44 Reflections on some Mineralogical Systems. 
a Venus, a Laocoon: under the chissel of another, nothing 
would result but sparks and powder. 
One should expect that principles laid down so much at 
length might he rigorously followed. J have cursorily Te- 
marked some deviations : : the following are some others. 
In geognosis there is a rock called weisstein, white-stone. 
T have heard, in a public course, the description of this rock 
in these term: Das weisstein ist grau, ‘the while-stone 18 
gray. 
Such names as cubicite, octaedrite, cught not to be 
adopted but when a mineral is the only one w hich possesses 
the forms indicated by these words, or which possesses no 
others, 
But, what is still worge, is to introduce contradictions 
and inaccuracies of this kind into a part of mineralogy, the 
determination of which belongs to more profound “know- 
ledge and more clevated faculties of the human mind; in 
that part, the merit of which, if it be not entirely owing to 
accuracy, at least cannot exist without it; I mean, that it 
is a much more serious fault to apply mathematical, and 
consequently rigorous, ee to designate a thing which i is 
not what the name inplies. /Vurfel zeolithe is an example 
of this: the word means, ‘fibie zeolite*. Under this deno- 
mination two of Hatiy’s species (analcime and chabasie) are 
comprehended (Brochant, vol. 1. p. 304). Analcime, indeed, 
is cubic; but chabasie is a rhomboid, which differs from 2 
cube 3°,30. The most vulgar empiricism could not excuse 
such afault. The joiner or mason who had not a more cor- 
rect idea of a cube, would deserve to remain unemployed. 
It was at Freyberg that, for the first time in my life, I 
heard of a square with oc sides (gescholene quadrat); 
of an almost cube (fast wurfel), &e. 
A word which agrees periectly with these principles, but 
which is itself extremely vicious, 1s uryclometry. It is said 
that the system of Hatiy is properly oryctometry, or the 
art of measuring fossils. 7 maintain that this idea could 
not be suggested but by ignorance which misconceived the 
principles ‘of the author, or by disingenuosness which sought 
to pervert them, Were nothing more to be done than mea- 
curing fossils, it would require Heither the talents of a man 
ot learning, the calculation of a geomcter, the reasoning of 
* On this mineral Mr. Jameson observes, “ Haiiy has formed of this Sib. 
species two distinct sp’ ‘cies, but without sufficient reason.’ Yethe has not 
shown why the crys'ai fogeapher’s reason is insufiicient, if he really kuew it ; 
nor even condescended to communicate any collateral proof, or miscel- 
, laneous knowledge, tending to support the practice of his master.—T RANS. 
a lo- 
