M INER 
An Attempt to eftabliffi a pure fcientific Syftem of Mine¬ 
ralogy, by the Application of the eleCtro-chemical Theory, 
and the chemical Proportions. 
23. The principal object of Mr. Aikin’s fyftem is to 
enable the ftudent to afcertain the names of known im- 
nerals from certain properties joined with their external 
characters. The difficulty of attaining this knowledge 
from the fyftems hitherto publilhed is univerlally acknow¬ 
ledged, although the number of minerals, conlidered as 
fpecies, does not exceed four hundred. Mr. Aikin ar¬ 
ranges minerals into four clafles, from their chemical 
characters. The orders are diltinguifhed by properties 
which are fuppofed to be the moft charaCteriftic, or by 
which they may be moft eafily known. 
Clafs I. Non-metallic combuftible minerals. Order 1. 
Combuftible with flame ; 2, without flame. 
Clafs II, Native metals and metalliferous minerals. 
Order 1. Volatilizable wholly or in part, by the blowpipe, 
into a vapour which condenfes in a pulverulent form on a 
piece of charcoal held over it. 2. Fixed, not volatilizable, 
except at a white heat. 
Clafs III. Earthy minerals. Order 1. Soluble wholly, 
or in a confiderable portion, in dilute muriatic acid. 2. 
Fuflble before the blowpipe. 3. Infutible before the blow¬ 
pipe- . ' . 
Clafs IV. Saline minerals. Order 1. When diflolved in 
water afford a precipitate with carbonated alkali. 2. Do 
not afford a precipitate w'ith carbonated alkali. 
The different orders and lubdivkions in each clafs are 
arranged without any regard to the conftituent parts. 
But a mineralogical defcription of each fpecies is alfo 
given, with an account of the component parts of thole 
minerals of which the analyfis is known. 
24. The views which Berzelius has difclofed are novel 
and highly important, and may ultimately give an entire- 
ly-new form to the fcience. He defines mineralogy to be 
the fcience which treats of the elementary combinations 
of unorganic fubftances, found in or upon the earth, and 
of the various forms and the different foreign admixtures 
under which thefe bodies make their appearance. The 
knowledge of the combinations themfelves, their compo- 
fition and chemical properties, belongs to chemiftry, fo 
that the fcieutific mineralogy may be confidered as a part 
of chemiftry. 
The mineralogical arrangement propofed by Berzelius 
is founded on the order of the eleCtro-chemical properties 
of bodies, beginning with the moft electro-negative oxy¬ 
gen, and terminating wfith the moft eleCtro-pofitive po- 
taflium, and placing every compound body according to 
its moft eleCtro-pofitive ingredients. But he obferves, 
that, in the prefent ftate of fcience, we muft be content 
with an approximate arrangement. He divides Angle 
bodies into three clafles. 1. Oxygen. 2. Simple non- 
metallic inflammable bodies, which he calls metalloids. 
3. Metals. He arranges them in the order in which they 
follow one another, from the moft eledtro-negative to the 
moft eleCtro-pofitive, in every clafs. 
25. Pinkerton’s Petralogy, or Treatife on Rocks ; 1812. 
This author has already acquired refpeCt in the republic 
of letters for his various works on antiquities, hillory, 
geography, and different fubjeCts of belles lettres. Whe¬ 
ther, to ufe his own phrafeology, he will acquire frelh re¬ 
nown in the domain of Mineralogy, others may judge from 
the following extracts, which have been made with a view 
to explain his claflification, and particularly his nomen¬ 
clature. 
“Natural Hiftory has been well and popularly divided 
into three Kingdoms, the Animal, the Vegetable, and the 
Mineral. In the two former, the kingdom conlifts of 
living fubjeCts, who of courfe may be well confidered at 
divided into Clafles, Orders, Genera, and Species ; but in 
the Mineral Kingdom the territory alone conftitutes the 
fubjedt of difcuflion. It muft therefore be received as a 
fundamental truth or axiom, that the mineral kingdom, 
Vol. XV* No-1055. 
A L O G Y, 441 
being wholly inert, cannot admit diftinaions which be¬ 
long to vital energy; and that an identity of appellations 
cannot therefore be allowed, either in a grammatical or 
philofophical view. But the very term Mineral Kingdom 
may of ltfeif lead to a new and more proper nomenclature ; 
lor, as the kingdom may be regarded as either vivified 
with animal and vegetable life, or as an inert tradt of coun¬ 
try, with certain geographical, chorographical, and topo¬ 
graphical, divilions ; lb the latter point of view can alone 
apply to mineralogy, while the former belongs to zoology 
and botany. 
“ I would propofe, therefore, in the prefent advanced 
ftate of the fcience, that the mineral kingdom be confi¬ 
dered as divided into three Provinces : 1. Petralo°-y,- C r 
the knowledge of rocks, or ftones which occur in larce 
mafles. 2. Lithology, the knowledge of gems and fmall 
ftones. 3. Metallogy, orthe knowledge of metals. Thefe 
provinces may again be viewed as divided into Domains, 
correfponding with the Orders of fome writers and the’ 
Genera of others, as the Provinces fupply what are called 
Clafles. 
“ Petralogy, a Province of Mineralogy, may therefore 
be regarded as divided into Twelve Domains; of which 
the firlt fix, being diftinguiihed by the fubftances them¬ 
felves, may be called J'uh/tantial ; while the remaining fix, 
being diftinguiihed by circumftances or accidences of va¬ 
rious kinds, may be called circumjiantial , or accidental * 
but this laft divifion is of little moment. The firlt fix 
domains of Petralogy comprile, 1. Siderous Rocks, or 
thofe in which iron predominates, not in the comparative 
quantity when analyfed, but in the quality and effential 
difference which it imparts. 2. Siliceous, denominated 
as ufual from the quantity of Silex. 3. Argillaceous. 4.. 
Magnefian: thefe two are again denominated front predo¬ 
minance. 5. Calcareous. 6. Carbonaceous. The remain¬ 
ing fix domains, derived from circumftances or accidences, 
are, 7. Compoiite, or Aggregated Rocks, as calcareous’ 
fpar with fchorl, quartz, and garnets, felfpar and fiderite, 
or hornblende, &c. This domain has often been con¬ 
founded with the granites, however alien from that de- 
feription. 8. DiamiCtonic, or rocks in which the fub¬ 
ftances are fo completely mingled, that it is difficult, even 
upon an analyfis, to pronounce which preponderates. 9. 
Anomalous, or thole which contradict the common order 
of nature, and prefent unexpected and unufual combina¬ 
tions. The remaining three domains are generally ad¬ 
mitted in geological 'works; namely, 16. Tranfilient 
Rocks, an interelting feries, in which one fubltance gra¬ 
dually pa lies into another, as granite into porphyry, trap 
into wacken, and the like. 11. Decompofed Rocks, which 
gradually decay into land, clay, or productive foil. 12. 
Volcanic, which require no other defcription. 
“ Having thus eftablilhed the Domains, or Great Divi- 
fions, of Petralogy, the fmailer diftinCtions can be derived 
only from the objeCts themfelves; as we now arrive at 
what are by moft mineralogic authors denominated Spe¬ 
cies, though, in their arbitrary and unnatural fyftems, as 
Dr. Townlon has obferved, the Genera and Species are 
often confounded. Thus in the improved edition of 
Linnaeus, the characters which conftitute the Species in 
gypfum form Genera in the carbonate of lime; for the 
pulverulent, fibrous, fpathous, and compaCl, kinds of gyp¬ 
fum, form but fo many Species, whillt the pulverulent,, 
fibrous, fpathous, and compaCt, kinds of carbonate oflime, 
form fo many different Genera. Now thele very appear¬ 
ances, which conftitute the arbitrary Species and Genera 
of former authors, what would they be, in the eyes of a 
philolopher or grammarian, except different modifications 
or modalities of the fame fubltance, and which by a (horter 
term may be denominated Modes ? The term Mode is 
therefore here adopted inlleadof what are called Genera by 
fome writers, and Species by others ; this uncertainty of 
itfelf having demonftrated that there are neither Genera 
nor Species in mineralogy. 
r u 
“ From 
