1901-2.] J. G. Goodchilcl on Scottish Mineralogy. 
321 
Contributions to Scottish Mineralogy. (Part I.) By 
J. G. Goodchild, of the Geological Survey, F.G.S., F.Z.S. 
Communicated by F. Grant Ogilvie, M.A., B.Sc., F.R.S.E. 
(Read July 7, 1902.) 
Introduction . — The following observations are based chiefly upon 
the results of an exhaustive survey of the specimens in the Scottish 
Mineral Collection in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, 
which were made while I was studying the material for completing 
The Mineralogy of Scotland. The survey has been continued since 
the publication of that work, in connection with the revision of the 
arrangement of the specimens in question. A large number of facts 
of interest have come to light in the course of this work. Further- 
more, the forms of several hundreds of crystals in the Collection 
have now been determined, and freehand drawings of most of 
these crystals have been made, and placed alongside of the speci- 
mens to which they refer. It is proposed from time to time to 
lay some of the more interesting of the results arising from this 
work before this Society, especially as little or none of them 
have hitherto been published, and as the crystals, which present 
considerable interest, do not appear to have been previously 
figured. 
It will be assumed here that the principal object in studying 
minerals (apart from the work necessary for museum purposes) is 
to obtain as much information as possible relating to their genetic 
history, and also to contribute to our knowledge of chemical — or 
perhaps it would be better to say, molecular — physics. The fact 
that a certain mineral occurs in this or the other parish, or that its 
crystals show such and such a combination of forms- — facts not 
without interest in themselves — are of far less importance than the 
larger questions referred to, and are of value chiefly in proportion 
to which they help us to know more about the genetic or develop- 
mental history of the native compound under consideration. 
Albite . — Amongst the crystals just referred to, those of the 
PROC. ROY. SOC. EDIN. — VOL XXIV. 21 
