PREFACE. 



This catalogue was commenced in the year 1867 for use in arranging 

 the collections of the School of Mines of Columbia College, but after 

 many mouths' labor, when the work was nearly completed up to that 

 date, it was abandoned on account of the press of other duties. The 

 collections have since that time increased to such an extent that the 

 necessity of a Museum catalogue has impressed itself upon me many 

 times, but other duties prevented my taking it up. In the last year, 

 however, having occasion to make some investigations and finding it 

 almost impossible to get at the different synonyms of the various min- 

 erals on account of the imperfections of the indices of the various works, 

 the work was taken up again and finished. 



It was found that the progress of the science since 1867 had been so 

 great that the work previously done had to be altogether abandoned, 

 so that all that is left of it is the general plan. It is hardly to be hoped 

 that this catalogue is without errors, or that every name which has been 

 published has been found. There are, however, several thousand more 

 names contained in it than in any other published index. 



In doing the work there have been consulted first of all the collections 

 of the School of Mines, and also the following works : 



(1) Dana's System of Mineralogy. New York, 1885. 



(2) Dana's first, second, and third Supplements. New York, 1885. 



(3) American Journal of Science, 1880 to 1885. 



(4) Elemente der Mineralogie. Naumann. Tenth edition. Leipsic. 1877. 



(5) Cours de Mineralogie. Delafosse. 3 vols. Paris, 1862. 



(6) Traits de Mineralogie. Dufrenoy. 5 vols. Second edition. 1859. 



(7) Websky die Minerale Species. Breslan, 1868. 



(8) Readwin's Index Mineralogy. London, 1867. 



(9) Bristow's Glossary Mineralogy. London, 1861. 



(10) Plattner's Blowpipe Analysis. New York, 1873. 



(11) Cleaveland's Mineralogy. Second edition. 1822. 



(12) The Bulletin de la Society Min6ralogique de France. 



(13) Zeitschrift fur Krystallographio und Mineralogie. 1877 to 1886. 



(14) Mohs's Grundriss der Mineralogie. Dresden, 1822. 



(15) Haidinger's Translation of Mohs. Edinburgh, 1825. 



(16) Mineralogical Magazine. London, 1877 to 1884. 



Kone of these have been found, after careful observation, to have had 

 a complete index. The need of such a collection of synonyms has been 

 such a necessity in the management of the collection of the School of 

 Mines that it is hoped it will be found to be useful in other museums. 



The names of the species have been printed in capitals, those of 

 doubtful species in italics, and those of synonyms in ordinary type. As 



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