CLASSIFICATION OF MINERALS. 34-1 



recognized in the formation of ct>mmon language ; as earths, stones, 

 metals. But such arrangements were manifestly vague and confused ; 

 and when chemistry had advanced to power and honor, her aid was. 

 naturally called in to introduce a better order. " Hiarne and Bromell 

 were, as far as I know," says* Croustedt, " the first who founded any 

 mineral system upon chemical principles ; to them we owe the three 

 known divisions of the most simple mineral bodies ; viz., the calcarei, 

 vitrescentes, and apyri." But Cronstedt's own Essay towards a Sys- 

 tem of Mineralogy, published in Swedish in 1758, had perhaps more 

 influence than any other, upon succeeding systems. In this, the dis- 

 tinction of earths and stones, and also o*f vitrescent and non-vitrescent 

 earths (apyri), is rejected. The earths are classed as calcareous, sili- 

 ceous, argillaceous, and the like. Again, calcareous earth is pure (calc 

 spar), or united with acid of vitriol (gypsum), or united with the muri 

 atic acid (sal ammoniac), and the like. It is easy to see that this is 

 the method, which, in its general principle, has been continued to our 

 own time. In such methods, it is supposed that we can recognize the 

 substance by its general appearance, and on this assumption, its place 

 in the system conveys to us chemical knowledge concerning it. 



But as the other branches of Natural History, and especially Botany, 

 assumed a systematic form, many mineralogists became dissatisfied 

 with this casual and superficial mode of taking account of external 

 characters; they became convinced, that in Mineralogy as in other 

 sciences, classification must have its system and its rules. The views 

 which Werner ascribes to his teacher, Pabst van Ohain, 8 show the rise 

 of those opinions which led through Werner to Mohs : " He was of 

 opinion that a natural mineral system must be constructed by chemical 

 determinations, and external characters at the same time (methodus 

 mixta) ; but that along with this, mineralogists ought also to construct 

 and employ what he called an artificial system, which might serve us 

 as a guide (loco indicis) how to introduce newly-discovered fossils into 

 the system, and how to find easily and quickly those already known 

 and introduced." Such an artificial system, containing not the grounds 

 of classification, but marks for recognition, was afterwards attempted 

 by Mohs, and termed by him the Characteristic of his system. 



Werner's System. But, in the mean time, Werner's classification 

 had an extensive reign, and this was still a mixed system. Werner 

 himself, indeed, never published a system of mineralogy. " We might 



3 Mineralogy, Pref. p. viii. * Frisch Werner's Leben, p. 15. 



