302 MR HAIDINGER on the Determination of the Species in 



Confining ourselves, in the present place, entirely to the pro- 

 ductions of Nature, there are in fact a great many bodies, which 

 more or less resemble each other. The problem to be resolved 

 here, as a first process to the introduction of other sciences, will 

 be to discriminate those which resemble each other most. This 

 discrimination is the object of Natural History ; a science, there- 

 fore,, which proceeds upon the principle of similarity. 



Hence, it appears, that Chemistry and Mineralogy most 

 materially differ in regard to the point of view from which they 

 consider the productions of inorganic nature. 



Mineralogy treats of those properties which minerals exhibit 

 in their natural state ; it collects the individuals within the ideas 

 of species, genera, &c., and, teaches us how to distinguish them 

 from one another. Chemistry refers to the substances of which 

 the natural-historical species consist ; it treats of the properties of 

 inorganic matter, manifested during the process of its forming 

 new combinations, and teaches us to recognise these substances, 

 not only in their pure state, but in all their various mixtures and 

 combinations ; and it enables us, by the comparison of its results 

 with the species previously determined, to form an opinion of the 

 chemical constitution of the latter. 



The establishment of what may be with propriety considered 

 as a Species in Natural History, according to the pure principles 

 of that science, is its most important object, because its whole 

 scientific progress depends upon this idea. Mineralogists have 

 hitherto, almost uniformly, considered it as impracticable to at- 

 tempt the construction of systems, or the definition of the spe- 

 cies, without the assistance of chemistry : nay, professed minera- 

 logists have not hesitated to allow to the identity of chemical 

 substance, the first and most important place among the consi- 

 derations upon which they ground their species ; and, owing to 

 this preponderance, we see Arragonite and Calcareous-spar, and 

 the hexahedral and prismatic Iron-pyrites, in recently published 



