The Natural History of Igneous Rocks

Abstract

FOR some time the need of a text-book of general petrology in English has been acutely felt, owing to the rapid progress which the science has made in theoretical subjects and the inaccessibility of many of the original memoirs to students and teachers. Most text-books treat the subject from a purely descriptive point of view, and the speculative developments are kept in the background. In fact the literature of descriptive petrology is now so large that an attempt to extract the general conclusions to be deduced from the observations becomes of greater importance than merely to add to the number of ascertained facts. In a book of about four hundred pages Mr. Harker endeavours to meet this demand, and has covered so wide a range and compressed so much information into this brief space that he has achieved a very large measure of success.

The Natural History of Igneous Rocks.

By A. Harker. Pp. xvi + 384. (London: Methuen, 1909.) Price 12s. 6d. net.