Miscellanies. 387 



11. .^ System of Mineralogy : including an extended Treatise on 

 Crystallography : with an Appendix, containing the application of 

 Mathematics to crystallograpkic investigation, and a Mineralogical 

 Bibliography. With 250 wood cuts and four copperplates, con- 

 taining 150 additional figures. By James Dwight Dana, A. M. 

 Assistant in the department of Chenaistry, Mineralogy and Geology 

 in Yale College ; member of the Yale Nat. Hist. Soc., and of vari- 

 ous other scientific societies. " Hcec studia nobiscum peregrinantur, 

 rusticantur." New Haven : Published by Durrie h Peck, and 

 Herrick h Noyes, 1837, large 8vo. pp. xiv and 580. 



We consider this volume a very important accession to our min- 

 eralogical Hterature, and one which we are sure will be gladly wel- 

 comed by every lover of science. A work of this extent and value 

 has just claims upon us for a notice of its distinctive features and 

 some general account of its contents. 



The body of the work consists of six distinct parts, viz. 



Part 1. Crystallology, or the science of the structure of minerals, 

 p. 5-68. 



2. Physical properties of minerals, p. 71-86. 



3. Chemical properties of minerals, p. 87-90. 



4. Taxonomy, or principles of classification and nomencla- 



ture, p. 92-103. 



6. Determinative mineralogy, p. 105-148.* 



6. Descriptive mineralogy, p. 145-445. 

 In Part I, we have, after the usual preliminary definitions, a com- 

 parative view of the primary forms, accompanied by an analytical 

 table which shows at a glance their mutual affinities and dependen- 

 cies ; after which are descriptions of the primaries and the particulars 

 of their mutual relations, with illustrative figures so arranged as to 

 exhibit the transition of one form into another. Next follow remarks 

 on the crystallographic axes of crystals, and a classification thence 

 resulting of these forms into what are termed Systems of Crystalli- 

 zation, which are seven in number. This mode of grouping the 

 primary forms is, to use the words of Whewell, " so scientific and 

 yet so simple, that it is irresistibly superseding the older Haiiyian 

 arrangement, and the more so, as it is strikingly confirmed by the 

 optical properties of crystals." The practical value of this classifi- 

 cation is apparent in the first Analytical Table given by the author 

 for the determination of species, inasmuch as we may often decide 

 to which of these systems a mineral under examination pertains, 



