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Art. XII. ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



I. ^/i Elementary Introduction to the Knowledge of Mineralogy ; 

 comprising some Account of the Characters and Elements of 

 Minerals; Explanations of Terms in common use; Descriptions 

 of Minerals, with Accounts of the Places and Circumstances in 

 ■which they are found ; and especially the Localities of British 

 minerals. By William Phillips, F.L. S., M. G. S., L. &C. 

 &c. &C.&C. Third edition, enlarged. 



The third edition of this work has just made its appearance, 

 and we congratulate the mincralogical public on the acquisition. 

 The merits of the two former editions, (especially the second), 

 have stamped a character on the book, that nothing we can say 

 in its praise, can enhance, and have rendered its plan and contents 

 so familiar to the cultivators of mineralogy, that it would be super- 

 fluous to attempt, in this place, a detailed account of them. 

 Taking it for granted, therefore, that few mineralogists, who under- 

 stand English, are unacquainted with the second edition, we shall 

 proceed to show in what respects the present differs from its pre- 

 cursors, and point out the alterations, additions, and improvements, 

 which its indefatigable author has introduced into it. 



For this purpose, we shall begin by quoting some passages 

 from the Advertisement, prefixed to this third edition. 



The most important additions and improvements that have been made, 

 consist, first, in the introduction of notices or descriptions of about eighty 

 minerals, of which the greater part have been discovered since the publi- 

 cation of the preceding edition ; secondlj', in the insertion of the results 

 obtained by a careful examination of most crystalline minerals, as regards 

 their structure and cleavage ; thirdly, in the addition of a figure to the 

 verbal description of raostsubstances found in a crystallized state, represent- 

 ing the primary form, and another the secondary planes in connexion with 

 those of the primary crystal, together with such measurements of the planes 

 as I have been able to obtain, chiefly by means of the reflective goniometer 

 of Dr. Wollastou ; in the fourth place, advantage has been taken of a 

 translation of Berzelius's excellent work on " Tiie use of the Blowpipe in 

 chemical analysis, and the examination of Minerals, by J. G. Children, 

 F. R. S., L. and E., &c." in so far as relates to the more simple experiments 

 with that useful assistant to the student, in recognising minerals ; and, 

 fifthly, the meanings of the names by which minerals are commonly known 

 in this country, are mostly given at the loot of the page, containing the 

 description, except where, being chemical, they manifestly have been 

 derived from the composition of the substance. 



In regard to arrangement, no alteration has been made in this edition, 

 except where new and more satisfactory analyses demanded a change : on 

 the subject of the arrangement therefore, it seems requisite only to add that, 

 having in the first instance adopted it, as being in my own estimation the 

 most advantageous to the student that I could devise, the experience of its 

 utility now induces me to recommend it to him as an instructive method of 

 placing the minerals in his cabinet. 



In this advice, we fully concur, and we believe that the 

 mode of arrangement recommended by our author, has already 

 obtained very general adoption. Since it is a consideration of 



