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kingdonn of nature. This fact, however, does not impugn the correct- 

 ness of the distinctions usually made betweea the natural and artificial 

 substances or the propriety of the terms mineral and mineralogy used 

 solely in connection with the former. 



I admit the propriety of distinguishing minerals from other chemi- 

 cal substances ; but I think it illogical to give the imaginai-y line of 

 demarcation drawn between them as a sufficient reason for following a 

 completely different method in the study of each of the groups thus 

 delineated. It is not our arbitraiy conventions, but the very natiu'e of 

 things, that ought to suggest the proper line of action in this as in all 

 other studies. 



I am, therefore, convinced that mineralogy cannot be independent 

 of chemistry, and in chemistry I include even the study of crystalline 

 character. In this extended application of the word chemistry, I follow 

 the example of Cooke, Bendant and other far-seeing scientists, who, in 

 spite of present difficulties and apparent contradictions, foretell a time 

 when chemistry and crystallography, studied from a higher point of 

 view, will infallibly lead to the same conclusion, and become, in fact, 

 one and the same great science of the constitution of matter. 



My remarks, however, in this paper will apply exclusively to 

 Chemistry in its restricted sense, as Crystallography receives a due 

 amount of attention in our present system of studying Mineralogy. I 

 must here forestall an objection. My objector would say something to 

 thiseifect: " You are pleading for the dependence of Mineralogy upon 

 Chemistry, but is not this fully realized in the system now followed by 

 almost all authors on Mineralogy 1 " My answer is that you are partly 

 right and partly wrong. Most authors on Mineralogy, and, in fact, all 

 of such as are authorities on the subject, hold that chemical composition, 

 together with crystalline form, must be the basis of classification in 

 Mineralogy. They follow that principle : first, in deciding whether a 

 certain class of specimens constitutes a new species or is simply a vaiiety 

 of another already described species; secondly, in grouping together min- 

 erals similar in composition, This is amply sufficient to demonstrate 

 that they accept the above mentioned principle of the dependency of 

 Mineralogy upon Chemistry. But is that principle practically followed 

 in such a manner as to induce the student to look to Chemistry as the 



