THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 799 



This journal contained several important papers by Dr. Bruce ; 

 among them, the investigation and description of two new mineral 

 species, the native magnesia of Hoboken and the red zinc oxide of 

 Sussex County, New Jersey. These are the first American species 

 described by an American mineralogist. So thoroughly was the work 

 done by Bruce, that these species remain to-day essentially as he de- 

 scribed them, and his papers may well be studied by mineralogists 

 now as models of accuracy and clearness of statement. . . . 



I have mentioned that the importation and exhibition of collec- 

 tions of minerals from Europe had contributed much to excite an in- 

 terest in the study of mineralogy. It was necessary to have known 

 minerals for study and comparison in order properly to determine 

 those obtained by exploration here. In 1805 Colonel George Gibbs, 

 of Rhode Island, for many years a resident in Europe, returned from 

 his travels with a collection of minerals, the most extensive and valu- 

 able ever brought to America. Colonel Gibbs was a zealous cultivator 

 of mineralogy, and, fortunately for science, a young man of wealth. 

 He used his money freely for the purchase of whole cabinets, as well 

 as in personal explorations in search for minerals. 



The larger part of his collection was made by the purchase of two 

 famous European cabinets : one from the heirs of Gigot d'Orcy, a 

 noted French collector, and said to have been the result of forty 

 years' labor ; the other from Count Gregoire de Razamowsky, a Rus- 

 sian nobleman, long resident in Switzerland. D'Orcy's cabinet num- 

 bered over four thousand specimens, chiefly from France, Germany, 

 Italy, and Great Britain ; Razamowsky's contained about six thousand 

 specimens from the Russian Empire, and the remainder principally 

 from Germany and Switzerland ; in all, with the other collections 

 made by Colonel Gibbs, it is said that more than twenty thousand 

 specimens were brought by him to this country. 



In 1807 a portion of this collection was opened in Newport, and 

 many interested in mineralogy made pilgrimages there, to view the 

 treasures it contained. Among others was Professor Silliman, who 

 states, in his diary, that he spent many weeks in studying the minerals 

 with Colonel Gibbs, finding in the latter " a scientific friend and a 

 professional instructor and guide." That Colonel Gibbs reciprocated 

 Professor. Silliman's feelings of friendship there can be no doubt, for, 

 after various offers to deposit his collection for exhibition in Boston, 

 New York, and elsewhere, to the great surprise of Professor Silliman, 

 he proposed to open the cabinet at Yale College, provided rooms 

 should be fitted up for its reception. 



The proposition was promptly responded to by the authorities of 

 the college, and in 1810, 1811, and 1812, under the personal supervision 

 of Colonel Gibbs, it was opened and arranged, and generously placed 

 at the disposition of the institution and the public. The opening of 

 this collection in New Haven formed an important epoch in the history 



