Review of Handbook of Mineralogy. Vol I. Elements, Sulfides, Sulfosalts

From the Mineralogical Record (1991) 22, 59–60

by Pete J. Dunn, Smithsonian Institution

The Handbook of Mineralogy has been eagerly awaited by all who have known of its pending publication, and the wait has been very worthwhile indeed. It is the first in a set of 5 planned volumes, and provides a list of the contents of the next four; volume 2 will be on silicates. It is immediately obvious that this has been a well-planned project; one might disagree with a format decision or two, but it is clear that everything was carefully decided, and nothing left to whimsey. One evidence of this is a very important feature omitted by too many compilers; the cut-off date, for which the authors hold be praised. This volume covers the literature through 1988 for elements, alloys, intermetallics, sulfides, antimonides, arsenides, bismuthinides, selenides, sulfhalides, sulfoxides, tellurides, and sulfosalts.

The book is a substantial one, well-bound in an attractive, high-quality hardcover which bears a nice crystal drawing of tennantite epitactic on pyrite from Quiruvilca, Peru (Mineralogical Record, 4, 159–163). There are no other crystal drawings or illustrations in the book. For those who value books by considering the number and quality of illustrations, this volume has no appeal, but for those who read and use mineralogic information, it is worth the steep price ($82.50), which works out to about 14 cents per species. The volume is printed on high-quality, acid-free, white paper of adequate opacity, and it accepts pencil writing (and erasing!) very well, a significant asset for a book that will assuredly be a gracious host to many handwritten additive notes as the years progress and the literature expands. The book lies flat when opened, all the way from page 1 to page 588, and is a comfortable book to hold and read; unlike some of larger page size, it is not unwieldy. The whole volume is useful; there are no fat margins or gimmicks to expand the number of pages. There is no padding, no corner-cutting, and no nonsense; this compilation is both well done and well published.

All the minerals in the chemical classes covered (elements, sulfides, sulfosalts, etc.) are combined in one alphabetically arranged volume (from acanthite to zvyagintsevite). For those familiar with the chemical class separations of the Dana System, this requires some adjustment (copper follows cooperite and precedes corderoite). For those who have used and learned the Dana System, this format requires even more adjustment; for most, the adjustment should be easy. It took a few days before I was wholly comfortable with it and, begrudgingly, acknowledged the benefits of the format. Each page contains one page only, a format which might draw some criticism; it is difficult to distill the abundant locality information for the more common minerals. Localities for the rarer species are given in more comprehensive detail, so white space is not excessive, even on pages discussing the rarer minerals. What white space exists is in just the right places and will no doubt be useful; it is on pages which discuss minerals for which there is sparse data, and provides space for future annotations. I am pleased it is available.

The overall presentation is well balanced. The top of each page contains the mineral name and chemical formula, and here another thoughtful technique has been employed. The mineral names are in all cases at the outer edge of the page; the chemical formula is at the spine. Thus, the header is reversed on alternate pages, and the book is very easy to use; it can be thumbed through rapidly in a search for a specific mineral name. Indeed, this is a searching asset, which, together with the alphabetical arrangement, makes a table of contents and an index unnecessary. However, this alphabetical arrangement precludes the exposition of relationships among minerals. One of the great advantages of compilations and compendia is that the user comes to recognize groups of minerals and how they are related. This important and great concept of group relations is missing, nearly entirely, in this alphabetical work. Regrettably, the authors have not attempted to compensate for it in appropriate sections, by adding this group-membership information to the "polymorphism and series" section where it would logically fit, or by adding a group section or groups appendix. The pyrite section mentions only one other of the 19 members of the pyrite group; the linneaite section mentions only one other of the 13 members of the linneaite group; the goldfieldite, hakite, and giraudite sections made no mention of the parent tetrahedrite group, and so on.

The page presentation format, explained briefly in the introduction, consists of heading for crystal-data, physical properties, optical properties, cell data, X-ray powder data, chemistry, polymorphism and series, association, distribution, name, type material, and references. Only a few of these need explanation here. The "crystal-data" section provides crystal system, point group, appearance, forms, and twin laws; there are no angle-tables or crystal drawings. The "occurrence" section describes geological processes and physico-chemical environments of origin. The "distribution" section lists the most important localities, up to twelve.

I checked the numerical data for a large number of species and found it to be carefully recorded. Typographical errors were not observed; much attention has been given to diacritical marks and spelling; editing has been careful; and the author’s attention to detail is obvious and praiseworthy.

However, some criticisms of parts of the work are warranted. The uneven presentation of interaxial angles using both degree/minute format and decimal format is regrettable. Although the authors state that "locality information is not referenced," they do not clearly state if it is all supported by the literature (some is). Clearly, the authors consider it reliable or they would not have published it, but they do not convince the reader, nor attempt to. Thus the given information cannot always be evaluated for reliability. In this matter, as in a few others, the introduction is weak in depth and explanatory detail; it is very well written, but inadequate.

The references in general frustrate this reviewer. Not only is the locality information not referenced, but no other data or information is linked to a cited reference either. There is no way to tell which data or information came from which reference, and this flaw diminishes the scientific usefulness of the book. For the mineralogist, this is a substantial shortcoming. The references are numbered sequentially (1, 2, 3, etc.) but they are not cited or used in text. Apparently, all they do is separate the references from each other. Additionally, they are in part confusing in as much as the same digits (and type-size) are used for the different chemical analyses; this can lead the casual reader to presume the analytical data (analysis #2 for example) are drawn from the reference with the corresponding number (#2). This confusion is compounded in some instances because for younger species, the first reference is for the first description of the mineral and the first analysis is drawn from it. The authors should have used some other symbol as a reference-divider or, at least, a different size type for reference numbers.