AN ACCOUNT 



OF A 



NEW MINERAL SUBSTANCE, 



DISCOVERED AT KILLINEY, 



IN THE VICINITY OF DUBUN. 



BY THOMAS TAYLOR, M. D. M. R. I. A. F. L. S. 



ALTHOUGH the mineral kingdom in bulk so eminently surpasses 

 the animal or vegetable, yet naturalists have already distinguished 

 the species of each of the latter into some tens of thousands, while 

 those of the former are scarcely made to exceed four hundred in 

 number. Such, then, being the uniformity of mineral substances, the 

 .difficulty of assigning to them exclusive characters, whether taken 

 from their composition or external appearance, being also very 

 great, the admission of a mineral to the rank of a new species 

 should be practised with the utmost caution. Conscious of a 

 very limited knowledge of Mineralogy, I should not have ven- 

 tured to lay before the Royal Irish Academy, the following remarks 

 on a mineral found in the vicinity of Dublin, if I were not sup- 

 ported in considering it a new species' by the opinions of some 



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