1 94 Natural History. [Chap. III^ 



ternal character, by the same name. From these, 

 and other causes, the language of mineralogy was 

 long arbitrary, vague, and ambiguous; each author 

 using that which his caprice or his convenience 

 dictated. Many attempts were made to supply 

 this defect, and to obviate these difficulties, by 

 Linnaeus, Peithner, and others, but without much 

 effect. At length Werner undertook to make a 

 radical reform in the descriptive language of this 

 science, and published the result of his labours in 

 177-i. This nomenclature proved more precise, 

 accurate, and scientific, than mineralogists had ever 

 before possessed; and its illustrious author, by 

 afterwards uniting the descriptions of external cha- 

 racters (which he had formed with much taste and 

 skill) with terms indicating the chemical properties 

 of minerals, was enabled to publish, in 1780, the 

 best system of mineralogical language that is now 

 extant ''^. 



Since the publication of Werner's system, almost 

 all the distinguished writers on mineralogy have 

 formed their arrangement and language on the 

 union of external characters and chemical proper- 

 ties. This is the case with the learned and inde- 

 fatigable Dr. Walker of Edinburgh, Messrs. Dau- 

 bcnton, Patrin, and Monge, of France, and Mr. 

 Kirwan of Ireland. All these gentlemen have in- 

 quired nuich, and written with ability, on this 

 branch of natural history. The last-named philo- 

 sopher, in particular, has rendered very important 

 services to mineralogical science, and, doubtless. 



* 1'hi.s latter publication \\as in the form of 'Noins on Croii- 



