REVIEW. 
463 
REVIEW. 
Mineral Veins : an Inquiry into their Origin^ founded on a Study of the 
Auriferous Quartz Veins of Australia. By Thomas Belt. London : John 
Weale, High Holborn. 
In this pamphlet of five chapters, containing about fifty pages, Mr. Belt 
seems to imagine that he has solved the most complicated question within the 
whole range of geological science. It is difficult to know how to treat such 
an extraordinary pretension ; for, while the writer is palpably incompetent to 
deal with the subject, he cannot be classed among those presumptuous charlatans 
who continually infest it, and who have succeeded, in no small degree, in ren- 
dering any discussion on the origin of metalliferous deposits distasteful to per- 
sons of sense or education. Mr. Belt is evidently a painstaking man ; he has 
made himself acquainted with the best known elementary books on geology ; he 
expresses himseli in a becoming manner ; and is doubtless a most worthy and 
highly respected person in his station in society. But these respectable qualities, 
although pleasing in themselves, and entitling their possessor to much personal 
consideration, do not constitute a man of science ; they do not justify a person, 
wholly unacquainted with the great metallic mining districts in any part of the 
world, even in his native country (which, according to his own showing, is 
Mr. Belt's case), from dogmatizing on the entire phenomena of metalliferous 
veins from a cursory experience in the gold diggings of Australia, The humblest 
observer, provided he brings but one clearly-described and well-authenticated 
fact is welcome as a true labourer in the field of science ; and if even upon 
this fact he should attempt to build an unwarrantable superstructure of 
tlieory, his weaknesses may fairly be treated with gentleness in consideration 
of the sterling coin — the fact — for which we are indebted to him. But 
Mr. Belt can plead no such palliation. In his whole pamphlet there is 
not a single new fact. From first to last it is a mere plaidoyer based 
on the most hackneyed statements of other writers — generally such as are 
so well known, and have been so often quoted, as to have become really nauseat- 
ing, and which make Mr. Belt's pamphlet almost as disagreeable to read as the 
last rechauffe of any notorious book-maker — except that, happily, it is much 
shorter. The collation of observations and facts on any scientific subject, and 
the establishment of a theory founded on them, is, of course, a labour of great 
value ; but then it can only be usefully undertaken when the facts and obser- 
yations are sufficiently numerous and sufficiently well authenticated to aff'ord 
a secure basis for generalization, which is not yet the case with our knowledge 
of metalliferous veins. The man who would undertake it must, besides, be a 
complete master of the topic which he attempts to handle on so large a scale. 
It may be pardoned in the mere observer to be imperfectly acquainted with the 
labours of others ; he stands on an independent footing, and is a useful and 
worthy labourer as far as his own facts go, however generally ignorant he may 
be ; but the man who, assuming a more ambitious position, and soaring from 
the rSle of a mere observer narrating his own facts and fitting them into 
others as best he can, into the character of a philosopher generalizing all 
known knowledge on any particular branch of science into a comprehensive 
theory, is not of the smallest value unless he is fairly competent for the wide 
task he sets himself up to perform ; indeed, on the contrary, he generally does 
great harm, and is deserving of scant consideration. 
If Mr. Belt had named his pamphlet after the title of a well-known popular 
work of fiction, and called it " Nothing New," he would have given the best 
