System of Mineralogy

An important text on the Wernerian interpretation of mineralogy by the foremost Scottish naturalist, one of Darwin's teachers.

Robert Jameson (Author)

9781108029759, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 June 2011

634 pages, 5 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 3.6 cm, 0.8 kg

Robert Jameson (1774–1854) was a renowned geologist who held the chair of natural history at Edinburgh from 1804 until his death. A pupil of Gottlob Werner at Freiberg, he was in turn one of Charles Darwin's teachers. Originally a follower of Werner's influential theory of Neptunism to explain the formation of the earth's crust, and an opponent of Hutton and Playfair, he was later won over by the idea that the earth was formed by natural processes over geological time. He was a controversial writer, accused of bias towards those who shared his Wernerian sympathies such as Cuvier, while attacking Playfair, Hutton and Lyell. He built up an enormous collection of geological specimens, which provided the evidence for his System of Mineralogy, first published in 1808 and here reprinted from the second edition of 1816. Volume 3 deals with metal ores such as gold, iron and lead.

Part IV. Class IV: Metallic Minerals: 1. Order, platina
2. Order, gold
3. Order, mercury
4. Order, silver
5. Order, copper
6. Order, iron
7. Order, manganese
8. Order, titanium
9. Order, lead
10. Order, zinc
11. Order, tin
12. Order, bismuth
13. Order, tellurium
14. Order, antimony
15. Order, molybdena
16. Order, cobalt
17. Order, nickel
18. Order, arsenic
19. Order, tungsten or scheelium
20. Order, uranium
21. Order, tantalum
22. Order, cerium
Index.

Subject Areas: Earth sciences [RB]