CONTRIBUTIONS TO MICRO-MINERALOGY. 221 



An example of this may be found in the pages of this 

 Journal,* in the vexed question of the Torbane-hill Mineral, 

 and the Microscope as an instrument of structural, physical, 

 rnicro-chemical, and crystallological research may help to 

 solve many more such problems in mineralogy. 



For the last three years my time has been fully occupied 

 with other matters, but now that I again find leisure, I return 

 to these inquiries ; and in the pages of this Journal I propose 

 to publish from time to time such investigations as bear upon 

 the microscopical part of the subject, and which I think will 

 well repay the labour, for though the bibliography of micro- 

 scopy abounds with papers and works on Animal and 

 Vegetable Structure, 1 am surprised to find how very few 

 have been written on mineral or inorganized bodies. 



The Mineral Kingdom must embrace a wider domain than 

 that originally set apart for it, before it can be studied with 

 advantage ; not only must it include those aggregates of 

 minerals and mineralized masses which are now regarded as a 

 distinct branch of study under the term Petralogy, or which 

 are included with Geology, but also the so-called artificial 

 products of the laboratory and the smelting furnace ; for where 

 exists the difference between the crystallogenic forces that 

 produce the Cyanose of the mines and the Sulphate of Copper 

 of our laboiatoi:y capsules? How should we know tfiat 

 Sulphur is dimorphous without resort to the crucible ? or 

 that iodides, bromides, chlorides, and fluorides form isomor- 

 phous groups if we did not take cognizance of laboratory 

 products ? As well might modern Botanists and Zoologists 

 ignore the extinct forms of former epochs wherewith they 

 now fill up many a gap in their Systems. If Mineralogy has 

 of late years been drifting too much from its position as a 

 branch of Natural History, out of the hands of the Naturalist 

 into those of the Chemist,! advantage has arisen, inasmuch as 

 Rammelsberg and Schabus have examined a large class of 

 laboratory products more in accordance with the Natural 

 History method — the results they have recently given to the 

 world in two valuable publications. J 



From this point of view, then, the study of the Mineral 



* See Que.kett, Transactions, vol. ii., p. 34, PI. III., IV., V., Highley, 

 Journal, vol. ii., p. 141. ' Is Coal a Mineralogical Species.?' — liedferu, 

 vol. iii., p. 106, PL VII., VIIL, IX. 



t Tlie Britisli Association does not include Mineralogy in the Natural 

 History or Geological Sections, but in the Chemical Section ; this indicates 

 the point of view ironi which this science is regarded in England. 



X Handbuch der Krystallographischen Chemie von C. F. Pammelsberg, 

 Berlin, 1855 ; and Bestiminung der Krystallgestaltcn in Chemischeu 

 Laboratorieu Producte, von Jacob Schabus, Vienna, 1855. 



