ijS On the Cirunditm Stone from AJta, 



promlfes ta be a certain method of afccrtaining the laws, by which ele£ltvc attraction flvrnngcs 

 and combines molecules of matter. It is true, the progrefs of cryftallography has been ex- 

 tremely flow, and different nations have contributed to its prefent improvement. It is rather re- 

 mavkable, that theearlicit treatife on metallurgy, of authority, was publilhed in Italy, by Va- 

 noccius liiringuccius, jufl before Agricola publilhcd his Treatife, in 1546, in Germany -, and 

 the firfl treatife, on the Stru£lure of Cryftals, I know, is alfo from Italy, by Nicolas Steno; 

 Prodromt4S Dijfertatwnis de Solido intra SoUdtim nattiralitcr content 0. Florientis, 1669, in /^ta. 

 A work of great merit. Louis Bourguet of Neufchatel, in his Lettres fur la Formation des S,-/s 

 et des Cr^aux. Amfi. 1729, lima, connecled, by obfervation and meafure, triangular and 

 rhomboidal, and cubic, and pyramidal tetraedal molecules, for all different fubftances. His 

 contemporary, Maurice Antoine Capeller*, attempted to deduce a fyftem from geometrical 

 principles ; and in this ftate did Linnxus find the fubjecl, when he attempted to reduce the 

 fcience of minerals to external charafters, and cryftallized bodies to falts. 



None of the obfervations of Linnxus will prove ufelefs to fcience ; but his fyftem alarmed 

 the chemifts and mineralogifts, who rcjefted every other criterion, than internal charafter 

 from analyfis, and the fyftem of Cronftedt was preferred by general affent. By this means, 

 a fpirit of controverfy deprived the chem.ift and lythologift of mutual afliftance ; and the 

 general opinion was correft, on the fuppofition, that a mixed fyftem of chemical and external 

 characters would be irreconcileable ; but it has been admitted, even by thofe who moft 

 decidedly oppofed Linnjeus's fyftem, that the beft fyftem of mineralogy fliould be founded 

 on external and internal characters combinedf. Among the few, who ventured to exprefs 

 their obligations, at the fame time, to Linnxus, and to Cronftedt, was Baron Born, whofe 

 abilities and charader, in addition to his diftin£tion, as one of the counfellors of mines of his 

 Imperial Majefty, obtained his inrolment among the fellows of the Royal Society. He con- 

 nected the intrinfic and extrinfic characters of minerals, in tlie Index Foflilium, which he 

 publiftied in 1772. In Sweden, Bergman's Treatife on the Forms of Cryftals, publifhed in 

 the Upfal Tranfactions, in 1 773, was a more authoritative recommendation to the invcftigation 

 of the principles of cryftallization ; and it can be of little importance for me to add, that 

 lince I have polTeffed the collection of Baron Born, in 1773, I have had every confirmation 

 of the fame opinion. The progrefs of chemiftry, and of cryftallography, applied to minera- 

 logy, has rendered the examination of ftrata, and of mines, a fource of amufement as well as 

 jnftruCtion ; and the arrangement of interefting facts, in the chemiftry and mechanifm 

 of nature, fuits my occafional refearches in geology, which, from variety of avocations and 

 circumftances, have been very much interrupted. My acknowledgment of obligation to the 

 learnedj who have made this progrefs in fcience, is the beft recommendation I can give to 

 others to examine their works. Thofe whofe talents and' time are devoted to the inveltlgation 

 of every mineral fubltance can have no refpite to their labour 5 minerals, in every ftate of their 



* Prodomus CryflaUographice, &c. and Littcras ad Schcuzerum, de Cryftallorum Gcnerationt. Aft. Nat. 

 Cur. vol. 14. Append, p. 9. 



f Nullum itaque eft dubium, quin hnjufmodi metb.odus mixta, quss notis chsrafterifticls tarn extrlnfi-cis 

 r^uam intrinfccis fimu! combinatis, eft fupeiftrufta, proximc ad naturalem accedcns, maximam indicans fym- 

 mctriaw, relicjues fit pneferenda methodis, J, G. VVailcrius, de Syftemate Mincralogico rite condcndo. §. 102. 



formation, 



