64-0 Shepard* s Treatise on Mineralogy. 



arrangement. The elements are divided into two classes, 

 Amphigen and Oudegen, distinguished by the electro-negative 

 properties according to their intensity, the same element being 

 electro-negative in a class of acids, and in a class of bases, 

 which with those acids form salts : thus oxygen and sulphur 

 are of the Amphigen family, nitrogen, arsenic, carbon, &c, of 

 the Oudegen family. The plan of formation of the binary 

 compounds, &c, has all the ugliness inseparable from the 

 usual method of chemical classification. We shall express 

 what we mean by two or three examples from Mr. Shepard's 

 book. Is, then, " ferrous sulphate " a whit more elegant or 

 descriptive than sulphate of iron ? or, does the phrase " cupric 

 di-hydrated carbonate " represent the beautiful green mala- 

 chite better than "green carbonate of copper?" Common salt 

 can scarcely know itself under the title of " sodic chloride ;" 

 and a quartz pebble must certainly give itself airs with such 

 a style as " silicic oxacid ! " * A chemical cook must in 

 future put upon her fire a shovelful of " hydrous carbonide ! " 

 We name these examples, not to throw ridicule on this new 

 arrangement, the value of which must be decided by more 

 serious critics than ourselves, but to show how difficult it is 

 to frame any nomenclature from the atomic analysation of 

 minerals. Surely the great objection to the present barbarous 

 jumble of names might be got over by an agreement amongst 

 mineralogists to classify all the species according to some one 

 language, Greek or Latin, and then to allow those designa- 

 tions to represent the equivalent expressions of the chemical 

 characters in all other languages. 



We wish Mr. Shepard had not assumed a numeral scale 

 of hardness. Breithaupt's scale, which he adopts, is good as 

 far as it goes ; but to a tyro it is almost as good as nothing at 

 all. To use it requires considerable experience in the science. 

 In the subsequent editions, we hope Mr. Shepard will intro- 

 duce the few improvements above suggested ; and it would 

 not be amiss, for the convenience of European collectors and 

 peripatetic mineralogists, if he would give more cis- Atlantic 

 localities. The book would then have a more catholic cha- 

 racter : it would also be more valuable in one volume. As 

 far as execution goes, and the information respecting new, and 

 especially American, minerals, and the general science of the 

 work extends, it deserves great praise; and, humble as may 

 be our opinion, we give it, nevertheless, in testimony of the 

 merit and usefulness of Mr. Shepard's labours. — W. B. C. 



* A Devonshire quarry man would read this " Silly sick ox ass hide." 



