450 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. 



A supi)lementary volume to the secoud edition (1875) of Rammels- 

 berg's Ilaudbuch der Mineralcbemie bas recently been issued. It 

 contains the new analyses of the past ten years with extended calcula- 

 tions and discussions of composition after the manner of the earlier 

 volumes. These discussions are always suggestive and often throw 

 important light upon knotty points of chemical relations; the sugges- 

 tions in regard to the connection between species, new and old, are often 

 to the point, but sometimes arbitrary and not suflSciently considered. 

 The concluding part of vol. ix of the Materialien zur Mineralogie Euss- 

 lands, by Kokscharow, including the final pages, has been issued. It 

 contains a new determination of the form of the variety of xanthophyl- 

 lite called waluewite; a discussion of the forms of topaz based upon 

 the work of Des Cloizeaux and X. von Kokscharow, jr., with a large 

 number of calculated angles ; also a description of the new species 

 mursinskite alluded to on a subsequent page. 



The large volume of chemical and geological essays (second series), 

 by T. Sterry Hunt, entitled Mineral Physiology and Physiography, con- 

 tains with other interesting matter an extended chapter giving the 

 author's views on mineral classification as applied to the silicates. A 

 third volume of the Mineral Resources of the United States has been 

 issued, containing, like its predecessors, a large amount of valuable in- 

 formation for those interested in the mining industries of the country. 

 A Catalo:^;ue of Minerals, giving synonyms and also a brief statement 

 of composition, has been prepared by A. U. Chester, and will be found 

 useful by collectors. A work on the diamond {Le Diamant, etc.), by 

 M. Boutan, forms a volume of Fremy's Encyclopedic Chimique. It 

 gives an excellent summary of the subject, with full descriptions of the 

 diamond diggings of -South Africa and Brazil, illustrated by many plates. 



The completion of the tenth volume of Groth's Zeitschrift fiir Krys- 

 tallographie und Mineralogie is marked by the publication of a gen- 

 eral index for the ten volumes. This has been expanded so as to be a 

 very complete repertorium of mineralogical and crystal lographic litera- 

 ture from 1876 to the beginning of 1885. This forms the first two hun- 

 dred pages of the volume, the index proper making up the remainder. 

 A new periodical has been commenced in Vienna, entitled Annalen des 

 k. k. naturhistorischen Hof-museums; it is edited by the director of 

 the Vienna Museum, Dr. Franz Hitter von Hauer, and in addition to 

 the reports and notices connected with the museum it contains articles 

 on subjects in the various branches of the natural sciences. 



CRYSTALLOaRAGHY AND PHYSICAL MINERALOGY. 



Among the contributions to crystallography, perhaps the first place 

 belongs to the monograph on stephanite, by Karl Vrba.* This is a 

 species which has been carefully studied before, and the early deter- 



* For references see tho list of papers on mineral species on a following page. 



