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PREFACE. 



This little work was undertaken to supply a want which the Author had 

 frequently experienced. In compiling it he has endeavoured to produce a 

 handy book, combining facility of reference with a concise and familiar 

 account of all the known minerals. 



In carrying this object into execution, the various names used by 

 different authors have been introduced, as well as certain terms, which, 

 though now obsolete, are, nevertheless, of common occurrence in the works 

 of older mineralogists. 



To assist those persons who may wish to know something more about 

 minerals than can be learned from books, and who may be desirous of 

 studying our national collections by comparing the printed descriptions with 

 the specimens themselves, references have (when practicable) been made to 

 the Cases in which they will be found both in the British Museum and in 

 the Museum of Practical Geology. 



The copious list of synonyms used by German and French mineralogists, 

 will, it is to be hoped, prove of great assistance to the student in reading 

 the works of foreign authors, as well as in studying mineral collections in 

 continental museums, or in private cabinets at home, according to whatever 

 system they may happen to be arranged. 



The names of the authors printed in Italics are those of the persons by 

 whom the minerals to which they are appended were originally examined 

 and named, or they are those of the authors in whose works the mineral 

 will be found described under the name which they follow in the Glossary. 



The greater part of the work has been written in the country, in moments 

 snatched from the out-door duties of a field-geologist — and is the result 

 either of wet days when field-work was impracticable, of long winter 



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