OF PYRITES AND GYPSUM. 3O9 



pours out his vials of wrath on the lieads of those who are 

 favoured by fortune, yet waste their leisure and their wealth in 

 idleness, utterly neglecting to profit by the study of nature. 

 *' Nature herself," he says, " seems to invite us to her school by 

 the charm with which she surrounds the study of her works." 

 I will not indulge in quotations from this grand old naturalist, 

 but with some of his words ringing in our ears, borne to us across 

 a gap of two centuries, we might fancy that we were listening to 

 an advocate of Nature-Study in the twentieth century. 



In the preface to the Pyvitology Henckel says : " A principal 

 motive to the present undertaking, in which I could wish to be 

 imitated, is the improvement of natural history." So far, I feel 

 sure, he has our Club entirely with him. Anything tending to 

 the improvement of natural history certainly commands our 

 synlpathy. And no doubt Henckel's work did mark, at the time 

 of its publication, a great advance in our knowledge of that 

 department of natural history which deals with the world of 

 minerals. 



Pyrites was regarded by our author as the most important 

 of all minerals, and on the title-page of the English translation 

 the work is described as a " History of the Pyrites, the Principal 

 Body in the Mineral Kingdom." To a substance occupying 

 this superlative position we can scarce!}'' grudge the thousand 

 pages, or more, which Henckel, with Teutonic thoroughness, 

 devotes to its study ; nor shall we even be disposed to quarrel 

 with him when, in spite of the thousand pages, he apologizes for 

 his work being so brief ! He is careful to explain that the 

 magnitude of the work is by no means commensurate with the 

 labour bestowed upon its production, for in some cases a few 

 lines represent months of labour in chemical and other 

 researches. 



On the title-page of the original work the Pyvitologia is 

 'described as a ^' Kiess-Historie," and to this day Kies is the 

 German name for the mineral. Henckel suggests that this word 

 may be connected with Kiesel, the name of flint, because both 

 minerals may be used for striking fire. This certainly seems to 

 be the case. In Pope's Greek-German Lexicon I fmd TrvpLTt]<s 

 Ai^os explained as " Feiierstein, audi Kupfevevz.'' This Feuerstein^ 

 or " fire-stone," is the common word for flint. In Whitney's 

 * Century Dictionary " Trvplrip is defined as " a flint or 



