The Bement Collection of Minerals 67 



MINERALS AND GEMS* 

 Herbert P. Whitlock, Curator 



The General Collection of minerals, which, from its excep- 

 tionally fine nucleus of the Bement Collection, has grown year 

 by year, now numbers about 20,000 exhibited 

 The Morgan specimens, representing a very considerable in- 

 Minerals crease. In thus adding to the notably fine col- 



lection presented to the Museum in 1900 by the 

 late J. Pierpont Morgan, the policy of acquiring handsome 

 and interesting specimens, as well as those furnishing species 

 not hitherto represented in the series, has been consistently 

 adhered to. The Collection at present includes a higher per- 

 centage of the known mineral species than in 1900. This is 

 largely due to the fact that it has been possible to acquire 

 newly discovered minerals with much greater facility than 

 those rare species brought to light during the last century, 

 the specimens of which, for the most part, have found their 

 way into the public and private collections of Europe. The 

 Mineral Collection now averages 85 per cent, of the known 

 species, an average which is highly creditable. 



A series of the opal wood replacements from Nevada have 

 been placed in the accession case at the entrance of the Morgan 

 Hall of Minerals. These specimens, many of 

 F^J/I which are of gem quality, are highly representa- 



tive of this most unique occurrence and furnish 

 a most suggestive key to the general problem of organic re- 

 placements of this type. 



The growing interest, both popular and scientific, in atomic 

 structure, as related to crystallization, has led to the experi- 

 mental construction of a number of models with a view to 

 visualizing these atomic relations. These have been used suc- 



Under the Department of Mineralogy (see also pages 203 to 20S). 



