Abstract
THE author of this little book has performed a notable feat, namely, to arrive within a reasonable distance of making a manual process comprehensible by means of the printed word. Nothing will compensate for lack of practice (and patience) in making thin petrographic sections, but much fruitless labour will be avoided by following in Mr. Weather-head‘s steps. Perhaps the most interesting points are his experience with ‘Norbide' (B4C), as an abrasive of extreme hardness, and his use of complementary colours in controlling thickness in the course of preparation of specimens. To have achieved vertical and horizontal sections of eggshell is remarkable. If a blemish may be mentioned it is the use of the phrase "doubly polarized light". Maybe this is scarcely wrong, but it is not traditional, and is apt to mislead. "Between crossed nicols" (even if in these days we use calcite substitutes) seems preferable as a description. But this is a trifle: as a guide to micro-technique, this monograph is a first-class effort.
Petrographic Micro-technique
A Practical Handbook for the Preparation of Thin Sections of Rocks for use with the Petrological Microscope. By A. V. Weatherhead. Pp. x + 102. (London : Arthur Barron, Ltd., 1947.) 12s. 6d. net.
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RAWLINS, F. Petrographic Micro-technique. Nature 161, 626 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161626c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161626c0