150 Chronicles of Science. |Jan 
Glossary by Bristow,* which last will be found one of the most useful 
of books to the young student in this interesting field, the science of 
minerals makes no advance. This is referable to the cumbrous, un- 
natural, and confusing nomenclature which besets it. To call oxide of 
tin, Cassiterite, because it is found in a place which probably was at 
one time called The Cassiterides,—aud to name Copper-glance, or di- 
sulphide of copper, Redruthite, on the erroneous supposition that the 
best specimens of this Mineral are found near Redruth, is neither more 
nor less than absurd. It is hoped that the system of exact nomen- 
clature which has tended so much to advance Chemical science, will 
ere long be applied to Mineralogy. 
There has recently been published in Paris a valuable Manual of 
Mineralogy,t to which we direct the attention of students. It was, 
the author informs us, his first intention to have translated the ex- 
cellent work on this science by Brooke and Miller. He was, however, 
induced by some considerations, connected chiefly with the optical 
section of the science, to write a new book, of which the first volume 
only is published. To those students of Mineralogy who desire to 
enter earnestly on the study of Crystallography—and the optical 
characters of crystals—this Manual will be a valuable aid. The 
completeness with which the localities of the mineral described are 
given, renders this work an example to some of our English Mineralo- 
gists, who have not shown the requisite caution in determining these 
with exactness. Indeed, by trusting to some of these, M. Des Cloizeaux 
has occasionally been led astray. 
Dr. Wedding, of Bonn, has directed attention to an ore of alumi- 
nium occurring at Baux, near Avignon; hence it has been named 
Bauwite. According to Meissionier, it penetrates the chalk as a vein- 
like mass for a length of nearly two miles. This ore has been mistaken 
for an iron ore, and employed as such. It consists essentially of 
alumina and peroxide of iron—which reciprocally replace each other 
—and water. It contains also small quantities of silicic acid, tita- 
nium, and vanadium; some varieties contain about 80 per cent. of 
alumina, and others almost as much oxide of iron. This ore is 
applied by MM. Morin and Co. of Nanterre, and Messrs. Bell of 
Newcastle, to the manufacture of aluminium. 
The discovery of rock-salt at Middleton-on-Tees, by Messrs. 
Bolchow and Vaughan, is of great probable importance. A bed of 
rock-salt 99 feet in thickness has been pierced by boring at the 
depth of 1,206 feet from the surface. Mr. Marley’s paper on this 
discovery, which was read at the Newcastle Meeting of the British 
Association, is about to be published in a revised form by the 
Institute of Mining Engineers—to this we shall again refer. 
Professor N. 8. Maskelyne and Dr. Viktor Von Lang, of the 
British Museum, have contributed some interesting notices of Aérolites, 
which are supposed to have fallen within recent years.~ These 
* « A Glossary of Mineralogy.’ By Henry William Bristow, F.G.8. 
+ ‘Manuel de Minéralogie.’ Par A. Des Cloizeaux, Tom.i. Paris: Dunod, 
t ' Philosophical Magazine,’ August, 1863. 
