Mineralogy

Abstract

DR. HATCH has followed up the publication of his excellent “Introduction to the Study of Petrology,” recently noticed in these pages, by a little book on mineralogy, which will, we think, be of equal service to students. He has recognized the fact that for one person who desires to enter upon a systematic study of mineralogy, regarded as a natural-history science, there are twenty who need only such an amount of mineralogical information as will enable them to profitably commence the study of geology. We think, therefore, that the prominent place given to the felspars, the pyroxenes, the amphiboles, the micas, and similar common rock-forming species in this work, is fully justified; and not less so the unsystematic but convenient grouping of other minerals as “ores and veinstones,” “salts and other useful minerals,” and “gems or precious stones.” De Lap-parent has indeed shown how a classification of minerals according to their mode of occurrence may be employed even in a systematic treatise; but Dr. Hatch's more humble attempt is not open to the criticism to which an ambitious work on the same lines would obviously be liable. It is clear that in a book of this kind there is not much scope for originality of treatment, but Dr. Hatch has admirably united brevity and clearness in his treatment of the crystallographical and physical characters of minerals. His method of giving the names and commonly employed reference letters to the crystal-combinations which he figures is well adapted to prepare the student for consulting larger treatises on the subject. So, too, the reference to the use of symbols, though it must evidently be very slight in a work of the dimensions of that before us, is eminently judicious. A short table of symbols of the chief forms belonging to each system, according to Miller and Naumann,will enable the beginner to recognize the meaning of all the very commonly occurring combinations; and it is clearly inexpedient to attempt more than this in such a very elementary work. We can confidently recommend the book as an excellent summary of mineralogical science, adapted to the wants of the geological student; and we believe the perusal of this small work may even be of advantage to those who desire to enter upon the more systematic study of the science of mineralogy.

Mineralogy.

By Frederick H. Hatch, of the Geological Survey of England and Wales. (London: Whittaker and Co., 1892.)