April 14, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



585 



It must be welcome news to the French 

 that their recent acquisition, Madagascar, 

 known as the " Grande lie," contains many 

 minerals valuable from a commercial point of 

 view, and which may eventually serve to make 

 some return to France for her immense ex- 

 penditure of blood and treasure in establishing 

 her dominion in that island. Very possibly 

 similar investigations systematically con- 

 ducted in parts of Cochin China and Ton- 

 quin would also reveal mineral deposits of 

 value, not yet uncovered. 



If. Lacroix, who was born in Macon, depart- 

 ment Saone-et-Loire, February 4, 1863, was a 

 pupil of F. Fouque, of Des Cloizeaux and of 

 Michel-Levy, and has been since 1893 pro- 

 fessor of mineralogy at the Museum cT'His- 

 toire Naturelle, in Paris, an institution 

 founded in 1793, during the French Eevolu- 

 tion. Here the minerals contained in the 

 Cabinet du Jardin du Eoi, the greater part of 

 which had been collected by D'Angiviller for 

 Buffon, represent the nucleus of what has 

 since become a most extensive and representa- 

 tive collection. 



The following illustrious men have served 

 as directors of the museum : Daubenton, 1793- 

 1800 ; Dolomieu, 1800-1802 ; Hauy, 1802-1822 ; 

 Alex. Brongniart, 1822-1847 ; Dufrenoy, 1847- 

 1857; Delafosse, 1857-1876; Des Cloizeaux, 

 1876-1893; Lacroix, 1893 to the present time. 



The important collections forming part of 

 the great museum collection' are as follows : 

 Collection de Chantilly (1793), Coll. Weiss 

 (1802), Coll. Brongniart (1823), Cabinet de la 

 Monnaie (Coll. Sage 1825), Coll. Gillet de 

 Laumont, embracing the collection of Rome 

 de I'lsle (1835), Coll. Haiiy (1848), Coll. de 

 1' Academic des Sciences (1855), Coll. Dus- 

 gate (1874), Coll. Bischoffsheim (1890). All 

 of these, except that of Haiiy and of M. Bisch- 

 offsheim, are in the general collection. 



Besides his " Mineralogie de la France," 

 M. Lacroix has published an exhaustive study 

 of the intrusions in volcanic rocks, and, in 

 collaboration with M. Michel-Levy, a study of 



' ' ' Collection de Mineralogie du Museum d 'His- 

 toire Naturelle, ' ' Deuxieme edition, Paris, 8vo, 

 1900, 112 pp., 1 pi. 



the minerals characteristic of different rocks.'' 

 In addition to these special works, no less 

 than 260 articles and papers issued in various 

 scientific journals bear witness to the great 

 industry and to the many-sidedness of this 

 writer.^ There is no broadef mineralogist in 

 Europe; the range of his knowledge and the 

 extent of his work in geology, petrography, 

 chemistry and crystallography, and in the 

 correlation of these sciences, constitute and 

 prove a combination of gifts and acquirements 

 rarely met with in one man. 



The various scientific missions with whose 

 execution M. Lacroix has been entrusted have 

 led him to Great Britain, Scandinavia, Italy, 

 Germany, Greece, Asia Minor and Madagas- 

 car, as well as to North America and the 

 Antilles. After the dreadful eruption of 

 Mt. Felee, he was selected to head the scien- 

 tific expedition to Martinique in 1902-3. 

 These missions have afforded him exceptional 

 opportunities for the study of the conditions 

 under which mineral forms appear in many 

 different parts of the world, of their associa- 

 tions and probable genesis. The wide experi- 

 ence thus acquired has undoubtedly contrib- 

 uted much to the special excellence of M. 

 Lacroix's work in the field of mineralogy. 

 Full appreciation has been accorded to him 

 both in his native land and in foreign coun- 

 tries. He has twice been Laureat de I'ln- 

 stitut, in 1892, and in 1903, and, as we have 

 noted, was elected a member of the Academie 

 des Sciences, section of mineralogy, in 1904. 



He is an honorary or corresponding member 

 of scientific societies in London, St. Peters- 

 burg, Vienna, Rome, Turin, Ivristiania, etc., 

 and is also an honorary member of our New 

 York Academy of Sciences. 



Eighteen names has Professor Lacroix 

 added to mineralogy. They are as follows: 

 Fouqueite (1889, Bull. Soc. Min., XIL, 330), 



" ' ' Les enclaves des roches voleaniques, ' ' Macon, 

 1893, 770 pp. with 35 figures and 8 colored plates, 

 8vo. "Les mineraux des roches, " Paris, 1888, 

 334 pp., 8vo. 



' ' ' Notes sur les Travaux Scientifiques de M. 

 A. Lacroix, Prof, de Mineralogie du Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle," Paris, 1903, 4-126 pp. 



