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XXI. On the Determination of the Species, in Mineralogy, according to the Principles of Professor Mohs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

Extract

A. Justly celebrated Naturalist was of opinion, “that every “distribution of mineral bodies, which is instituted before the “determination of the species, must be mere confusion; while, “after having established it, according to fixed principles, no “kind of distribution can be absolutely faulty.” The distribution itself varies, along with the different principles of classification, introduced for the purpose of obtaining a systematic arrangement, conformable to the views of Natural History, of Chemistry, or of other sciences; but the Species remains that unique and unalterable point to which every system, and in fact every inquiry, must be referred, if we wish to avail ourselves of the prerogatives of the human mind, and preserve our information in a scientific form.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1826

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References

page 298 note * Dolomieu, Sur la Philosophie Minéralogique, p. 113. Avant d'avoir préalablement fondé l'espèce, toute distribution n'est que confusion; après l'avoir établie sur des principes fixes, aucune distribution ne peut être, jusqu'á un certain point, vicieuse, parce qu'elle a toujours un fanal qui l'éclaire, un point de rappel d'où partent toutes les relations, et auquel toutes doivent concourir.

page 299 note * Linnæus, when speaking of the system and principles of Cronstedt, says, “Definitiones characteristicas inutiles judicat: sufficere nosse.”—Syst. Nat.

page 301 note * Traité, t. i. p. 162.

page 301 note † Leslie, Elements of Natural Philosophy, p. 1.

page 303 note * Beudant, Traité élémentaire de Minéralogie, p. 406. 425. VOL. x. P. II.

page 310 note * C'est dans ces sortes de cas où les caractères géométriques se taisent, qu'il devient nécessaire d'avoir recours à la Chimie. Haüy, Traité, 2de Ed. t. iv. p. 179.

page 311 note * Mohs' Treatise on Mineralogy, Transl. vol. i. p. 337. VOL. X. P. II.