i24 



REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES 



neral system, which was the latest received ia his code of nature, 

 consisted at the last edition in 1768, of two hundred and thirty-six 

 octavo pages. The treasures of this reign of nature are divided by 

 LiNN.^us into three different classes; namely, in stones (Petrce), 

 minerals (MinerceJ, and fossils ( Fossilia), the latter into various orders, 

 and the whole into fifty-four genera. Linnaeus gave a singular hy- 

 pothesis respefting the origin of stones, which was peculiar to himself. 

 In his opinion, the water is the prima materia of the earth, and its 

 sediment is clay. If sea-w^ater be mixed with rain-water, the salty 

 particles of the brine settle at the bottom like sand. Rotten plants 

 are changed into a black dustlike earth ; but all that belongs to the ani- 

 mal reign turns into chalk. Linn^us assigns these as the four prin- 

 cipal matters from which all the rest spring by crystallization, solu- 

 tion, &c. &:c. 



This hypothesis, like his classification of the mineral system, met 

 with many contraditlions. It cannot be denied, that Linnaeus dis- 

 played in this part of natural history of which the classification is most 

 difficult, less greatness than he did in all his other works, and for that 

 reason did not become its legislator. During the latter part of his life, and 

 since his death, many discoveries have been made in mineralogy, deeper 

 knowledge has been acquired, and new means devised*. His country- 

 men Wallerius Crongstaedt, Bercmann and his own pupil, 



* "LinNjEus," says Condorcet in his Eulogium, " classed the minerals almost entirely 

 " by their external forms : the chymists have made objeftions to this method, which it 

 " very difficult to answer ; but the naturalists, or at least the pupils of LinnjEUS, might 

 " have made objVftions equally powerful against a system of which the chymical analysis 

 " formed the first charafters ; in other respeits when Linn^us published his method, the 

 " analysis of mineral substances had not yet been brought to that degree of perfeflion to 

 " which one of his countrymen, the celebrated Behgmann, has since brought it. 



the 



