270 



HISTORY OF MINERALOGY. 



composition of the body, distinguishing, for instance, 

 silicates, as simple, double, and so on, to quintuple 

 (Pechstein) and sextuple (Perlstein). In like manner, 

 Nordenskiold devised a system resting on the same 

 bases, taking into account also the crystalline form. 

 In 1824, Beudant published his Traite Elementaire 

 de Mineralogie, in which he professes to found his 

 arrangement on the electro-negative element, and 

 on Ampere's circular arrangement of elementary 

 substances. Such schemes exhibit rather a play 

 of the mere logical faculty, exercising itself on 

 assumed principles, than any attempt at the real 

 interpretation of nature. Other such pure chemical 

 systems may have been published, but it is not 

 necessary to accumulate instances. I proceed to 

 consider their result. 



Sect. 3. Failure of the Attempts at Systematic 

 Reform. 



IT may appear presumptuous to speak of the failure 

 of those whom, like Berzelius and Mohs, we ac- 

 knowledge as our masters, at a period when, pro- 

 bably, they and some of their admirers still hold 

 them to have succeeded in their attempt to con- 

 struct a consistent system. But I conceive that 

 my office as an historian requires me to exhibit 

 the fortunes of this science in the most distinct 

 form of which they admit, and that I cannot evade 

 the duty of attempting to seize the true aspect of 

 recent occurrences in the world of science. Hence 



