II.—Review of Progress of Mineralogy from 1864 to 1918

Extract

A British Museum official may perhaps be pardoned if, in a review of the progress of mineralogy since the first appearance of the Geological Magazine, he begins with a reference to scientific work done in the Museum with which the Editor was so long associated. At the time when the Magazine first saw the light the Keeper of the Mineral Department was the late Professor Nevil Story-Maskelyne. He was one of the first to grasp that efficient tool for deciphering mineral aggregates which had been provided by Nicol and Sorby in the thin-section. He was engaged in the particular work to which Keepers of that Department have since appeared to consider they must in duty bound devote much of their time and energy, viz. the investigation of meteorites, and, assisted by the microscopic examination of thin slices of these bodies, he was soon able to announce the discovery in them of several new species, one of which, the sulphide of calcium, oldhamite, must have been formed under conditions very different from those which prevail on the earth's surface.