A SYSTEM OF MINERALOGY, COMPRISING THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES: INCLUDING FULL DESCRIPTIONS OF SPECIES AND THEIR LOCALITIES, CHEMICAL ANALYSES AND A TREATISE ON MATHEMATICAL CRYSTALLOGRAPHY AND THE DRAWING OF FIGURES OF CRYSTALS. ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS WOOD CUTS AND FOUR COPPER PLATES. BY JAMES D. DANA, A. M. Member of the Soc. Cæs. Nat. Cur. of Moscow, the Soc. Philomathique of Paris, • : ̈*. THIRD EDITION, REWRITTEN, REARRANGED, AND ENLARGED. NEW YORK AND LONDON: PUBLISHED BY GEORGE P. PUTNAM. ENTERED According to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by JAMES D. DANA, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. PREFACE. THIS Treatise, in the present edition, has undergone so various and extensive alterations, that few of its original features will be recognized. The science of Mineralogy has made rapid progress in the six past years; chemistry has opened to us a better knowledge of the nature and relations of compounds; and philosophy has thrown new light on the principles of classification. To change is always seeming fickleness. But not to change with the advance of science, is worse; it is persistence in error: and, therefore, notwithstanding the former adoption of what has been called the "Natural History System," and the pledge to its support given by the author, in supplying it with a Latin Nomenclature, the whole system, its classes, orders, genera, and Latin names, have been rejected; and even the trace of it, which the synonymy might perhaps rightly bear, has been discarded. The system has subserved its purpose in giving precision to the science, and displaying many of the natural groupings which chemistry was slow to recognize. But there are errors in its very foundation which make it false to nature in its most essential points: and in view of the character of these errors, we are willing it should be considered a relic of the past. Yet science is far from being ready with an acceptable substitute. Most chemical systems have been more artificial than the "Natural" system; and doubts now hang over some of the principles of chemistry that are widest in their influence on classification. In view of the difficulties on either side, it was a point long questioned, whether to venture upon a classification that might be deemed most accordant with truth among the many doubts that surround the subject; or to adopt one less strict to science, that might serve the convenience of the student for easy reference, and for the study of Mineralogy in its economical bearings, while at the same time it should exhibit many natural relations, and inculcate no false affiliations or distinctions of species. The latter alternative has been adopted :— the classification is offered simply as a convenient arrangement, and not an exhibition of the true affinities of species in the highest sense of the term. Among the silicates, however, it will be perceived that the groupings in the main are natural groupings; and throughout the work, special care has been taken to inculcate, as far as possible, the true relations of species, both by remarks, and by an exhibition of them in tables. The system of classification which has been set aside for the arrangement adopted, is presented in a tabular form in the latter part of the volume, and it is recommended as the preferable plan for arranging a cabinet; since it groups together species that are fundamentally alike-that is, alike in chemical and crystallographic characters-and prominently exhibits the various cases of isomorphism and polymorphism among minerals. Special effort has been used to give completeness to the chemical descriptions of species, while, at the same time, crystallography has not been neglected. In the latter department, a Mathematical chapter has been added, after Naumann's system-the system generally adopted in Germany, and recommended by its simplicity; and a second on the Drawing of Figures of Crystals. On the other side, the number of chemical analyses introduced has been increased fourfold, so that the student will have before him a full registry, in most cases, of all mineral analyses hitherto made that are worthy of confidence. Chemical formulas have been given, and also the various opinions of different authors, where the constitution of a species is still in doubt. The most recent investigations in foreign Works and Journals, as far as they have reached this country, have been examined, and the Treatise is therefore posted up to the hour of its leaving the press. About one hundred new species have been added to the science since the appearance of the preceding edition. In the department of American Mineralogy, no pains have been spared to render the Work as complete as the nature of the case admitted. And here the Author would gratefully acknowledge the valuable assistance he has received from various sources. He would especially mention his indebtedness to Dr. C. T. JACKSON, for information upon the minerals of the Michigan Copper region, with Analyses of Telluric Bismuth of Virginia, and Chrysocolla, Apophyllite, and Analcime of Michigan, besides a description of Vermiculite, and an Analysis of this species in his laboratory by R. CROSSLEY; also to Mr. CROSSLEY, for an Analysis of Algerite and Schorlomite ;-to J. E. TESCHEMACHER of Boston, for observations on many species, including the Crystallized Black Copper Ore and a Vanadate from the Lake Superior region;-to A. A. HAYES of Boston, for the blowpipe characters of Pyrrhite, and facts relating to Red Zinc Ore, and some other minerals ;-to M. ADOLPH SCHLIEPER, now of Lowell, Mass., for an Analysis of a Volcanic Labradorite, and the Cummington Manganese Spar to J. C. BOOTH of Philadelphia, for Analyses carried on in his laboratory of Emerylite, Euphyllite, Marmolite, an Iridescent Pyrites, |