+$6 ON A NATURAL SYSTEM 



' ' * 



LATTER PART. 



Or GIVING NAMES TO FOSSILS. 



$ CLXXXII. Tbe Utility of Numes properly 

 ed in Afihefafofj. 



IF foffils arc rightly and juflly arranged and 

 denominated, agreeably to flic nature of tilings, 

 \ve find a harmony in them not k-fs grateful 

 than advantageous. 



SCLXXXIII. Ill/lory of Names in Natural Phi- 

 hfipby, 



THE fcicnccs cultivated during the early a- 

 ges, as chcmiflry, and all thofe depending on it, 

 had unhappily adopted certain fchemes and 

 modes of ipeech, of which the greater part were 

 not only puerile and abfurd, but often altoge- 

 ther falfe, and leading to erroneous conclufions. 

 Many cireumflances contributed to the fupport 

 of this mummery. At firil, in thofe days of 

 darkell ignorance, names were required to de- 

 fcribe new difcovcries and phenomena, atiaptcd 

 to the unfkilfulncfs of their authors. By de- 

 grees the knowledge of natural bodies, as well 

 as of artificial, being extended, the profeflors of 

 chemiflry began to entertain fuch lofty kleas <\f 



their 



