Structural Mineralogy

Recently, many fine textbooks in mineralogy have notable early achievements in unravelling the crys­ appeared. The great tradition of mineral science tal structures of minerals. I would include Zachari­ continued for over 100 years in Dana's systems, as en and Belov as well, two other giants in crystal textbooks, and manuals, replete with discussion on structure analysis. How many contributed in their crystallographic characters, and short statements own way to our science? Ten? Fifty? One hundred? on the mineral species as then known. The more re­ It depends on how you weight the count, but I cent superb RamdohrlStrunz Klockmann's Lehr­ suspect it is closest to the biggest number just men­ tioned. buch der Mineralogie is a mine of rich crystal­ chemical information, perhaps the finest contem­ The explosive growth in information (Ger. : porary pedagogic book of its kind. Within the past Fach) on crystal structures began about 1950, when three years, a new and ambitious project - the the big computers and automated diffractometers were just emerging. It contributes mightily to our Handbook of Mineralogy by several keen mineralo­ gists - receives much assistance from up-to-date science (Ger. : Naturwissenschaft). Unfortunately, computer technology and promises to be a very fine technological knowledge seems to come easily now, series. The little Mineral Reference Manual by Nic­ and Fach appears to be outstripping Naturwissen­ schaft, a sorry state of affairs.