118 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 82. 



inating toil. That 'dead work' wMdi Prof. 

 Leslie so vigorously declared was one of the 

 most essential tasks of the laborers in Science's 

 behalf is here prominently shown. Names 

 which are erroneous in spelling or obsolete, or 

 synonomous, or applied doubtfully, or misap- 

 plied, are here recorded, and the student, the 

 lay-reader, the collector, and man of science, 

 can at once determine the status and signifi- 

 cance of mineralogical names as currently used. 

 Prof. Chester, in his preface, says : "In this 

 work the endeavor is made to give complete 

 information, as outlined above, concerning all 

 the names that have ever been introduced into 

 the nomenclature of mineralogy. Nearly all 

 published works on this suibject have been 

 searched to prepare a complete list of such 

 names, and all available sources of information 

 have been consulted. Many facts have been 

 received in private communications from corre- 

 spondents at home and abroad, a list of whose 

 names is appended. But a number of blanks 

 still remain, after years of research, and the 

 author greatly desires information on any of the 

 points lacking." 



The author gives some general and particular 

 notes on names, as to the attempt of Moh and 

 Dana to introduce binomial methods, and re- 

 veals the great difficulty, in some instances, in 

 determining the real origin of a designation. 

 He illustrates this in the case of the well-known 

 mineral Datolite. It appeared very early under 

 the spelling datholite, which was a corruption 

 of the original name datolith of Esmark, from 

 daTEo/uai, to divide, in reference to its granular 

 structure, and Z/^of, a stone. Werner inserted 

 the h, and this led to its erroneous interpreta- 

 tion as coming from (Moc or turbid, which was 

 succeeded by the criticism that there was no 

 such Greek word, and its origin is from Sa-6o'A?iog, 

 meaning very turbid, because it is never found 

 in transparent crystals. The correct derivation 

 was detected by Prof. Dana in 1868. Many 

 other instances give a forcible impression of the 

 care and learning required for a correct diag- 

 nosis of the elements of a mineralogical name. 



The work is compendious and very useful, 

 but it seems regrettable that Prof. Chester had 

 not written a more extended treatise, by way 

 of introduction, reviewing the stages of change 



which have finally given us the present series 

 of names. The expressed regret that all min- 

 eral names should end in ite does not seem war- 

 ranted. Haiiy's names, in so many instances, 

 pleasingly vary, to the ear, this monotonous 

 termination, that we wish there were more ju- 

 dicious exceptions to its almost universal pre- 

 dominance. No mineralogist should be with- 

 out this dictionary, and to a large public, out- 

 side of this specific designation, it will be valu- 

 able as a guide to the derivation, proper 

 orthography and meaning of mineralogical 

 names. Its typography seems faultless. 



L. P. Gratacap. 



Laboratory Experiments in General Chemistry. 



By Charles E. Sanger. St. Louis, 1896. 



Published by the Author. Pp. 59. 

 Experiments in General Chemistry and Notes on 



Qualitative Analysis. By Charles R. Sanger. 



St. Louis, 1896. Published by the Author. 



Pp. 49. 



The first of these pamphlets contains direc- 

 tions for 108 laboratory experiments upon the 

 preparation and properties of the elements 

 and compounds. They have been arranged for 

 the use of students who are taking a course of 

 lectures upon descriptive chemistry. The ex- 

 periments are all well known ones, and the 

 order of management is the one already adop- 

 ted in laboratory manuals. 



The second pamphlet contains directions for 

 39 of the experiments given in the first pam- 

 phlet, and in addition has 28 pages devoted to a 

 description of the methods used in making 

 qualitative analysis of unknown substances. 

 This course has been arranged for medical 

 students. Neither of these laboratory guides 

 differ in any essential feature from the well 

 known laboratory manuals on elementary chem- 

 istry and qualitative analysis. E. H. K. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 

 JOURNAL OP GEOLOGY, MAY-JUNE, 1896, 

 Classification of the Marine Trias : By JAMES 

 Perrin Smith. As might be expected the 

 names given to the Triassic beds of the Germanic 

 basin, which was shut off from the open sea, 

 have proved to be of little use as applied ta 



