THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN FRANCE. 



117 



set in, to chemistry especially by Bergmann.-^ Haiiy 

 established the science of minerals on an independent 

 foimdation by studying and systematising the forms of 

 their crystallisation ; and he brought the science of min- 

 eralogy from Sweden and Germany into France, and gave 

 it an independent position. Thus it came to form a con- 

 necting-link between the mathematical i.e., the measur- 

 ing and calculating and the purely descriptive sciences. 

 " Mineralogy, though it is that part of natural science 

 which deals with the least complicated objects, is never- 

 theless also that which lends itself least to a rational 

 classification. The first observers named the minerals 

 vaguely according to their external appearances and their 

 use. It was not until the middle of the eighteenth 

 century that it was attempted to subject them to those 

 methods which had done service to geology and botany : 

 the hope existed of establishing among them genera and 



^ See an account of the work of 

 the chemical school, to which Cron- 

 sted (the inventor of the blow-pipe), 

 Bergmann, Kirwan, and Klaproth 

 belonged, in Cuvier's ' Rapport ' (p. 

 163). Also his "Eloge de Hauy" 

 (' Eloges histor.,' vol. iii. p. 143, &c.) 

 The beginnings of geometrical crys- 

 tallography seem to go back to Lin- 

 naeus ; but his view was discouraged 

 in France by BufFon, who disliked 

 Linnseus's writings. Whewell, who 

 was himself an authority on crys- 

 tallography, thinks Rome de I'lsle, 

 who was not an Academician, had 

 only scant justice done to him by 

 Haiiy and his friends (' Hist, of 

 the Induct. Sciences,' 3rd ed., vol. 

 iii. p. 176). More recent writers, 

 such as Kobell (' Geschichte der 

 Mineralogie,' Miinchen, 1864, p. 73, 

 &c.) and Nicol (article "Crystal- 



lography," ' Ency. Brit.'), have done 

 him justice. The 'Grande Ency- 

 clopedie ' thus summarises the work 

 of Rome de I'lsle : " II mesura 

 mecaniquement [I'iz., with Caran- 

 geot's goniometer] les angles et 

 etablit que ces angles ont toujours 

 une valeur constante dans une 

 meme espece mineralogique." That 

 of Haiiy is summarised in the two 

 laws : " 1", Tous les elements sem- 

 blables d'un cristal sont toujours 

 semblablement et simultanement 

 modifies (loi de symetrie) ; 2, toute 

 facette modifiante intercepte sur 

 les aretes de la figure primitive 

 des longueurs proportionelles k des 

 multiples simples de la longueur 

 de ces aretes (loi de derivation) " 

 (Berthelot in 'Grande Encyclojj.,' 

 vol. xiii. p. 397). 



