Abstract
MOST of this small book consists of mineral identification tables which are preceded by introductory chapters on equipment and chemicals needed and methods of identification. The determ inative tables list some six hundred minerals, classified primarily according to colour, streak, cleavage and presence or absence of water, but optical properties and specific gravity are not included. Isomorphous series are each shown under one species, and varieties are omitted: amethyst and agate are, for example, excluded although many rare minerals are listed. The tables will be useful to experienced mineralogists, more particularly for determining opaque minerals ; but in a book intended for amateurs more emphasis should, perhaps, have been placed on the caution necessary in identifying minerals with certainty. The price seems rather high for a book of this format.
The Mineral Key
By Howard B. Graves Jr. Pp. viii+178. (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1947.) 20s.
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S., P. The Mineral Key. Nature 162, 946 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162946c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162946c0