3 Review(s)

The last thorough revision of Rutley's Elements of Mineralogy appeared as the 23rd Edition in 1936. In subsequent editions, an effort to keep abreast with the great progress in the science was made by small (and often awkward) modifications and, especially, by the addition of an independent chapter on the atomic structure of minerals. For this present edition, the complete re-setting of the book has made possible not only the integration of the added chapter on atomic structure into its proper place in the accounts of the chemical and physical properties of minerals, but also extensive rewriting and rearrangement of the material in the first part of the book. To this part, also, has been added a short chapter on the classification of minerals. In the second part, the Descrip- tion of Minerals, numerous, if not so extensive, modifications and modernisations have been introduced. A couple of dozen new figures have been added, mostly in the early part of the book. More specifically, the major changes in this new edition are the following. The electronic structure of atoms supplies the guide- lines for the whole account of mineral-chemistry; additional items concern the electrochemical series, of interest in the occurrence and metallurgical treatment of ores, and chemical analysis. On the physical side, the dependence of physical properties of minerals on their atomic structure is emphasized and, in addition, a brief account of radioactivity and isotopic age-determination is given.