedly diminishes the space available for the principles of isomorphism and polymorphism.
Tschermak's Lehrbuch der Mineralogie.
Part II. (Vienna: Alfred Hölder.)
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 26, 364 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026364a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026364a0