4 INTRODUCTION. 



. 9. METHOD TO BE FOLLOWED IN ACQUIRING A KNOWL- 

 EDGE OF MINERALS. 



The course to be adopted by persons aiming at a thorough ac- 

 quaintance with the inorganic kingdom, consists, in the first place, 

 in studying the properties of these bodies, and in acquiring a knowl- 

 edge of the terms by which they are designated. This will require 

 as a preliminary, a familiarity with a few definitions in geometry ; 

 and afterwards, access to a collection of minerals arranged on pur- 

 pose to illustrate the properties. in question. The remaining princi- 

 ples of Mineralogy being understood, the student should apply him- 

 self at once to the Characteristic, or the means of arriving at the 

 names of unknown minerals through the use of the artificial system : 

 the names attained, he will be led, by having recourse to an alpha- 

 betical index, without farther inconvenience, to a full account of 

 their nature from the catalogue of species', in which all the knowl- 

 edge possessed, concerning minerals, is systematically detailed. 



After his acquaintance with the majority of the species is formed, 

 he will be prepared to enter upon that higher and more interesting 

 field, where the affinities of the different species are sought out with 

 a view to discover the more comprehensive unities of genera, orders 

 and classes which exist in the science, and whose survey is always 

 attended with a high degree of satisfaction, as offering to the mind, 

 at a single glance, the various degrees of resemblance with which 

 nature itself has impressed her own productions. 



. 10. INDIVIDUALS. 



An inorganic production which is a single body is con- 

 sidered as an Individual in the mineral kingdom. 



A crystal of Quartz, Iron-pyrites, or Topaz, is an individual in the 

 highest sense of the word, since within the space occupied by its 

 form, there exists a similar kind of matter in a state of insular exist- 

 ence, being every where cut off from union with other individuals 

 of the same, or of different kinds of matter; A distinct concretion of 

 granular Limestone is also an individual, -although circumstances 

 have prevented it from assuming its regular shape. Such produc- 

 tions are to be viewed as independent wholes, and capable of con- 

 sideration without regard to their connexion with other individuals j 



