264: 
Mineral Kingdom,” is best known in this country by its translation, 
published at Edinburgh, with considerable additions, by his pupil, 
Mr. William Haidenger, in 1825, 3 vols. 8vo. In the method of 
arrangement proposed by Mohs in this work, he founds his classi- 
fication solely on external resemblances and differences, and dis- 
plays a most profound knowledge of all the productions of the 
mineral kingdom. 
This devoted pupil, friend, and successor of Werner died in Italy, 
20th September, 1839, at Agardo, near Belluno, having undertaken 
a tour into that country for the purpose of studying the pheno- 
mena of volcanos*. He was an honorary member of the Royal 
and Wernerian Societies of Edinburgh. 
It has been said of Mohs, and may be said of many distinguished 
cultivators of this department of natural science, that he was too 
consummate a mineralogist to be a good geologist. The sustained 
attention to minute details, which is indispensable to the recognition 
of individual minerals, gives such a habit to the mind, that it cannot 
easily recoil from the state of tension, which is induced by the con- 
tinual study of minutize, to that expanded condition which is essential 
to apprehend the magnificent generalizations of geology. For similar 
reasons, an extremely skilful delineator of botanic details would pro- 
bably be incapable of expressing the grand and general features and 
effects of forest scenery, or landscape, from his habits of overstrained 
attention to the details of individual trees and plants that occupy 
the foreground of his picture. 
Captain ALEXANDER GERARD, of the Bengal Native Infantry, 
was one of three brothers, all distinguished by their enterprising 
spirit, and zealous scientific researches in the Himalaya Mountains, 
the sons of Dr. Gilbert Gerard, who wrote the well-known “ Insti- 
tutes of Biblical Criticism,” and grandsons of Dr. Alexander Gerard, 
author of works which have been translated into various European 
languages, and of a standard “ Essay on Taste.” 
Having been born at the University of Old Aberdeen, in which 
his father was Theological Professor, he had early imbibed a thirst 
for knowledge and for scientific pursuits; and at the age of sixteen 
* His funeral was celebrated with much ceremony expressive of public 
respect, and attended by a long procession of miners, each bearing in his 
hand a burning torch. 
