Quantitative Classification of Igneous Rocks Based on Chemical and Mineral Characters, with a Systematic Nomenclature

Abstract

BY the very first page this book is defined as dealing with “the science of petrography.” Petrology is “the broad science or treatise of rocks”; petrography is “the descriptive, systematic science, leading to the nomenclature of these objects.” This elevation of systematic description to the rank of a science disarms a certain amount of criticism. The able authors, who confront us after a long period of careful thought and collaboration, take their stand here as petrographers, with all the dignity of a well marshalled mediaeval “battle.” Right and left we may read the blazon on their shields; their pages trumpet forth the titles by which they would be known; they stand for system and for order, for a “hierarchical classification” (p. 3), against a hitherto careless and indifferent world. Quantitative Classification of Igneous Rocks Based on Chemical and Mineral Characters, with a Systematic Nomenclature. By Whitman Cross Joseph P. Iddings Louis V. Pirsson Henry S. Washington, with an Introductory Review of the Development of Systematic Petrography in the Nineteenth Century, by Whitman Cross. Pp. x + 286. (Chicago: the University of Chicago Press; London: Wm. Wesley and Co., 1903.) Price 8s. net.