LATER EDITIONS OF THE MINERALOGY 



for future reference. On returning to New Haven, he 

 was induced, probably by Herrick, to continue and com- 

 plete a treatise on the subject and connect it with a 

 system of mineralogy. The System of Mineralogy and 

 Crystallography went to press about the middle of De- 

 cember, and was published in the following spring. It 

 was at once received with favor in Europe as well as in 

 America. The London Athenceum, for example, declared 

 it to be highly creditable to the laborious zeal and science 

 of the author, and equally useful to England and the 

 United States. 



The further growth of this standard work, which, by 

 its successive revisions, has held its place among the chief 

 authorities in mineralogical science, has been thus de- 

 scribed in the American Journal of Science by the younger 

 Professor Dana. He became, with Professor Brush, a 

 most serviceable collaborator, and prepared the sixth 

 edition of his father's work (1892). 



" The first edition of the System of Mineralogy was 

 issued, as has been stated, in 1837, when the author was 

 only twenty-four years old. This large volume shows a 

 close study of the great works of Hauy, Mohs, and Nau- 

 mann, and of others who had preceded. It is, however, 

 more than an industrious compilation from earlier authors, 

 particularly as regards the chapters on crystallogeny 

 and mathematical crystallography. The classification 

 adopted is the so-called natural system, the serious 

 shortcomings of which were later fully appreciated. The 

 nomenclature attempted, devised by him to suit this 

 classification, was on the dual Latin plan ' so advanta- 

 geously pursued in botany and zoology. ' The second edi- 

 tion of the System (1844) preserved these features, but in 

 a supplement a classification based on chemical principles 

 is proposed, and this, further developed, is adopted in 

 the third edition (1850), while the Latin nomenclature is 

 abandoned. 



" In connection with this fundamental change, it seems 

 worth while to quote from the preface of this edition, 



41 



