DANA’S MANUAL OF MINERALOGY 17th Edition by C. Hurlbut. 609 pp.

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634 figs., 1 colour plate. John Wiley & Sons, New York; Chapman and Hall,
London, 1959. Price 78/-.
This is the seventeenth edition of a book which for more than one hundred
years has provided an elementary course in mineralogy. This edition differs from
the previous edition published in 1952 in containing a considerably expanded
section on crystallography (includmg X-ray crystallography) and in the increased
emphasis on crystal chemistry throughout the book. Fifty-eight per cent of the
book is devoted to descriptive and determinative mineralogy, twenty-five per cent
to crystallography, and seventeen per cent to chemistry, physics of minerals, and
to mineral associations.
The section on crystallography includes an introduction to stereographic pro-
jections and is well illustrated with crystal drawings and stereograms. All thirty-two
cIasses are described but since, as the book points out, o d y fifteen are of importance
and since no attempt is made to derive the thirty-two classes logically there seems
little point in describing them all. This chapter is chiefly notable for very good
secrions on crystal orientation, calculations in the more symmevical systems and
X-ray crystallography. The chapter “Physical Mineralogy” discusses cleavage,
hardness, specific gravity, colour, lustre, electrical and magnetic properties, etc.
The chapter “Chemical Mineralogy” covers atoms, bonding, co-ordination,
valency, isomorphism, polymorphism, exsolution, calculation of mineral formulae,
and blowpipe work. The chapter “Occurrence and Association of Minerals” is
largely an account of the mineralogy of the commoner rocks and vein deposits.
A shorr section tabdating minerds according to their uses is provided and also
some determinative tables. The remainder of the book is largely devoted to the
description of some two hundred minerals with respect to their morphological
crysrallography, physical properties, composition, diagnostic tests and features,
occurrence and use. A very good feature of this section is that each group of
minerals is introduced with an account of its crystal chemisay. Many photographs
of paclung models (ping-pong ball models) of crystal structures are included.
They are good photographs, but packingmodels, especially as seen in photographs
are suitable for teaching only the simpier structures. For the more complex, co-
ordination and lattice models are betrer, but only a few line drawings of
co-ordinaaon models of silicates are included.
I recommend this book to the elementary student or the amateur who wishes to
learn something of modern mineralogy. D.F.