[ 54 J 



to both ; the workman who knows not its ufe knows what the- 

 name immediately figniSes as well as the philofopher who em- 

 ploys it, and as well as the German who calls it a fchwermeffer, 

 whofe primitive components alfo exprefs its ufe, nor is it better 

 imdcrllood by either than the name Jcrew or fehraube, which 

 cannot be rcfolvtd into any primitive component terms. Who 

 on hearing the Latin nams of a book ever thinks of its primitive 

 fignification — the bark of a tree? Languages muft have been 

 invented long before either chymiftry or mineralogy were in any 

 degree cultivated. In both the analytic and fynthetic branches 

 of chymiftry as well as mineralogy, many fubftances muft have 

 occurred to which in common language no naiuje was applied, 

 yet 'the neceffity of denoting them by fome name was urgent. 

 Here then a difficulty occurred, which fome fought to furmount 

 by, a name arbitrarily impofed, others by names derived from 

 fome real or fanciful relation of the given fubftance to fome ufe, 

 objed, perfon, ur particular quality or circumftance. Thus in 

 chymiftry alcohol appears to be a name arbitrarily impofed on 

 highly rcdified fpirit of wine or very fubtle powder.* Mercurius 

 vita denotes an antimonial prepnraiion of great efficacy ; as 

 Kermes mineral does one that refembles that fubftance in colour; 

 Glauber s fait, a particular fubftance firft formed by Glauber ; 

 Epfom, a fait firft difcovered in the fprings near that town, &c. 

 So in mineralogy, quartz fcems to be a name arbitrarily impofed, 

 and /path, a name originating from the refemblance of the inte- 

 grant 



• Some derive it from the Arabic Kahala exaruit. 



