THE NOMENCLATURE OF MINERALS. 



By AUSTIN F. ROGERS. 



(Received May 14, 1913.) 



About five thousand mineral names are in use or have been pro- 

 posed/ These names are, of course, mainly varieties and synonyms. 

 Many of them have been discarded and are gradually disappearing 

 from the literature. Even some of the Germans are dropping such 

 names as kiipferglana and eisenkies and are using the international 

 names, chalcocite and pyrite in this instance. Thanks to the fifth 

 edition of Dana's " System of Mineralogy " the synonymy has been 

 pretty thoroughly worked out and most of the names used for the 

 distinctive minerals are well established. 



Though there are about five thousand mineral names, there 

 are not more than a thousand distinctive minerals '• 



The distinctive minerals are usually called " simple minerals," 

 " definite minerals," "mineral species," or " definite mineral species." 

 It is necessary to use some such term, for the word mineral is used 

 (i) as a general term for the inorganic constituents of the earth's 

 crust, (2) in a popular way for a metallic substance of commercial 

 value that is mined or quarried and (3) in a restricted sense for a 

 natural inorganic substance of definite chemical composition.^ 



The term most used is " mineral species," borrowing a biological 

 term. In this connection it is interesting to note that a binominal 



^ The most complete list of mineral names available is found in the 

 " Mineralogisthes Taschenbuch " of the Vienna Mineralogical Society pub- 

 lished at Vienna in 1911. 



2 In Dana's " System " and Appendices up to the year 1909, 951 minerals 

 are given. In Groth's " Tabellarische Uebersicht der Mineralien " (1908) 

 there are 829. In the " Mineralogisches Taschenbuch " of the Vienna 

 Mineralogical Society (1911) there are 972 (including 22 hydrocarbons not 

 given by Dana and Groth). So the number of distinctive minerals is, in round 

 numbers, 1,000. 



3 For an interesting discussion of the use of the word mineral see an 

 article by J. W. Gregory, Trans. Institution of Mining Engineers, 1909. 



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