is ; 
NSACTIONS OF THE New YorK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 
Vol. XT, pp. 49-58... 
To replace pp. 49-58 of Nos. 3, 4, 5, 1891-1892. 
‘ES. 49 
January 25th, 1892. 
STATED MEETING. 
Vice-President Dr. Hupsparp in the chair. Eighteen persons 
present. 
The minutes of January 18th were read and approved. 
A letter was read from Dr. Jonn C. Jay, Jr., thanking the 
Academy for the Resolutions adopted in memory of his father, the 
late Dr. Joun C. Jay. 
Dr. Boiron announced that an illustrated lecture would be de- 
livered before the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences by 
Pror. Cuaries V. Rivey, Chief of the Division of Entomology, . 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, on Tuesday, March 2d, 1892. — 
Insects and flowers ; or, the Interrelations of Insects and Plants. 
Members of the Academy were invited to attend. 
The following paper was then read, entitled 
The Origin and History of Mineralogical Names, 
BY ALBERT H. CHESTER, 
with an exhibition of classical works on Mineralogy. 
The study of mineral names is an interesting one, not only from 
the mineralogist’s point of view, as affording an insight into the 
growth and development of this branch of science, but also to the 
student of human nature, for many traits of character are shown in 
the various considerations which have determined the particular 
name to be adopted. 
We sometimes find as a reason for a name the simple idea of dis- 
tinguishing the thing itself; but this is not the most common reason. 
To do honor to some person who may perhaps be pleased or flat- 
tered by the attention, or to immortalize some place, often otherwise 
obscure or unknown, is a much more common reason. Names have 
been given to commemorate battle-fields, to sneer at the work of 
earlier investigators, and as a tribute to feminine loveliness. In 
short the whole round of human passions has been gone over in the 
manufacture of these words, which are purely scientific in their 
uses, and for the making of which scientific methods might well 
have been employed. The subject has also no little interest from 
the philological side,and these names deserve study if only as part 
