IS 13.] Analyses of Books. HI 



Article XIII. 



Analyses of Books. 



Tableau Methodique des Especes Minerales, Seconde Partie ', 

 Contenant : la Distribution methodique des Especes Minerales, 

 extraite du Tableau Cristallographique publie par M. Haiiy en 

 1809, leur Synonymies Frangaise, Allemande, Italienne, Es- 

 pagnole, et Anglalse, avec Vindication de leur Gisment; aux- 

 quelles on a joint la Description abregee de la Collection de 

 Minereaux du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle et celle des Especes 

 et des Farietcs obiervees depuis I806,jusq'en 1812, par I. A. H. 

 Lucas, adjoint a soji Pere, Garde des Galeries du Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle el Agent de VInstitut Imperial de France^ 

 Membre de plusieurs Societes Savanles. Paris, IS 13. 



This book is chiefly interesting because it shows us the present 

 state of mineralogy in the French capital, and makes us ac- 

 quainted with the additional facts ascertained by Haliy (it would 

 appear the only mineralogist in Paris) since the publication of his 

 Tableau Comparatif in 1806. As the French mineralogists 

 confine themselves chiefly to crystallized minerals, and are not 

 acquainted with the method of describing minerals by their 

 external characters, it is hardly possible to make their labours 

 intelligible, except by figures. And as Lucas gives no figures, 

 the utility of his work is in a great measure confined to those 

 persons who are employed in studying mineralogy under Haiiy. 

 The localities of the different minerals which he has added are 

 likewise of considerable value; and the notes, copied from various 

 new publications, some of which are unknown in Great Britain, 

 give the work an additional value to the English reader. Instead 

 of a regular analysis of this book, which would be of no use, I 

 shall endeavour to collect from it the improvements which Haiiy 

 has introduced into his system since the original publication of 

 his Mineralogie in 1801. 



1. Haiiy, as is known, I presume, to most of my readers, has 

 invented a new name for almost every mineral species. These 

 innovations, originating, it is difficult to conceive from what 

 cause, have been highly approved of by the French in general. 

 And M. Lucas, to enable foreigners to participate in the bless- 

 ing of these new names, has been at the trouble to get the 

 1 la ; van nomenclature translated into German, Italian, Spanish, 

 English, and Latin. The English translator, he tells us, is Dr. 

 Hussel, we presume an American. Unluckily, the translation 

 is so little accommodated to our language, that it could not be 

 used without exciting ludicrous ideas; the adjective being 

 always placed after the substantive, a position which our lau- 



