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advertisement by the editor. It is with extreme diffidence that I have undertaken a new edition of the Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy by the late William Phillips, being well aware of the dif ficulty of following up the ideas of any individual upon a subject of this nature, and at tho same time conscious of my incapacity to do his work that justice which it merits. I have, however, endeavoured as far as possible to place myself in the position which the author might be expect ed to have assumed, had he been in existence to re-edit his valuable treatise at the present period. The nature ot the subject does not admit of additions in the form of notes, and recourse has consequently been had to what may be considered unjustifiable freedoms with the late author’s text. During the fourteen years which have in tervened since Mr Phillips’s last edition, the science of Mineralogy has undergone very great improvements; and although 110 treatise which has yet appeared on the sub ject has afforded more satisfaction, particularly in this country, than that author’s, there have been several hun dred new species described, and so many additional pro perties discovered in the old ones, as to render another edition of the work essentially necessary. Tbcse new