Copy 1

A manual of mineralogy comprehending the more recent discoveries in the mineral kingdom / By Robert Allan.

  • Allan, Robert, 1806-1863.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of mineralogy comprehending the more recent discoveries in the mineral kingdom / By Robert Allan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/432
    PREFACE. In every science like Mineralogy, to which each con- secutive year brings its share of new and valuable contri- butions, it has been found extremely useful to present oc- casionally a distinct and comprehensive outline of its ac- tual condition. This service has been rendered, in succes- sion, to the English mineralogist, by Kirwan, Aikin, Jame- son, W. Phillips, and by Haidinger, in his enlarged trans- lation of the Treatise on Mineralogy by Frederick Mohs. During an interval of almost nine years, however, which have elapsed since the publication of the last-mentioned work, a great number of new minerals have been disco- vered, and the boundaries of the science have been consi- derably enlarged. No work in the English language gives a connected view of these new acquisitions. The descrip- tions of them are scattered through the periodical scientific publications of Europe and America, and are therefore inaccessible to the great bulk of readers. Even persons who have made considerable progress in mineralogical knowledge, often complain of the want of a treatise, in- cluding, within a moderate compass, all that is known of this branch of Natural History, and pointing out the sources from which farther information may be derived,