276 A CENTURY OF SCIENCE 



A great many new mineral names were proposed 

 between 1850 and 1870, a large number of which have con- 

 tinued to be well-recognized species. But there was 

 also a tendency, which has not wholly disappeared even 

 now, to base a mineral determination upon insufficient 

 evidence, and to propose a new species with but little 

 justification for it. In this connection a quotation from 

 the introduction by J. D. Dana to the 3rd Supplement to 

 the System of Mineralogy (4th edition) published in the 

 Journal (22, page 246, 1856), will be of interest. He 

 says: 



"It is a matter of regret, that mineral species are so often 

 brought out, especially in this country, without sufficient inves- 

 tigation and full description. It is not meeting the just 

 demands of the science of mineralogy to say that a mineral has 

 probably certain constituents, or to state the composition in a 

 general way without a complete and detailed analysis, especially 

 when there are no crystallographic characters to afford the 

 species a good foundation. We have a right to demand that 

 those who name species, should use all the means the science of 

 the age admits of, to prove that the species is one that nature 

 will own, for only such belong to science, and if enough of the 

 material has not been found for a good description there is not 

 enough to authorize the introduction of a new name in the 

 science. The publication of factitious species, in whatever 

 department of science, is progress not towards truth, but into 

 regions of error; and often much and long labor is required 

 before the science recovers from these backward steps. ' ' 



J. Lawrence Smith was born in 1818 and died in 1883. 

 He was a graduate of the University of Virginia and of 

 the Medical College of Charleston and later spent three 

 years studying in Paris. Shortly after the completion 

 of his studies he went to Turkey as an advisor to the 

 government of that country in connection with the grow- 

 ing of cotton there. During this time he investigated the 

 emery mines of Asia Minor, and wrote a memoir upon 

 them which was later published by the French Academy. 

 He served as professor of chemistry in the University of 

 Virginia and later held the same chair in the University 

 of Illinois. He published a long series of papers on the 

 chemical composition of minerals and meteorites, as well 

 as on pure chemical subjects. Among the more notable 



