REPORT ON MINERALOGY* . 
325 
as any other. This opinion indeed is openly maintained by some 
of our best mineralogists. Their labours have been employed 
solely and exclusively in the crystallographical and chemical 
analysis of particular species ; and I am not aware that any 
attempt has been made among us to establish any proposition 
including a class of species of minerals, with the exception of 
Sir David Brewster’s optical researches. 
Such is the state of the case in England. But a more forward 
and hopeful spirit appears to have prevailed for some time in 
other countries, especially Sweden, Germany, and more recently 
France. It may therefore be of service to point out what is the 
progress which has been made in this branch of knowledge, 
and what are the views respecting it which have been opened 
during the last few years in Europe at large. 
The subject may be conveniently considered under the fol¬ 
lowing heads : 
1. The Physical characters of minerals ; as hardness, spe¬ 
cific gravity, lustre, &c. 
2. Crystallographical speculations, and their application to 
minerals. 
3. The Optical properties of minerals. 
4. The Chemical constitution of minerals, 
5. The Classification of minerals. 
6. Miscellaneous researches and observations : as the disco¬ 
very of new minerals, the identification or discrimination of old 
ones, the determination of their crystalline forms, &c. 
I purposely omit all that refers to the localities of minerals, 
as more properly pertaining to the domain of geology ; and all 
that regards their economical uses, and the processes of metal¬ 
lurgy, as forming in itself a distinct subject. The study of the 
properties which we have now some hope of referring to gene¬ 
ral laws,—the optical and chemical properties of minerals,—is 
a topic sufficiently ample for the present occasion. 
1. Physical characters . 
The discrimination of minerals by their most obvious proper¬ 
ties of colour, lustre, weight, hardness, was naturally attended 
to in the first attempt to obtain some distinct and connected 
knowledge with regard to those substances. The study of such 
characters has now been prosecuted far enough and long enough 
to show that a systematic and solid mineralogy cannot be formed 
by attention to these alone ; and that crystalline form and che¬ 
mical construction must be the main elements of our min era- 
logical science. Still, the more vague external characters by no 
means deserve to be neglected ; nor will they be so by any who 
study the actual minerals with persevering and close observation. 
