An Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy: Comprising an Introduction to the Science

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W. D. Ticknor & Company, 1844 - Mineralogy - 662 pages
 

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Page 583 - ... beyond a doubt an indurated vegetable juice;" and he observes, " that the traces of a regular structure, indicated by its action upon polarised light, are not the effect of the ordinary laws of crystallisation by which mellite has been formed, but are produced by the same causes which influence the mechanical condition of gum arabic, and other gums which are known to be formed by the successive deposition and induration of vegetable fluids.
Page 88 - adamant harder than flint," '< that by Shamir is intended some variety of Corundum, a mineral inferior only to the diamond in hardness. Of this mineral there are two principal groups ; one is crystalline, the other granular ; to the crystalline varieties belong the indigo-blue sapphire, the red oriental ruby, the yellow oriental topaz, the green oriental emerald, the violet oriental amethyst, the brown adamantine spar.
Page 184 - ... portion of the contents of the old species of feldspar, in which, from its wide distribution and known applications, mankind are more generally interested. Its crystals and crystalline masses yield to cleavage parallel to the planes of a doubly oblique prism, which presents, by the reflective goniometer, in one direction, four angles of 90° ; in another, four, alternately of 59° 25...
Page lxxx - The same number of atoms combined in the same way produce the same crystalline form, and the same crystalline form is independent of the chemical nature of the atoms, and is determined only by their number and relative position.
Page 36 - It occurs in aggregated crystalline masses, deeply striated, or in separate crystals, of several varieties of form, and sometimes in that of its primary crystal, an oblique rhombic prism, of which the inclination of the terminal plane is from one acute angle to the other. It is white, sometimes with a tinge of red, and is translucent, and bard enough to scratch glass.
Page lviii - Haiiy have shed over mineralogy a purely philosophical luster which indeed has been one of the chief causes of raising the study to the rank of a science ; this he has done by showing the consonance of the laws of crystallization with rigid calculation: he has proved that in crystallization there is a natural geometry.
Page 627 - Drvty, has been adopted from the German term drusen, for which we have no English word. The surface of a mineral is said to be drusy when composed of very small prominent crystals, nearly equal to each other ; it is often seen in iron pyrites.
Page 6 - The best amethysts are brought from Cambay, in India, from Siberia, Ceylon, and Persia, where they are found both lining the cavities of geodes and in rolled masses ; of inferior transparency and hue, they occur in Sweden, the Hartz, Bohemia, Transylvania ; in agate balls at Oberstein, in Germany ; in large crystalline groups near Cork ; and in several parts of the United States.
Page 467 - ... conchoidal, uneven. Lustre resinous, faint. Colour indigo-blue, inclining sometimes to blackish-blue. Higher resinous lustre in the streak. Opake. Not particularly sectile. Intermediate between soft and very soft. Sp. Gr. = 3-80 ... 3-82, BREITH. Before the blowpipe it burns before it becomes red-hot, with a blue flame, and melts into a globule, which is strongly agitated, and emits sparks. Finally it yields a button of copper. It occurs at Sangerhausen in Thuringia, the imitative crystalline...
Page 141 - Shaw, use steatite in their baths instead of soap; and it is confidently asserted that the inhabitants of New Caledonia either eat it alone, or mingle it with their food. Humboldt says, that the...

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