RevieiDS — Professor H. A. Miers Mineralogy. 165 



II. — Mineralogy : an Introduction to the Scientific Study of 

 Minerals. By Henry A. Miers, D.Sc, M.A., F.E.S., Professor 

 of Mineralogy in the University of Oxford, pp. xviii and 584, 

 with two coloured plates and 716 illustrations in the text. 

 (London : Macmillan & Co., 1902. Price 25s. net.) 



HITHERTO, when asked to recommend a textbook on mineralogy, 

 one has been at a loss to name a book suited to the needs of 

 the student or serious general reader. With the appearance of 

 Professor Miers' long-promised work, this difficulty vanishes, and the 

 book may be unhesitatingly recommended as a really readable work, 

 setting forth the principles of scientific mineralogy, and not unduly 

 burdened with facts and technical details. Most of the textbooks 

 hitherto attempted are little more than catalogues of the characters 

 (often imperfectly determined) of mineral species,and of the localities, 

 more or less uninteresting, where they are found. Much of this 

 tedious detail, only in place in larger works of reference, has 

 been omitted in the present book ; Professor Miers has clothed the 

 dry bones of mineralogy and produced a work full of life and interest. 

 Had such an introduction to the study of mineralogy appeared years 

 ago, there can be little doubt but that the science would be a more 

 popular study than it now is in this country. 



One of the most striking features of the book is its wealth of 

 illustration. The numerous figures, all original be it noted, are in 

 every way excellent; indeed, it would be possible to gain a very 

 good idea of the subject by simply studying the figures and the 

 lucid explanations with which they are accompanied. The repre- 

 sentation of minerals as they actually occur in nature, in addition to 

 idealized outline drawings of crystals, has been attempted in but 

 few works on mineralogy, and, as far as we know, in no English 

 textbook hitherto published. Many of these in the present work 

 have been reproduced directly from actual specimens by photographic 

 processes. Photographic reproduction, however, frequently fails to 

 bring out the relation between the planes and edges of the crystals 

 represented; this difficully has been overcome in the present work 

 by reproducing artistic black and white drawings of actual specimens, 

 the characteristic features of which are brought into special prominence. 

 The lines representing the edges of the crystals in many of these 

 figures might with advantage be a little less heavy, but otherwise 

 they are altogether excellent. In addition to the figures in the text 

 are two coloured plates, the one representing an interference figure 

 as seen in monochromatic light and the other the same figure seen 

 in white light. Eeproduced directly by photography and three- 

 €olour printing, these figures are probably the first of their kind to 

 appear in textbook illustration. 



The subject-matter of the book is divided into two parts of about 

 the same length, each of which presents several novelties of 

 treatment. Part I deals with the essential properties of minerals, 

 and Part II consists of a description of the more important mineral 

 species. The first chapter of the book, treating of geometrical 

 ^crystallography, will give the beginner a clear idea of the symmetry 



