362 Review of Dana's Mineralogy. 



monia, all the phosphoric acid which was combined with the 

 alumina remains in the fluid. 



This mineral occurs in large quantity, in South Peru, near the 

 port of Iquique. It invests the well known flesh-colored trachyte, 

 and is mixed with masses of sulphates of ammonia, soda and 

 magnesia, and salts of iron. The careful examinations of these 

 saline deposits of Peru, by Mr. John H. Blake, led to the dis- 

 covery of this mineral, and I have named it in compliment to 

 John Pickering, Esq., the learned and distinguished President of 

 the American Academy of Sciences. 



Roxbury Laboratory, March 8, 1844. 



Art. XX. — System of Mineralogy, including the most Recent 

 Discoveries, Foreign and American; 640 pp. large 8vo, with 

 320 Wood Cuts, and four Copper Plates, containing 150 ad- 

 ditional Figures. By James D. Dana, A. M. London and 

 New York : Wiley & Putnam. 1844. 



It is seven years since we had the pleasure of announcing the 

 first edition of this valuable work. (Yol. xxxn, p. 387.) The 

 sale of a large edition of a book so purely scientific in this space 

 of time gives good evidence alike of the growing interest in the 

 subject in America, and of the high place which Mr. Dana's sys- 

 tem holds in the estimation of mineralogists. During the period 

 which has passed since the appearance of the first edition, the 

 science of mineralogy has made rapid advances both in Europe 

 and in this country. Abroad, many eminent chemists have been 

 working up the obscure parts of the subject, and throwing new 

 light on those better known. "The progress in analysis is espe- 

 cially apparent in the growing interest excited for the natural 

 method of classification, and the opening prospect that, before 

 long, the chemical and natural systems will be identical. There 

 formerly seemed to be no bond of union between the species, 

 hornblende, augite, tabular spar, acmite, and manganese spar, and 

 in chemical methods we have found one with the ores of man- 

 ganese, another with those of iron, another with salts of lime, 

 and so on ; but even Chemistry now suggests the natural system 

 of arrangement, and demands their union in a single family, as 

 given in some of the latest chemical treatises. Numerous other 



