Bruce et al.:

Speaking of 19th-C nomenclatural senses of humor (or maybe spite), my geobiologist friends like to tell of another nomenclature story (which may or may not be apocryphal) in which people and properties could be combined humorously - or otherwise - in naming something.

The eminent dinosaur explorer of the late 19th C (and discoverer of Brontosaurus), O.C. Marsh of Yale, proposed the name "coprolites" for the fossilized bits of dinosaur (and other beast) excreta occasionally found in rocks. Makes sense, based on the Greek root for excrement. But it also happens that Marsh's great vertebrate paleontology competitor and even nemesis was Edward Drinker Cope of the American Museum of Natural History. The paleo people (particularly the Yale ones) have always sworn that Marsh chose the name as a happily conjoint recognition of what the object was and an insult aimed at Cope.

Take it for what it's worth. But I do agree with Bruce that we could all benefit from a bit more of senses of both humor and perspective in funding, reviewing and editorial decisions these days.

Bob

Bruce Yardley wrote:

[log in to unmask]" type="cite">

Shock! Horror! 19th century mineralogist had a sense of humour! So its not just the ability to do optics that is being lost these days?

Bruce


Professor Bruce Yardley
School of Earth and Environment
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
UK
Tel. +44 (0)113 343 5227
________________________________
From: Metamorphic Studies Group [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Treiman, Allan [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 12 February 2010 19:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: IMA mineral nomenclature

I know nothing of Charles Palache. But it seems inconceivable that a
mineral with crossed extinction (a property that would have been far more
familiar then than it is now) could be named for Whitman Cross
by accident.

  Allan Treiman

Allan H. Treiman
Associate Director for Science
Lunar and Planetary Institute
3600 Bay Area Boulevard
Houston TX  77058-1113
   281-486-2117

On 2/12/10 1:05 PM, "Robert Tracy" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Kees,

According to both Mindat and Webmineral, this is indeed the case: Charles Palache of Harvard named the sodic amphibole mineral after Whitman Cross of the USGS in 1894, and Whitman Cross is among  J.P. Iddings, Louis V. Pirsson and Harry Washington as originators of the CIPW norm calculation.

Bob T.

Linthout wrote:
At 18:01 12/02/2010, Mogk, David wrote:

thus the name “crossite” as the optic orientation has been crossed.

What's in a name?
I always thought crossite was named was after CROSS, of the CIPW system.

Kees

--
Robert J

Dr. Robert J. Tracy

Department of Geosciences

5064 Derring Hall

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg VA 24061-0420

Office Phone: 540-231-5980

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