476 Scientific Intelligence. 



degree of uniformity has been attained among the workers in all 

 countries. The author, however, may fairly be regarded as 

 having won for himself the right to have his methods carefully 

 studied, and their claims fully considered, by the admirably 

 thorough and complete way in which he has expounded the not 

 often understood systems now gone out of use, especially those of 

 Mohs and Hausmann. The same exhaustive methods have been 

 devoted to the elaboration of* the catalogues of planes, as the fre- 

 quent lists of corrections that are given for the statements of 

 earlier authors show, and to the complete tables for transforming 

 the symbols from the form belonging to the position of one author 

 to that of another. In this matter of the orientation of the 

 crystals of each species, the author has shown himself more 

 arbitrary than could have been desired. Simplicity of form of 

 the symbols is in his view the one controlling condition, to which 

 questions of isomorphous relations (" analogies ") and all other 

 points are to be subordinated. Thus he deviates from the 

 accepted position for aragonite, although the reasons for its 

 acceptance are so strong, and makes the prism a macrodome, and 

 similarly in many other cases. The work, however, is one which 

 no thorough mineralogist should be without, even if he is not 

 inclined to follow it in all respects. 



6. Catalogue of Meteorites. — A new catalogue of the large 

 collection of meteorites in the British Museum has been recently 

 issued by Mr. L. Fletcher. The catalogue is also a guide to that 

 department of the Museum and contains an interesting "intro- 

 duction to the study of meteorites." As is well known, the col- 

 lection is one of the finest of the world both as regards numbers 

 and the size of the specimens represented ; 360 distinct falls are 

 included in the catalogue. 



1. Brief notices of some recently described minerals. — Emmons- 

 ite is a ferric tellurite from the neighborhood of Tombstone, Ari- 

 zona, exact locality unknown. It occurs in translucent crystal- 

 line scales of a yellowish green color, imbedded in a hard brown- 

 ish gangue consisting of lead carbonate, quartz and a brown 

 substance containing the hydrated oxides of iron and tellurium. 

 The crystallization is probably monoclinic, the specific gravity 

 about 5. The material was scanty and not entirely pure, so that 

 the results of the chemical analyses were somewhat doubtful. 

 The mean percentages accepted, alter deducting impurities, are : 

 Te 58*75, Se 0*53, Fe 14-29, H 2 present, but amount uncertain. 

 It is concluded that the mineral is a ferric tellurite, but the for- 

 mula is doubtful and further examination is needed to establish 

 its true relations. Dr. Gentb states that it is distinct from his 

 ferrotellurite. Named after Mr. S. F. Emmons, of the U. S. Geol. 

 'Survey, by W. F. Hillebrand. — Proc. Col. Sc. Soc, ii, part 1, 1885. 



Kaistosite (from udivos, unusual) is from Hittero, Norway. 

 The only specimen known is a fragment of a large six-sided prism 

 (orthorhombic or monoclinic), showing two cleavages at an angle 

 of nearly 90° with each other. It is translucent, of a yellow- 



