[ viii ] 
found. But as every country had a different 
name for thele bodies, they often gained more 
names than there were real fpecies, and even 
fometimes the very reverfe happened; this oc- 
cahoned a confulion, which in the beginning 
was excufable, but in length of time could not 
fail of being an obftacle to the progrefs of the 
fcience, and its application in common life. 
To remove and alter thefe inconveniences^ 
they have in later and more enlightened times 
endeavoured to fix proper names to the fubjedts 
of the mineral kingdom, according to their ex- 
ternal marks, as in regard to Figure, Colour, 
and Hardnefs ; but thefe charafiers afterwards 
having been found not fufficient, it was necef- 
fary to difeover others more folid by the refult 
of chemical experiments, which added to the 
former ones would make a complete iyftem,. 
Hiarne and Bromell were, as far as I know, 
the firft who founded any mineral lyftem upoi> 
chemical principles. However, they were only 
the projeftors of this manner of proceeding ; 
and to them we owe the three known divifions 
of the mofi: fimple mineral bodies ; viz. the G?/- 
caret ^ Vitrejeentes^ ct Apyri, This fyftem was 
afterwards adopted by Dr. Linnaus, who, as a 
very fkiiful perfon in the other two kingdoms 
of nature, ought not to have omitted the third 
when he publiflicd his Syfterna Natural. Browal, 
bhhop of Abo, a prelate of great learning, had 
an opportunity of altering and improving Lin- 
neus's metiiod in a manufeript, which Dr, 
VYalierius has fince made public in his Minera- 
