Abstract
THE methods of mineral determination here advocated by the author have been found useful by him as a prospector beyond the reach of laboratories. He has no doubt observed that a student who has passed through an ordinary course of chemistry is still poorly equipped for dealing with natural chemical compounds as they are presented to him in the field. In some colleges, however, the chemical curriculum includes a course in practical mineralogy, in which field conditions are, so far as possible, reproduced. Even Mr. McGrigor's book will not do away with the desirability of a sound course of inorganic chemistry as a prelude to such work as he marks out, and few will agree that this foundation should involve only “a very short period of instruction.” The student of chemistry, for instance, will know that when Mr. McGrigor speaks of substances containing sulphur on p. 13, he means sulphides, and that there are also such things as sulphates; he will note the slip on p. 12, where the weight in air divided by the weight in water is said to give the specific gravity of a substance; and he will know (p. 19) that the oxidising flame does not “impart” oxygen to the material under examination. Possibly he will never have used microcosmic salt, and this is just where the author might have helped him (p. 22), by pointing1 out cases where it provides conclusive tests, instead of suggesting that it gives the same results as borax. Sir Warington Smyth is cited as the authority for some of these statements; but the author's practice must have led him somewhat farther.
Field Analysis of Minerals for the Prospector, Mining Engineer, Traveller, and Student.
By G. D. McGrigor. Pp. 86. (London: The Mining Magazine, 1915.) Price 3s. 6d. net.
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C., G. Field Analysis of Minerals for the Prospector, Mining Engineer, Traveller, and Student . Nature 96, 479 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/096479a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/096479a0