168 Sheparcfs Treatise on Mineralogy. 



Art. XVII. — Reply to a Notice of Shepardfs Mineralogy, with 

 various Mineralogical Observations ; addressed to Mr. B. Sil- 

 LiMAN, Jr., one of the Editors of the American Journal ; by 

 Charles Upham Shepard, M. D., Professor of Chemistry in 

 the Medical College of South Carolina. 



Remark, by the Editors. — It must not be inferred from our 

 admission of this communication, that we recognize the right of 

 authors to reply through ourselves to any critical remarks which 

 may be made by the editors of this Journal upon their published 

 works ; unless it can be shown that we have failed to apprehend 

 or have incorrectly stated their views. 



We are well satisfied that our remarks should have called out 

 from Prof. Shepard a defence of his views, since by a comparison 

 with the objections offered, our readers may be able to form a 

 more unprejudiced opinion of the real nature of the pure natural 

 history method. He says, — 



In your notice of the new edition of my Mineralogy, while 

 speaking favorably of my merits as a cultivator of American 

 mineralogy, you have been pleased to bring forward several ob- 

 jections to the principles upon which the system in that treatise 

 is constructed. As that method is the one according to which I 

 have heretofore conducted my mineralogical studies, you will not 

 think it strange that I am anxious to do away if possible the force 

 of your objections, while I feel that it is, in some measure, de- 

 manded of me also, if I would retain the character your notice 

 still leaves me in possession of, as ranking among the most suc- 

 cessful cultivators of the science in the country. 



I hold mineralogy to be simply a branch of natural history, 

 that general department whose business it is to perform for the 

 three great kingdoms of nature (the animal, the vegetable, and 

 the mineral) the following services : first, to point out and de- 

 signate by suitable terms the natural properties belonging to the 

 various objects in each kingdom, [terminology;) secondly, to set- 

 tle the grounds of classification, {theory of the system, ;) thirdly, 

 to affix names, [nomenclature ;) fourthly, to furnish a set of marks 

 to enable the learner to determine unkown objects, [characteris- 

 tic;) fifthly, to provide for each species a full description of its 



