340 Reminiscences of Werner and Freiberg. 
thrown together, and it seemed as if they were about to be 
thrown down. It was ananxious moment. It is well known 
how great may be the value of even the smallest specimens, 
and how difficult it is, nay, almost impossible, to gather up all 
the crystals in such a case, when they have been scattered on 
the floor, and have fallen into the openings between the 
boards. Werner became pale, and was silent. The misfor- 
tune did not take place. The students carefully pushed the 
tray to the middle of the table, so that it might be in perfect 
safety ; and we sat waiting anxiously for nearly ten minutes 
ere Werner recovered himself so as to be able to say, “ Do 
not be offended at my having been so much agitated ; the loss 
which might have happened would have been irreparable.” 
He then told us, that some years before, a tray of precious 
stones had actually been upset in a similar way, and that the 
students had remained to assist in gathering up the small crys- 
tals. It is well known that Werner was the first who proved 
that the sapphire and ruby belong to one genus. “I pos- 
sessed,” he said, “‘a sapphire of three colours, white above, 
ruby. red in the middle, and indigo blue below. It was the 
only specimen of the kind in the world. The piece was large, 
and it disappeared on that occasion ; and if you should ever 
see such a specimen, claim it, for it must be the one which 
was stolen from me.’ The lecture was then abruptly termi- 
nated, and Werner did not entirely recover his composure for: 
some days. 
The chief service rendered by Werner to oryctognosy, was 
his sharp discrimination of the most delicate distinctions. In 
recognising and exhibiting these, his whole demeanour pre- 
sented a combination of earnestness and assured conviction. 
Every single obscurity annoyed him, and he almost compelled 
his hearers to distinguish, with the greatest possible certainty, 
the most trivial variations in the mixtures of colours occurring 
in minerals. All the characters of minerals were classified 
with the most extreme minuteness ; and every deviation from 
the arrangement so decidedly fixed by him, every case of doubt- 
ful apprehension vexed, nay, injured him. .Although he em- 
‘ployed no mathematical formule for the determination of 
crystals, yet his descriptions were the clearest and most exact 
