Abstract
A FEW words relative to the collection of minerals which has just been distributed among various museums by Mr. J. C. Williams, M.P. for the Truro Division of Cornwall, will be of general interest. This collection had been gradually brought together by the father and grandfather of Mr. Williams; it was removed nearly thirty years ago from Scorrier, where Mr. Michael Williams formerly lived, to Caerhays Castle, nine miles from the nearest railway station (St. Austell), and it has since been too remote from the ordinary line of travel to be of easy access to visitors. It was in this collection, while it was still at Scorrier, that my predecessor, Prof. Maskelyne, F.R.S., noticed in 1863 the specimen of connellite from which it seemed to him that the first crystallographic measurements might be obtained: the specimen was presented by Mr. Michael Williams to Mr. Maskelyne for the British Museum, and has ever since been on exhibition in the Gallery. As the crystals were only th of an inch in thickness, the determination of their form was a noteworthy piece of scientific work; and it may be observed that the more recent discovery of larger crystals of the same beautiful mineral in another Cornish locality has only served to confirm the remarkable accuracy with which the form of those acicular crystals was then determined.
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FLETCHER, L. The Williams Collection of Minerals. Nature 48, 357–358 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/048357a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/048357a0