Sect. III.] Mineralog}}. 201 



years of the eighteenth century, cannot be con- 

 templated without astonishment. To separate five 

 or six substances intimately combined together; 

 to exhibit each of them separately; to ascertain 

 the precise quantity of each ; and even to detect 

 the presence and the weiglit of substances which do 

 not approach y^th part of the compound ; would, 

 at no very remote period, have been considered a.s 

 a hopelessj if not an impossible task. Yet all this, 

 by means of the wonderful discoveries and im- 

 provements of MargrafF, Neumann, Schede, Berg- 

 man, Klaproth, Vauquelin, and others, can now bo 

 done with the most rigid accuracy*. 



This science, like almost every other cultivated 

 in modern times, while its boundaries have been 

 extended, and its principles greatly improved, has 

 been rendered more subservient than Ibrmerly to 

 various important purposes of economy and art. 

 Instead of being considered, as it once was, a low 

 and trifling object of study, it has lately begun to 

 be viewed as dignified in its nature, and most in- 

 teresting in its relations. It is now regarded as a 

 valuable and indeed necessary handmaid to Medi- 

 cine, JgriaiUure, and a large portion of the wzfl- 

 mfactures, which su])ply the conveniences, com- 

 forts, or luxuries, of human life. Mineralogy has, 

 therefore, within a few years past, been cultivated 

 with great diligence and success by almost all the 

 nations in Europe, especially \n^ Germami and 

 ;Siveden, where splendid mineral riches particularly 

 invited inquiry and application. Societies have 

 been formed for extending and improving the 



* Thomson's Chanistry. 



