390 Miscellanies. 



moreover again arranged according to their specific gravity. The 

 manner of using these tables is next explained. They cannot fail 

 to be of great utility. We have no where seen given any method 

 by the use of which the student can so surely and so readily arrive 

 at the names of minerals. 



Part VI, opens with the catalogue in full, of the classes, orders, 

 genera and species of the mineral kingdom, arranged according to 

 their natural affinities ; the nomenclature being in the Latin tongue, in 

 conformity with the practice in other departments. This reforma- 

 tion of the nomenclature of Mineralogy, is by no means the smallest 

 merit of the peculiarities of this work. Hitherto, since the abandon- 

 ment of the systenris of some of the successors of Linnaeus, this part 

 of science has been " a jumble of terms derived from almost every 

 language, whether dead or living, and almost every system, founded 

 upon no common principle, and equally destitute of precision and 

 simplicity." The Latin is the only tongue in which the names of 

 minerals can constitute a common language throughout the civilized 

 world ; and the mode of denominating the species by a binary name, 

 which has so long been advantageously employed in zoology and 

 botany, will doubtless be found equally useful in mineralogy. The 

 construction of so many new words was certainly a work of difficulty, 

 yet the task has been very successfully performed. We think that 

 among these names, there will be found less to offend the ear and to 

 embarrass the organs of utterance, than in an equal number taken at 

 random from any book of descriptive botany or zoology. 



The descriptions of species are next given, and occupy nearly three 

 hundred pages. They are succinct and methodical, and in most 

 cases illustrated by figures of the more common secondary forms. 

 To the descriptions are added the composition, economical uses, and 

 localities, together with any other particulars of interest. Accom- 

 panying the trivial names, are copious catalogues of synonyms, which 

 are rendered available to the inquirer, by being registered in the 

 index. 



We pass now to Appendix A, (occupying 80 pages,) which is a 

 very important portion of the work, and one of its chief peculiarities. 

 It is entirely occupied with a treatise on the application of mathemat- 

 ical calculation to crystallographic investigation. This portion is the 

 more worthy of attention, since nothing on the subject has ever been 

 published in this country. Its character is sufficiently stated when we 

 say that it is a judicious abstract of Naumann's unrivalled work on 



