Traité de Minéralogie appliquée aux Arts, à l'Industrie, au Commerce et à l'Agriculture, &c

Abstract

THIS work of 883 pages, as is stated in a title-page of corresponding length, is intended for the use of French students in their preparation for a degree in the subjects of engineering, chemistry, metallurgy, &c. We do not think that in its purely scientific contents it is likely to be of advantage to English students. The first part, devoted to the subject of crystallography, is rather incomplete and unsatisfactory, even if regard be had to the main purpose of the work. As usual, in the figure of Wollaston's goniometer the crystal is represented as adjusted in a way that every practical student is immediately taught to avoid. Nor will the chemical formulae meet with the favour of English students: though the atomic weights of oxygen and silicon are given as 16 and 28 respectively, silica appears throughout as SiO₃, water is still HO, while to nitre is assigned the formula KO, AzO₅. Further, the ordinary symbols for the atoms are occasionally, as in the forty-nine formulae of pp. 423-5, used to signify equivalent proportions of the oxides; olivine, for instance, being given as (Mg.fe)Si. The classification is likewise ancient; in the description of the species alum stone immediately follows the oriental chrysolite, a precious stone, merely because both substances contain alumina. In its explanation of the uses which have been discovered for the various subjects of the mineral kingdom, the work, however, supplies a want which has been long felt, and it will prove convenient for purpose of reference. The amount of detail will be better appreciated if we mention that in the description of the uses of carbonate of lime even the hammers used by stonemasons are specially figured.

Traité de Minéralogie appliquée aux Arts, à l'Industrie, au Commerce et à l'Agriculture, &c.

Par Raoul Jagnaux. Avec 468 figures dans le texte. (Paris: Octave Doin, Éditeur, 1885.)