OF PART THE SECOND. xix 
not only to give them a place in the text, but 
sometimes to sacrifice other topics of discussion, 
in order to introduce them. As to mineralogy, 
indeed, unless some judicious mode of nomen- 
clature be adopted by the concurrence of writers 
upon this subject, instead of the ^ar^on now pre«- 
valent, the science will become characterized 
by confusion as fearful as that of Babel. Not 
only every new writer, but every new professor 
of mineralogy, and almost every dealer in mi- 
nerals, conceives himself authorized either to 
introduce new names, or to revive old appellations 
that had long been laid aside: hence it follows, 
that in naming any simple mineral, or mineral ag- 
gregate, in order to be intelligible, it is necessary 
to use a list of synonyms, which is every day 
increasing*. It is easy to propose a remedy for 
(3) Thus, m order to distinguish the pure sulphate of lime from the 
hydro-sulphate, or plaster stone, the mineralogical student is taught to 
rehearse all the barbarous names of muriacite, wurfelspath, sulfatine, 
anhydrite, vulpinolithe, bardiglione, and perhaps many more. Nor is 
this evil confined to simple minerals; it is also gaining ground rapidly 
in the nomenclature of rochs. It was generally understood among 
geologists, that every mineral aggregate, consisting of crystals of /eld- 
spar imbedded in any given matrix, should be called a potphyry : and 
here there was no confusion ; because every one understood what 
compound substances were designated by the terms serpentine 
potphyry. 
