1814.] Werner s Nomenclature of Colours. 225 



possess considerable knowledge of stones declare that colour in 

 mineralogy may be overlooked altogether, and that it contributes 

 rather to throw confusion into the science than to facilitate the 

 investigation of species. Such persons have evidently not paid the 

 requisite attention to the colours of minerals. Their methods of 

 discriminating minerals depend upon the crystalline forms, or some 

 analogous character, and would fail them in many instances, when 

 a person thoroughly acquainted with the external characters would 

 be able to pronounce with confidence and certainty. Suppose a 

 mineral, A, to assume occasionally five different colours, and no 

 more, and that a stone is presented to our view, and the 

 question put whether it belongs to the species A or not ; if 

 the colour be neither of the five to which the mineral A is 

 confined, we are enabled at once to answer in the negative, without 

 any farther examination ; if the colour be one of the five we must 

 proceed a step farther, and examine whether the fracture, the 

 hardness, the specific gravity, etc. of the mineral under examina- 

 tion, be the same with that of A ; if they be, the species of the 

 stone is found without any uncertainty ; if they be not, we may 

 pronounce in the negative with equal confidence. 



The present work has been long wanted, and mineralogists 

 especially are under great obligations to Mr. Syme for the care and 

 accuracy with which it has been executed. The colours of Werner 

 amount to 13 ; but Mr. Syme has increased the number in his 

 catalogue to 108, of which there are 13 which have not yet been. 

 ob>erved in the mineral kingdom. He has divided them into ten 

 sets ; namely, whites, greys, blacks, blues, purples, greens, yellows, 

 oranges, reds, and browns. Werner confounded the purples with 

 the bines, and the orange colours with the yellows ; but Mr. Syme, 

 in my opinion at least, has acted properly in placing these two 

 colours into separate sets, as they are as much entitled surely to be 

 considered as distinct colours as the greens, and much more than 

 the greys or browns. 



Mr. Syme lias also made the following changes on some of 

 Werner's Dames, to accommodate them better to the terms already 

 in common use in this country: — 



Milk white, changed into Skimmed milk white. 



i-i .' I i-li lead grey Blackish grey. 



• 1 grey Fiench grey. 



Smalt blue Gieyish blue. 



sky blue Greenish blue. 



\ iolel blue Violet purple. 



Plum blue Plum purple. 



1 Avender blue Lavender purple. 



Orange yellow Dutch orange. 



' imson red Lake red. 



I tlumbine red .Crimson red. 



< berry red Brownish purple red. 



Vol. IV. \ HI. 1' 



