Natural Hlsfonj. 14j 



Thornton, of London, is not only highly honour- 

 able to himself and his country, but probably, also, 

 in superb magnificence and accuracy, without an 

 equal on earth." 



M 



INERALOGY, 



This department of natural history has, also, 

 within the period under review, passed through va- 

 rious revolutions, and received numerous improve- 

 ments equally fundamental and important. From 

 the time of Aristotle, the first distinguished mi- 

 neralogist, to that of Becher, a learned German, 

 little had been done in this science, except bringing 

 together, and gradually increasing, a wilderness of 

 facts, without system or order. Becher, toward 

 the latter end of the seventeenth century, turning 

 his attention, with zeal, toward this subject, became 

 the father of regular mineralogy. After him a 

 number of adventurers in this field of inquiry ap- 

 peared, but they did little more than make large 

 collections of mineral substances, and class them 

 according to the old rules. Among the principal 

 of these w^ere Hierne, a Swede, who gave an 

 ample and very valuable account of the fossils of 

 his own country; — Woodward^ and Charleton, 

 English naturalists, who made curious collections 

 and enumerations of mineral specimens; — and 

 Brachmel, of Sweden, who threw much new 

 light on this kingdom of nature, as it appeared in 

 that part of Europe. To these succeeded Lin- 

 naeus. This great man proposed a new classifica- 

 tion of mineral bodies, and was the first who distri- 



This Is the opinion of Dr. Darwin, whose taste or information on 

 this suhject will not be questioned. Phytologia. 



p Woodward instituted a professorship of mineralogy about the year 

 1720, in the University of Cambridge, to which he left his collection of 

 minerals as a legacy. 



