SI 4 Professor Mohs's General Reflections on 
natural-historical determination affords the point of comparison* 
in reference to which we have to form our judgment on the re- 
maining determinations. 
Natural History, inasmuch as it is intended to afford a foun- 
dation to all other sciences that bear reference to natural pro- 
ductions, by determining their objects, must possess certain pro- 
perties upon which depend this possibility ; the facility of its ap- 
plication ; and, above all, the certainty in its results. All these 
properties may be comprised in one word ; it must be a science , 
which means an aggregate of information of the same hind , and 
systematically arranged , so as to produce the idea of a whole. 
And, under this description, must Mineralogy also come, if it is 
intended to attain its object. It is evident that this idea has 
been but imperfectly kept sight of, or even totally disregarded, 
in many works on Mineralogy, which contain nothing else than 
a mass of heterogeneous matter, without order, connection, or 
mutual consistency of parts ; without the establishment of dis- 
tinct limits between it and other sciences ; and without furnish- 
ing the idea of a whole. Perhaps the authors of many of these 
works had the well-meant intention of effecting more by them 
than we are entitled to demand ; and, for that reason, missed 
their aim. They may now serve to furnish a proof, that if they 
do not possess the properties required in every science, they are 
not capable of arriving at the result peculiar to Natural History. 
On the other hand, it will be demonstrated farther on, that, if 
Mineralogy be raised to the rank of a science, namely, treated as 
a part of Natural History, it will fulfil every demand in regard to 
every science with which it forms any connection, and will serve 
as a sure determination of its objects ; while the higher aim also 
will not be neglected, of affording a representation conformable 
to nature, of the productions of one of her kingdoms, which, on 
account of the wonderful regularity which it exhibits, and of its 
utility in scientific and economical matters, deservedly ranks high 
in the estimation of the naturalist. 
It will not be necessary to enter here into a minute investiga- 
tion of the meaning that ought to be attached to the idea of a 
natural production. Yet, it should be observed, that the appli- 
cation of this idea is too confined, if we consider as natural pro- 
ductions those bodies only for which nature itself has also pro- 
