Ford— Growth of Mineralogy, 1818 to 1918. 241 



tific students increased, the number of those who rejected 

 this conclusion grew, until at last, the true character of 

 fossils was established. The keen interest in minerals 

 and fossils which was aroused by this controversy, 

 together with the rapid extension of mining operations, 

 drew the attention of scientific men to other features of 

 the earth's surface and led to a more extended investi- 

 gation of its characters and thus to the development of 

 geology proper. It is interesting to note also that min- 

 eralogy was the first of the Geological Sciences to be 

 officially recognized and taught by the universities. 



Although, as has been shown, the beginnings of min- 

 eralogy lie in the remote past, the science, as we know it 

 to-day, can be said to have had practically its whole 

 growth during the last one hundred years. Of the more 

 than one thousand mineral species that may now be con- 

 sidered as definitely established hardly more than two 

 hundred were known in the year 1800 and these were only 

 partially described or understood. It is true that Hauy, 

 the ' ' father of crystallography, ' ' had before this date dis- 

 covered and formulated the laws of crystal symmetry, 

 and had shown that rational relations existed between 

 the intercepts upon the axes of the different faces of a 

 crystal. It was not until 1809, however, that Wollaston 

 described the first form of a reflecting goniometer, and 

 thus made possible the beginning of exact investigation 

 of crystals. The distinctions between the different crys- 

 tal groups were developed by Bernhardi, Weiss and Mohs 

 between the years 1807 and 1820, while the Naumann 

 system of crystal symbols was not proposed until 1826. 

 The fact that doubly refracting minerals also polarize 

 light was discovered by Malus in 1808, and in 1813 

 Brewster first recognized the optical differences between 

 uniaxial and biaxial minerals. The modern science of 

 chemistry was also just beginning to develop at this 

 period, enabling mineralogists to make analyses more 

 and more . accurately and thus by chemical means to 

 establish the true character of minerals, and to properly 

 classify them. 



Franz von Kobell, on page 372 of his "Geschichte der 

 Mineralogies somewhat poetically describes the condi- 

 dition of the science at this period as follows : "With the 

 end of the eighteenth and the commencement of the nine- 

 teenth centuries exact investigations in mineralogy first 



