242 Biographical Account of [April^ 



gnosy, of which he was the contriver. He suppUed, instead of 

 the confused mass of which this species of knowledge had 

 hitherto consisted, those compendious descriptions, dehvered in 

 happily chosen, expressive, scientific language, which have 

 accomplished the difficult end of placing in an intelligible point 

 of view the principles of this science. The new method, from 

 the comprehensive nature of its illustrations, soon became exten- 

 sively known and a,dopted ; and in 1780, Werner, in the transla- 

 tion of the system of Cronstedt, which he then published, 

 explained, in a connected shape, his method of classification, and 

 his opinions in general, illustrated, and improved, since their 

 first origin, by many alterations and additions. He published in 

 1791 a second account of his doctrines, after having received 

 considerable additions to his mineralogical knowledge from his 

 being employed in drawing a catalogue of the collection of mine- 

 rals formed by Mr. Pabst, of Ohain. 



In the year 1775, not long after he had commenced his career 

 as an author, Werner obtained a permanent situation in the 

 Academy of Freiberg, the earliest cradle of mineralogical science 

 in Germany ; and destined to flourish with renewed life in conse- 

 quence of his labours. He was appointed, i\i addition to a pro- 

 fessorship, superintendent of the museum, and here his active 

 temper for investigation and observation obtained a wide field, 

 and by his mirestrained and enthusiastic exertions, in spite of 

 much opposition, he raised in his favour a strong party feehng, 

 and general admiration. The attempts to persecute Werner,* 

 and to impede the introduction of his doctrines, had quite the 

 contrary eti'ect to what their authors intended, and contributed 

 essentially to hasten the result so favourable and so brilliant to 

 him. The boundaries of the science were soon enlarged by the 

 effects of his favourite labours ; geognosy, reduced to an intelli- 

 gible shape, a work entirely the creation of Werner, being consi- 

 dered henceforth as a part of the science. His theoiy of the 

 periods in the formation of mountains, his researches respecting 

 rocks, and the nature of their agoreoation into the masses of 

 which the crust of the earth is composed, his reflections upon 

 the internal structure of mountains, his theory respecting veins, 

 his doctrine of the formations, and of the origin of the later 



» Arnon^ these may be classed the labours ofVcltheim, Heiuitzen, and others ^ 

 viz. Veltheim's essay, with remarlvs on the old and new nomenclature of minerals, 

 Helmstadt, 1793, a xvork deticient in argument; next comes the attack which Mr, 

 Chenevix hazarded against his preceptor, and which does not possess much merit, 

 published in the Annates de Chiraie, 1808, torn. 65, p. 11, 113 et 225. The 

 reply to this is contaiued in a letter from D'Aubuissou to Berthollet, Annales 

 de Chimie, 1809, torn. 69, p. 155 et 228 ; also in Thomson's observations in ansuer 

 to M Chenevix's attack upon Werner's mineraloj^ical method, Annals of Philoso- 

 phy, vol. 1. p. 245. Still less conclusive are the objections of the deceased Estner, 

 entitled " Unbiassed Thoughts respecting Werner's Improvements in Mineralogy." 

 Vienna, 1790. Compare these with what Karaten has said on the opposite side, 

 entitled " Upon Werner's Improvements in Mineralogy, occasioned by the Abbu 

 'Estner's unbiassed Opinions." Berlin, 179,'') 



