CHAPTER V. 



RECEPTION AND CONFIRMATION OF THE DISTINCTION 

 OF SYSTEMS OF CRYSTALLIZATION. 



IFFUSION of the Distinction of Systems. 

 The distinction of systems of crystallization 

 was so far founded on obviously true views, that it 

 was speedily adopted by most mineralogists. I need 

 not dwell on the steps by which this took place. 

 Mr. Haidinger's translation of Mohs was a principal 

 occasion of its introduction in England. As an 

 indication of dates, bearing on this subject, perhaps 

 I may be allowed to notice, that there appeared in 

 the Philosophical Transactions for 1825, A General 

 Method of Calculating the Angles of Crystals, which 

 I had written, and in which I referred only to 

 Haiiy's views; but that in 1826', I published a 

 Memoir On the Classification of Crystalline Com- 

 binations, founded on the methods of Weiss and 

 Mohs, especially the latter; with which I had in the 

 mean time become acquainted, and which appeared 

 to me to contain their own evidence and recom- 

 mendation. General methods, such as was attempted 

 in the Memoir just quoted, are part of that process 

 in the history of sciences, by which, when the prin- 

 ciples are once established, the mathematical opera- 



1 Camb. Trans, vol. ii. p. 391. 

 VOL. III. R 



