THE PRESENT STATUS OF MINERALOGY. 799 



man walking along the road knew that a stranger was walking behind 

 him. The tirst man sneezed, and, thongh he was a bachelor, he liked 

 to appear to be the head of a household, and exclaimed, "Ah, my wife 

 is thinking of me ! " The second man, on reaching home, asked his 

 wife why she had not thought of him at all that day. The wife in- 

 quired why he asked that unusual question, and, after much persuasion, 

 got him to reveal the reason for his unjust accusation of disregard. 

 When he told her that he had not sneezed, while his fellow-traveler 

 had received that proof of a wife's remembrance, the wise little woman 

 told her jealous spouse that on the morrow he would have evidence of 

 her consideration. The next morning he went to carry two jars of 

 oil to a neighboring village, and, as the sun was hot, his wife urged 

 his wearing a wet towel on his head under his hat to protect him from 

 the heat. The towel was cold, and gave the poor man a chill. Just 

 as he was going down a steep slope he sneezed violently, stumbled, 

 fell, and spilled the oil. When he reached home that evening, he said 

 to his wife, " If you are going to think of me when I am absent, I 

 wish you would do it when I am on level ground, and not when I am 

 going down-hill ! " 



THE PEESENT STATUS OF MINERALOGY. 



By Peofessoe F. W. CLAEKE. 



IX the Study of any branch of science it is w^ell to pause occasion- 

 ally, that we may look about us, see where we are, what we 

 are doing, and what we had better do. For that Mhich distinguishes 

 science from empirical knowledge is its unity of purpose, its coherence, 

 and its definite relation of part to part ; and these features develop 

 best when attention is temporarily withdrawn from the details of 

 .special research. As a science grows, and increases in complexity, the 

 individual worker must confine himself more and more to particular 

 investigations ; these, to him, assume undue importance, and their 

 higher significance as part of a broad general field is ignored or lost. 

 The petty details are essential ; but, incoordinated, they make not 

 science, but chaos. The scattered bricks are good material, but they 

 must be brought together into one symmetrical structure. 



These remarks are particularly true of a concrete science like min- 

 eralogy. Here we have a branch of knowledge which rests upon 

 the observation of material facts ; and v/hich, hitherto, has owed little 

 to abstract reasoning. Ii has grown up, partly as a "natural" sci- 

 ence, partly as an outlying division of chemistry ; and hypothesis has 

 had little to do with its uyjbuilding. The mineralogist collects, ob- 

 serves, describes, and classifies species as he finds them, determines 

 their mode of occurrence, chemical composition, and physical prop- 

 erties ; and then, too often, considers his work finished, except as re- 



