(Born: Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 8 November 1812; Died: Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 19 November 1881) German mineralogist.

Scharff, trained as a lawyer, was appointed in 1852 as curator of the mineral collection of the Senckenbergishen Naturforscher Gesellschaft in Frankfurt.

Biographical references: Groth, Entwicklungsgeschichte, 1926: p. 165. • Poggendorff: 3, p. 1179.

1. German, 1857 [First edition].
Der | Krystall und die Pflanze. | [double rule] | Von | D^r. Friedrich Scharff. | [short rule] | Nebst Einer Abbildung. | [ornate rule] | Frankfurt A/M. 1857 | [short rule] | Verlag Von Meidinger Sohn & Comp^ie.

8°: π⁶ 1-12⁸ 13⁷; 109l.; [i]-xi, [1] blank, [1]-205, [1] p., one plate (Dendritic gold specimen), illus.

Contents: [i-ii], Title page, verso "[rule] | C. Naumann's Druckerei. Frankfurt Am Main | [rule]."; [iii], Dedication to the Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft.; [iv], Blank.; [v]-vii, Introduction.-dated August 1857.; [viii], Blank.; [ix]-xi, "Nachweis über den Inhalt."; [1 pg], Blank.; [1]-205, Text.

Rare. With the interesting title, The Crystals and the Plants, a reader might expect to find as much on botany as crystallography, but that is not the case. Here, Scharff makes interesting comparisons between the formation of plants and crystals. Attempting to explain how regular crystal forms come into existence, he shows in some degree that crystals "grow" like plants by the accretion of atoms to the crystalline structure. Explaining that crystals form, like plants, along predefined directions, he explains that in the case of crystals, these directions are along axial directions and that it is around the axis of the crystal that the mineral accumulates. The book describes crystals, crystal structures, atoms, crystal axes, diamorphism, properties, etc.

Bibliographical references: BL [7105.bb.30.]. • Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie: 1858, p. 316-319 [review]. • NUC. • USGS Library Catalog.

2. German, 1862 [2nd edition].
Der Krystall und die Pflanze. Beobachtungen uber die Bauweise der Krystalle von Friedrich Scharff. Zweite Ausgabe. Mit einem Nachträge, einer Abbildung in Naturselbstdruck und einer lithographirten Tafel. Frankfurt am Main, Baer, 1862

8°: xi, [1], 223 p., one plate (colored), illus. The title claims to have a picture (probably botanical) in natural printing. Rare.

Bibliographical references: Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie: 1862, p. 592 [Book notice]. • NUC.

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