64 Improvements in Physical Science [Jan. . 
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——— 
100 
Dobereiner found among his specimens a mineral marked phos- 
phate of iron, which agreed in its characters with the mineral ana- 
Jysed by Trommodorf. He found it composed of 
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96°C 
il. GEOGNOSY, 
This branch of mineralogy has been for some years past studied 
with much assiduity in Great Britain, chiefly in consequence of the 
meritorious exertions of the Geological Society of London, and the 
Wernerian Society of Edinburgh. We are now pretty well ac- 
quainted with the names and position of the different rocks which 
constitute the surface of our island, some of the central parts of 
England excepted, where the rocks are so much covered with soil, 
that it is scarcely possible to examine them. Thus, we do not know 
whether the syenite which occurs at Mount Sorrel in Leicestershire 
lies over the rocks of the neighbouring country, or whether it rises 
through them; though a variety of circumstances render the former 
supposition the most probable. We are likewise imperfectly ac- 
quainted with the structure of Derbyshire. Mr. Farey indeed has 
published a survey of this county, which I believe is very accurate 5 
but, unluckily, his names are all local, and can convey precise infor+ 
mation only to the inhabitants of the county. ‘The proper method 
of proceeding would have been to have given both the local and 
mineralogical names of these rocks. Mr. Farey indeed treats scien- 
tific names, and the cultivators of mineralogy as a science, with ridi- 
cule and contempt: but it is surely unnecessary to observe that 
one man must make a very sorry figure when he sets himself in 
opposition to all the world. The names of the rocks employed by 
scientific mineralogists have been universally adopted, and it is 
beyond the power of any individual to alter them, or to substitute 
others in their place. The Emperor Claudius endeavoured to in- 
iroduce two new letters into the Roman alphabet; but all his au- 
thority, absolute as it was, was insuflicient to effectuate his purpose ; 
and at present we do not even know what these two letters were. 
Mr. Smith’s geological map of the structure of England and part 
of Scotland was published last summer. It constitutes a material 
addition to our own knowledge of the structure of this kingdom. 
It was the result of twenty years of laborious assiduity. Mr. Smith 
traced the rocks over the country, and ascertained their similarity 
by means of the petrifactions which they contain. His opinions are 
precisely the same as those of Werner; though Iam not sure that 
