390 Miscellanies. 
moreover again arranged according to their specific gravity. ‘The 
manner of using these tables is next explained. They cannot fail — 
to be of great utility. We have no where seen given any method 
by the use of which the student can so surely and so readily arrive 
at the names of minerals. 
Part VI, opens with the catalogue in full, of the classes, orders, 
genera and species of the mineral kingdom, arranged according to 
their natural affinities ; the nomenclature being in the Latin tongue, in 
conformity with the practice in other departments. This reforma- 
tion of the nomenclature of Mineralogy, is by no means the’ smallest 
merit of the peculiarities of this work. Hitherto, since the abandon- 
ment of the systems of some of the successors of Linneus, this part 
of science has been “a jumble of terms derived from almost every 
language, whether dead or living, and almost every system, founded 
upon no common principle, and equally destitute of precision and 
simplicity.” The Latin is the only tongue in which the names of 
minerals can constitute a common language throughout the civilized 
world ; and the mode of denominating the species by a binary name, 
which has so long been advantageously employed in zoology and 
botany, will doubtless be found equally useful in mineralogy. The 
construction of so many new words was certainly a work of difficulty, 
yet the task has been very successfully performed. We think that 
among these names, there will be found less to offend the ear and to 
embarrass the organs of utterance, than in an equal number taken at 
random from any book of descriptive botany or zoology. 
The descriptions of species are next given, and occupy nearly three 
hundred pages. ‘They are succinct and methodical, and in most 
cases illustrated by figures of the more common secondary forms. 
To the descriptions are added the composition, economical uses, and 
localities, together with any other particulars of interest. Accom- 
panying the trivial names, are copious catalogues of synonyms, which 
are rendered available to the inquirer, by being registered in the 
index. 2 
We pass ‘now to Appendix A, (occupying 80 pages,) which is a 
very important portion of the work, and one of its chief peculiarities. 
It is entirely occupied with a treatise on the application of mathemat- 
ical calculation to crystallographic investigation. This portion is the 
more worthy of attention, since nothing on the subject has ever been 
ublished in this country. Its character is sufficiently stated when we 
say that it is a judicious abstract of Naumann’s unrivalled work on 
