438 , M I N E R 
'being removed, a quantity of wax were to be poured into 
the mould ; it is evident that the wax would thus acquire 
the form of a l'ubftance differing very much from itfelf in 
quality. 
Sometimes the confufion produced in the procefs of 
cryftallization is fo great, that the cryftallized form is to 
the fenfes entirely loll; as when cryftals become lenticu¬ 
lar, and lofe the character fo diftinftive of their nature, 
namely, their termination in ftraight lines bounding plane 
fur faces ; or when they are fo clofely and intricately ag¬ 
gregated as to give rather a regularity and peculiarity of 
internal ftrufture, than of external form. See the article 
Crystallography, vol. v. p. 414,, & feq. 
Of the preceding characters of mineral l'ubftances, their 
hardnefs, phofphorefcence, electricity, and their refractive 
power with reipect to the rays of light, are called phyJicaL 
The matrix of a mineral is the lubftance in which it is- 
immediately imbedded, or through which it is difl'emi- 
nated. Kidd's Outlines; Introduction. 
It has been already faid that no fyftematic arrangement 
of minerals has reached us from the ancients, and there 
is good reafon to believe that none everexifted. The 
modern fyftems, from the year 1730 to the prel'ent time, 
are more than twenty, belides the improved one of 
Grnelin, which we follow', as being fubllituted by him for 
that of Linnaeus in his edition of the Syftema Natura. It 
will not be expected that w'e fficuld enter into the merits 
or demerits of thefe various fyftems, ffnce we have de¬ 
clared which we prefer and adopt; but, for the fake of 
thole who may wilh to gain information from the valua¬ 
ble works in which they are detailed, we lhall enumerate 
them in the order of time. 
1. The fyftem of Bromel, publilhed at Stockholm, in 
an oftavo volume, in the year 1730. The Bromelian me¬ 
thod can hardly be called a fyftem, as he has omitted the 
claftification, the generic character, the lpecific differences, 
and the fynonymes. 
2. Linnaeus’s firft fyftem ; Leyden, 1736, 1748. 
3. Wallerius’s firft fyftem ; Stockholm, 1747. Of this 
fyftem Linnaeus thus fpeaks : “ He firft determined right¬ 
ly the fpecies in the mineral kingdom; and refolved in a 
beautiful manner the analylis of liones.” 
4. Wolterfdorf; Berlin, 1748, 4to. His opinions are 
principally thefe : That foil, proceeding from vegetable 
or animal l’ubftances, paffes gradually into clay ; that all 
rock, when ftruck againft fteel, gives out fparks; that 
pumice-ftone is not the product of volcanoes ; that true 
native iron no-where exifts. He obferves in his Preface, 
“ Linnaeus was doubtlefs the firlt who, according to the 
laws of fyftem, endeavoured to reduce the fcience of mi¬ 
neralogy into clafles and orders.” 
5. F. A. Cartheufer; Frankfort, 1755, 8vo. 
6. J. H.G.Juft; Gottingen, 1757. 
7. The fyftem of Cronftedt; Stockholm, 1758. This 
fyftem is merely metallurgic, inveftigated upon chemical 
principles, peculiar, and not compiled. Many genera are 
therefore excluded, as Sand-ftone, Scliift, Soil, Calculus, 
Nitre, See. He denies that cryftals originate from falts, 
and confidevs their figures rather curious than ufeful. 
Charafteriftic definitions he confiders ufelefs. 
8. Syftem of D. R. A. Vogel; Leipfic, 1762, 1776. 
9. Linnaeus’s fecond fyftem ; Stockholm, 1768. In each 
of his lyftems, Linnaeus divided this kingdom into three 
dalles only—Rocks, Minerals, and Foffils. 
10. Wallerius’s fecond fyftem ; Stockholm, 1772. It 
differs but little from his firft. 
j 1. Veltheim’s fyftem, publifhed at Brunfwick, fol. 1781. 
12. Bergman’s; at Leipfic and Drefden, 8vo. 1782. 
13. Werner’s Syftem. In the year 1780, a tranllation 
of Cronftedt’s Mineral Syftem appeared in Germany, ac¬ 
companied with notes by Werner, the celebrated pro- 
feffor of mineralogy at Freyberg in Saxony. Six years 
before this time Werner had publilhed a feparate Treatile 
on the Claftification of Minerals, in which he exhibited 
his method of deferibing them by means of external cha- 
A L O G Y. 
rafters. The notes on Cronftedt’s Syftem are to be con- 
fidered as a farther illuftration of this method, as well as 
a Catalogue of Minerals belonging to Pabft Von Ohain, 
which was drawn up by the lame naturaiift, and pub¬ 
lilhed in 1791. In Germany the method of Werner, we 
believe, is almoft exclufively adopted ; and it is chiefly fol¬ 
lowed in moft other countries, France excepted, where 
mineralogical knowledge is alfo greatly cultivated. 
Mr. Kirwan firft introduced the knowledge of this fyf¬ 
tem into Britain, in his Treatile on Mineralogy publifned 
in 1784; and about ten years afterwards it w'as ftill far¬ 
ther elucidated by the fame author in an improved and 
enlarged edition of that work. In preparing the latter 
edition, Mr. Kirwan enjoyed the peculiar advantage of 
confulting one of the complete!!: and beft-arranged coi- 
leftions of minerals that had yet been made in any 
country. This is the Lelkean colleftion of foffils, W'hich 
Mr. Kirwan pronounces to be the moft perfeft monument 
of mineralogical ability now extant. Profeffor Jamelon, 
a diftinguilhed pupil alfo of the Freyberg fchool, has 
publilhed an elaborate work in three volumes, the two 
firft of which contain the fyftem of oryftognofy according 
to the method of Werner, the third giving a complete 
expolition of his fyftem of geognoly. As this fyftem is 
fo widely diffufed, W'e muft give the outline of it. 
The fundamental principle laid down by Werner, in 
the fyftematical arrangement of foflils, is their natural 
affinity, which he allows to be founded on the chemical 
mixture of their component parts. Thefe may be diftin¬ 
guilhed into effential and accidental component parts; 
the former of which alone are confidered in the claffifi- 
cation of mineral fubftances. The effential component 
parts are fubdivided into predominant and charafteriftic 
ones; and generally the charafteriftic happen to be, at 
the fame time, the predominant conftituents. By Hum¬ 
boldt the former are called the enveloping conftituent 
parts. All mineral fubftances are diftributed by Werner 
into four dalles, which are founded on what is called the 
fundamental conftituent parts, viz. the earthy, faline, 
inflammable, and metallic; each clafs being called after 
that fundamental conftituent part which predominates in 
and charafterifes it. Thus we have the earths, the falts, 
the inflammables, and the metals. Thefe dalles are fub¬ 
divided into genera, which are derived from the variety 
in the component parts of the minerals comprehended in 
each clafs ; there being as many diftinft genera as there 
are predominating, or, at leaft, charafteriftic conftituent 
parts difeovered in their mixture. Werner has himfelf 
difregarded this rule in feveral inftances, and we fuppofe 
has now even entirely dilcontinued the divifion into 
genera ; at leaft, feveral of his pupils have, in their fyf¬ 
tematic works, introduced families as the only divifion 
between clafs and fpecies ; each family being a group of 
fpecies that manifeft clofe affinity to each other, fuch as 
the “ Feldfpar family,” the “ Zeolite family,” &c. By 
this means the fyftem is fo far freed from the (hackles of 
chemiftry, and the contradiftions are avoided which 16 
frequently ltrike the ftudent of the Wernerian fyftem. 
In the fame manner perhaps, alfo, the fpecies might in 
fome meafure be made independent of chemiftry. The 
charafter of the fpecies, according to the original idea of 
the founder of this fyftem, was to be derived from the 
chemical mixture, and from the differences in the quan¬ 
tity and quality of the conftituent parts. But in moft 
cafes, where no analyfes exifted of minerals, or no fatif- 
laftory ones, external charafters were fubllituted the 
more readily, as it is an axiom with Werner, that a dif¬ 
ference in external charafters is indicative of a correfpond- 
ing difference in the component parts, whether it be in 
their quantity and quality, or in the particular ftate of 
their chemical combination. If, therefore, a mineral dif¬ 
fers from another related l’ubftance in three or more ex¬ 
ternal charafters, it is now confidered as a diftinft fpecies. 
This circumftance accounts for the confiderable number 
of fpecies in the Wernerian fyftem, eompared with thole 
