374 i WHITMAN CROSS 
little new in the construction of the system that no further anal- 
ysis of it seems necessary. 
No influence of Cordier’s principles | can be detected in mod- 
ern systems for the classification of rocks. The importance of 
his system from the standpoint of this review lies in the retard- 
ing influence it exerted for several decades over the development 
of the science in the country where Brongniart had laid such 
logical foundations. But it seems to the writer that it was after 
all not so much the inherent weakness of Cordier’s system as it 
was his domination over the thought of his countrymen, toa 
degree possible only in France, that retarded progress for so 
long. It is significant to recall that D’Orbigny’s last presenta- 
tion of the system appeared two years later than the Lehrbuch of 
Zirkel, but far more so to note, in confirmation of the opinion 
just expressed, that it was published eleven years after an 
important treatise on rocks, issued in Paris by a French geolo- 
gist of renown, presenting a broad and logical view of petro- 
graphic system, which was not even referred to by D’Orbigny. 
Ai. Coquand, 1858.—In 1858 there was published in Paris a 
work by H. Coquand, the title of which, translated, is as follows: 
A Treatise on Rocks, Considered from the Point of View of Their 
Origin, Their Composition, Their Occurrence, and Their Use in Geology 
and Industry. This book has over four hundred pages, and con- 
tains a classification of rocks very different from any earlier or 
contemporary scheme, but it has received very little recognition 
in spite of its merits. Coquand was professor of mineralogy and 
geology in the College of Besancon. Possibly he did not belong 
to the distinguished coterie of Parisian geologists, and in that 
case the fact that he should come out with a system full of 
originality, strongly opposing that of Cordier, who was still 
alive, may have been regarded by his contemporaries as such a 
flagrant violation of unwritten law that the only course open to 
them was to ignore his proposed scheme of classification. 
The title of Coquand’s treatise shows at once how completely 
he had broken away from the traditions of his countrymen. His 
classification has little in common with other French systems, 
