REFORM OF MIXERALOGICAL SYSTEMS. 347 



reform of Linnaeus. But besides the defects cf Mohs's system, lie had 

 not prepared his verbal novelties with the teirperance and skill of the 

 great botanical reformer. He called upon mineralogists to change the 

 name of almost every mineral with which they were acquainted ; and 

 the proposed appellations were mostly of a cumbrous form, as the 

 above example may serve to show. Such names could have obtained 

 general currency, only after a general and complete acceptance of the 

 system ; and the system did not possess, in a sufficient degree, that 

 evidence which alone could gain it a home in the belief of philoso- 

 phers, the coincidence of its results with those of Chemistry. But 

 before I speak finally of the fortunes of the Natural-history System, I 

 will say something of the other attempt which was made about the 

 same time to introduce a Reform into Mineralogy from the opposite 

 extremity of the science. 



Sect. 2. Chemical System of Berzelius and others. 



IF the students of external characters were satisfied of the inde- 

 pendence of their method, the chemical analysts were naturally no 

 less confident of the legitimate supremacy of their principles : and 

 when the beginning of the present century had been distinguished by 

 the establishment of the theory of definite proportions, and by dis- 

 coveries which pointed to the electro-chemical theory, it could not 

 appear presumption to suppose, that the classification of bodies, so far 

 as it depended on chemistry, might be presented in a form more com- 

 plete and scientific than at any previous time. 



The attempt to do this was made by the great Swedish chemist 

 Jacob Berzelius. In 1816, he published his Essay to establish a 

 purely Scientific System of Mineralogy, by means of the Application 

 of the Electro-chemical Theory and the Chemical Doctrine of Defi- 

 nite Proportions. It is manifest that, for minerals which are consti- 

 tuted by the law of Definite Proportions, this constitution must be a 

 most essential part of their character. The electro- chemical theory 

 uas called in aid, in addition to the composition, because, distinguish- 

 ing the elements of all compounds as electro-positive and electro- 

 negative, and giving to every element a place in a series, and a place 

 defined by the degree of these relations, it seemed to afford a rigorous 

 and complete principle of arrangement. Accordingly, Berzelius, in 

 his First System, arranged minerals according to their electro-positive 

 element, and the elements according to their electro-positive rank ; 



