(Born: Exeter, Devonshire, England, 25 May 1771; Died: London, England, 26 June 1857) English mineralogist & crystallographer.

Brooke first studied law, but eventually became a merchant. He began in the Spanish wool trade, followed by ventures in South American mining companies and the London Life Assurance Association. As a pastime, he began to collect minerals. This collection subsequently passed to his son, who in 1857 presented it to Cambridge University, Dept. of Mineralogy. Brooke was elected a Fellow of the London Geological Society in 1815 and a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1818. Eventually, Brooke was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1819. In his honor, the mineral "Brookite" was named after him by A. Lévy in 1825.

Biographical references: BBA: I 151, 292-293. • Cleevely, World Palæontological Collections, 1983: 68. • DNB: 2, 1335 [by G. Goodwin]. • Poggendorff: 1, cols. 307-8. • Proceedings of the Geological Society, London: 9 (1858), 41 & 14 (1858), xliv-xlv. • Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 2, 628. • WBI. • Woodward, History of the Geological Society, 1907: 10-11, portrait (facing p. 10).

1. English, 1823.
A | Familiar Introduction | To | Crystallography; Including An Explanation Of The | Principle And Use Of The Goniometer. | With an Appendix, | Containing | The Mathematical Relations Of Crystals; | Rules For Drawing Their Figures; | And An Alphabetical Arrangement Of Minerals, | Their Synonyms, And Primary Forms. | [rule] | Illustrated By Nearly 400 Engraving On Wood. | [rule] | By Henry James Brooke, F.R.S. F.L.S. & c. | [rule] | London: | Printed & Published By W. Phillips, George Yard, Lombardstreet; | Sold Also By W. & C. Tait, Edinburgh; | And R. Millikin, Dublin. | [rule] | 1823.

8°: π⁴ b⁴ A-Z⁴ 2A-2Z⁴ 3A-3R⁴ 3S²: 262l.; [i]-xv, [1], [1]-508 p., 391 text diagrams. Page size: 192 x 115 mm.

Contents: [i-ii], Title page, verso blank.; [iii], Dedication to "the inventor of the Reflective Goniometer" [W.H. Wollaston].; [iv], Blank.; [v]-xi, "Introduction."; [xii], Blank.; [xiii]-xv, "Table of Contents."; [xvi], "Corrigenda."; [1]-24, "Definitions."; [25]-32, "Of the Goniometer."; [33]-35, "Section I. General View."; [36]-52, "Section II. Molecules."; [53]-55, "Section III. Structure."; [56]-66, "Section IV. Cleavage."; [67]-76, "Section V. Decrements."; [77]-78, "Section VI. Symmetry."; [79]-85, "Section VII. Primary Forms."; [86]-87, "Section VIII. Secondary Forms."; [88]-92, "Section IX. Hemitrope and Intersected Crystals."; [93]-94, "Section X. Epigene and Pseudomorphous Crystals."; [95]-104, "Section XI. On the Tables of Modifications."; [105]-213, "Tables of Primary Forms and their Modifications."; [214]-222, "Table of Secondary Forms."; [223]-231, "Section XII. On the Application of the Tables of Modifications."; [232]-252, "Section XIV. [!] On the Use of Symbols for Describing the Secondary Forms of Crystals."; [253]-282, "On the Relation of the Laws of Decrement to the Different Classes of Modifications."; [283], "Appendix."; [284], Blank.; [285]-392, "Appendix. Calculation of the Laws of Decrement."; [393]-401, "On the Direct Determination of the Laws of Decrement from the Parallelism of the Secondary Edges of Crystals."; [402]-438, "On the Methods of Drawing the Figures of Crystals."; [439]-450, "On Mineralogical Arrangement."; [451]-497, "An Alphabetical Arrangement of Minerals, with their Synonymes and Primary Forms."; [498]-501, "Table of the Primary Forms of Minerals, arranged according to their Classes."; [502]-508, "Index."

Very scarce. Dedicated to William Wollaston, inventor of the reflecting goniometer, this book proposes a new system of crystallographic notation. Brooke uses a method of letters and subscript figures to indicate crystal forms. For the primary forms or primitive, he chose the capitals P, M, T (from primitive). Secondary and other faces were noted with other letters in small type. Sweet (1978) suggests that this particular nomenclature was developed by Brooke from Count Bournon's treatise on calcite, which allocated numbers to each form found.

This work had great influence on the course of crystallography during its time.

Bibliographical references: Boston Journal of the Philosophical Arts: 1 (1823), 298-99 [by J.W. Webster]. • Dana's 7th (Bibliography): 68. • Roller & Goodman, Catalogue, 1976: 1, 172. • Smith, Early Mineralogy in Great Britain, 1978: 65.

An Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy. New edition, with extensive alterations and additions, by H.J. Brooke and W.H. Miller. (London, 1852)
See under: Miller, William Hallows.

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