MODE III. COAL. 571 



application of genus and species, to inert mat- 

 ter, reduced even the ablest authors. 



Of common coal, Werner numbers two spe- 

 cies, the black, and the brown. 



The black coal contains six subspecies; 1. Black coal. 

 Pitch coal ; <2. Columnar coal ; 3. Slaty coal ; 

 4. Cannel coal ; 5. Foliated coal ; and 6. Coarse 

 coal. The first is jet which belongs to lithology ; 

 the second which burns without flame or smell, 

 is an anthracite, as Voigt allows, and is merely 

 a rare variety. But from the want of judgement 

 in distinguishing between the grand and import- 

 ant substances, and those which are merely tri- 

 fling and rare varieties, sometimes only excep- 

 tions or excrescences, the very arrangement of 

 mineralogic systems is often the source of unne- 

 cessary embarrassment; the separation of the 

 pretended species being sometimes radical and 

 essential, and often of the most trifling and am- 

 biguous nature ; nay, sometimes as ridiculous as 

 if the species of trees were to be estimated by the 

 mosses which grow upon them, the fantastic forms 

 occasioned by accident, or the cavities hollowed 

 by the hand of time. 



The third subspecies, which in this barbarous 

 system follows jet, a rare and precious substance, 

 and columnar coal which is confined to one 

 hill, the Meissner in Hessia, is that called slate 



