GROWTH OF MINERALOGY 281 



reason the number of American writers who have pub- 

 lished what may be called casual papers on mineralogy 

 is very great in comparison to the number of those who 

 continue such publications over a series of years. 



That the subject of meteorites is one which has been 

 constantly studied by American mineralogists and petrog- 

 raphers is shown by the long list of papers concerning it 

 that have been published in the Journal ; it should, there- 

 fore, be considered briefly here. Many of these papers 

 are short and of a general descriptive nature but others 

 which give more fully the chemical, mineralogical and 

 physical details are numerous. Among the earlier 

 writers on this subject Benjamin Silliman, Jr., and C. U. 

 Shepard should be mentioned. The latter was the first 

 to recognize a new mineral in the Bishopville meteorite 

 which he called chladnite. The same substance was 

 afterwards found in a terrestial occurrence and was more 

 accurately described by Kenngott under the name of 

 enstatite. J. Lawrence Smith later showed that these 

 two substances were identical. Smith did a large 

 amount of important chemical work on meteorites. He 

 was the first to note the presence of ferrous chloride in 

 meteoric iron, the mineral being afterwards named law- 

 rencite in his honor. The iron-chronium sulphide, 

 daubreeiite, was also first described by him. Other 

 names that should be mentioned in this connection are 

 those of A. W. Wright who studied the gaseous con- 

 stituents of meteorites, G. F. Kunz, W. E. Hidden, A. E. 

 Foote and H. A. Ward, all of whom published numerous 

 descriptions of these bodies. Among the more recent 

 workers in this field the names of G. P. Merrill and 0. C. 

 Farrington deserve especial mention. 



The publication of the Fourth Series of the Journal 

 began in 1896. Although the years since then have seen 

 a great amount of very important work accomplished, the 

 history of the period is fresh in the minds of all and as 

 the majority of the active workers are still living and 

 productive it seems hardly necessary to go into great 

 detail concerning it. Twenty years ago it seemed to 

 some mineralogists that the science could almost be con- 

 sidered complete. All the commoner minerals had cer- 

 tainly been discovered and exhaustively studied. Little 



