Miscellanies. 387 
11. 4 System of Mineralogy: including an extended Treatise on 
Crystallography: with an Appendix, containing the application of 
Mathematics to crystallographic investigation, and a Mineralogical 
Bibliography. With 250 wood cuts and four copperplates, con- 
taining 150 additional figures. By James Dwieut Dana, A. M. 
Assistant in the department of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology 
in Yale College; member of the Yale Nat. Hist. Soc., and of vari- 
ous other scientific societies. “ Hee studia nobiscum peregrinantur, 
rusticantur.” New Haven: Published by Durrie & Peck, and 
Herrick & Noyes, 1837, large Svo. pp. xiv and 580. 
We consider this volume a very important accession to our min- 
eralogical literature, and one which we are sure will be gladly wel- 
comed by every Jover of science. A work of this extent and value 
has just claims upon us for a notice of its distinctive features and 
some general account of its contents. 
The body of the work consists of six distinct parts, viz. 
Part 1. Crystallology, or the science of the structure of minerals, 
. 5-68. 
iS) 
. Physical properties of minerals, p. 71-86. 
Chemical properties of minerals, p. 87-90. 
Taxonomy, or principles of classification and nomencla- 
ture, p. 92-103. 
. Determinative mineralogy, p. 105-148.* 
. Descriptive mineralogy, p. 145-445. 
In Part I, we have, after the usual preliminary definitions, a com- 
parative view of the primary forms, accompanied by an analytical 
table which shows at a glance their mutual affinities and dependen- 
cies ; ‘after which are descriptions of the primaries and the particulars 
of their mutual relations, with illustrative figures so arranged as to 
exhibit the transition of one form into another. Next follow remarks 
on the crystallographic axes of crystals, and a classification thence 
resulting of these forms into what are termed Systems of Crystalli- 
zation, which are seven in number. This mode of grouping the 
primary forms is, to use the words of Waewext, “so scientific and 
yet so simple, that it is irresistibly superseding the older Haiiyian 
arrangement, and the more so, as it is strikingly confirmed by the 
Optical properties of crystals.” ‘The practical value of this classifi- 
a ag 
an 
" ation is apparent in the first Analytical Table given by the author 
for the determination of species, inasmuch as we may often decide 
to which of these systems a mineral under examination pertains, 
