Connoisseur's Choice: Brucite, Balochistan Province, Pakistan

Authors

Malcolm J. Southwood, University of Wollongong

RIS ID

138100

Publication Details

Southwood, M. (2019). Connoisseur's Choice: Brucite, Balochistan Province, Pakistan. Rocks and Minerals: mineralogy, geology, lapidary, 94 (5), 428-433.

Abstract

First of all, a little history concerning the discovery and naming of brucite! The American Journal of Science (AJS) is the oldest continuously published scientific journal in the United States; its two-hundredth anniversary volume was celebrated in October 2018 (www.ajsonline. org; accessed December 2018). Geologist Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864) was persuaded to initiate its publication (in 1818) to fill the gap left by the demise of an earlier periodical, the American Mineralogical Journal (AMJ), of which only three individual issues appeared, annually between 1810 and 1812, although in 1814 the three issues were combined and republished, together with a new fourth issue, as "Volume 1" of the AMJ (Woodman 2017). AMJ was discontinued because its founder and editor met with failing health; his name was Archibald Bruce (1777-1818), an American physician and accomplished mineralogist for whom the mineral brucite is named.