Customer Reviews

Dana's New Mineralogy: The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana

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This book is a must-have for any mineralogist, but the number of errors is daunting. I can find a minimum of 2 significant (or major) errors per page of text. The errors include spelling of mineral names, errors in chemical formulas, errors in physical properties, errors in locality names, errors in state abbreviations for the USA, omissions in the indices, etc.

I recommend waiting for the 2nd or 3rd edition to be printed to allow some of the more major errors to be corrected. Also, the pages are of such thin paper that text from the opposite side is readable. This book should actually be sold as a subscription on CD-ROM, with planned updates to implement corrections and additions.

As a professional geologist, I use this reference often but I have found numerous errors. An example is that the mineral Pentlandite, an important ore of nickel, is not listed in the index. A German website is compiling an errata list on this book and it is many pages long of spelling, locality, formulae and indices errors. Other complaints are: The information concerning the economic use of the minerals is too sketchy and incomplete; and the page paper is too thin and fragile.

I think the Danas would be embarrassed if they lived to see their name on the cover of this book - probably the worst compendium of mineralogical data in the history of science. Here, inaccuracies and errors are the norm rather than exception, and the quality of print and paper are no match even to a circa-1900 missionary's Bible. Sloppy sources like this one do more harm than good by perpetuating errors and introducing new ones, so do yourself a favor and spend your hard-earned $350 on something else.

I use the book almost daily while working on a large mineral collection. It is up to date and comprehensive with valuable references to localities. The book is fragile with thin pages so must be used with care. It should be published as a CD ROM.

An exhaustive database of minerals. It really should be a CD ROM.

I am a geologist, but for heaven's sake, pics at least as good as a cheap field guide would be in order, especially for some of the more unusual minerals. Would also love to see some of the zillions of examples of granites that you can find at your average kitchen type granite center. The geology though is good, just a bit dry.

This book really needs to be on CD Rom. it is a very large book, and very exhaustive, but cross reference could be done better on a CD

I can't believe that John Wiley & Sons (the publisher) actually tries to sell this book as "compact". It's 1100 pages! The Peterson Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals is a much better "compact" guide. This thing should really be on CD-ROM.