[1133] The first work of Haüy appeared in 1784 (Quérard, France Littéraire, vol. iv. p. 41); but he had read two special memoirs in 1781. Cuvier, Eloges, vol. iii. p. 138. The intellectual relation between his views and those of his predecessor must be obvious to every mineralogist; but Dr. Whewell, who has noticed this judiciously enough, adds (Hist. of the Induc. Sciences, vol. iii. pp. 229, 230): ‘Unfortunately Romé de Lisle and Haüy were not only rivals, but in some measure enemies…. Haüy revenged himself by rarely mentioning Romé in his works, though it was manifest that his obligations to him were immense; and by recording his errors while he corrected them.’ The truth, however, is, that so far from rarely mentioning De Lisle, he mentions him incessantly; and I have counted upwards of three hundred instances in Haüy's great work, in which he is named, and his writings are referred to. On one occasion he says of De Lisle, ‘En un mot, sa cristallographie est le fruit d'un travail immense par son étendue, presque entièrement neuf par son objet, et très-précieux par son utilité.’ Haüy, Traité de Minéralogie, Paris, 1801, vol. i. p. 17. Elsewhere he calls him, ‘cet habile naturaliste; ce savant célèbre,’ vol. ii. p. 323; ‘ce célèbre naturaliste,’ vol. iii. p. 442; see also vol. iv. pp. 51, &c. In a work of so much merit as Dr. Whewell's, it is important that these errors should be indicated, because we have no other book of value on the general history of the sciences; and many authors have deceived themselves and their readers, by implicitly adopting the statements of this able and industrious writer. I would particularly caution the student in regard to the physiological part of Dr. Whewell's History, where, for instance, the antagonism between the methods of Cuvier and Bichat is entirely lost sight of, and while whole pages are devoted to Cuvier, Bichat is disposed of in four lines.
[1134] ‘Haüy est donc le seul véritable auteur de la science mathématique des cristaux.’ Cuvier, Progrès des Sciences, vol. i. p. 8; see also p. 317. Dr. Clarke, whose celebrated lectures on mineralogy excited much attention among his hearers, was indebted for some of his principal views to his conversations with Haüy: see Otter's Life of Clarke, vol. ii. p. 192.
[1135] See an admirable statement of the three forms of decrement, in Haüy, Traité de Minéralogie, vol. i. pp. 285, 286. Compare Whewell's Hist. of the Induc. Sciences, vol. iii. pp. 224, 225; who, however, does not mention Haüy's classification of ‘décroissemens sur les bords,’ ‘décroissemens sur les angles,’ and ‘décroissemens intermédiaires.’
[1136] And, as he clearly saw, the proper method was to study the laws of symmetry, and then apply them deductively to minerals, instead of rising inductively from the aberrations actually presented by minerals. This is interesting to observe, because it is analogous to the method of the best pathologists, who seek the philosophy of their subject in physiological phenomena, rather than in pathological ones; striking downwards from the normal to the abnormal. ‘La symétrie des formes sous lesquelles se présentent les solides que nous avons considérés jusqu'ici, nous a fourni des données pour exprimer les lois de décroissemens dont ces solides sont susceptibles.’ Haüy, Traité de Minéralogie, vol. i. p. 442; compare vol. ii. p. 192.
[1137] ‘Un coup d'œil peu attentif, jeté sur les cristaux, les fit appeler d'abord de purs jeux de la nature, ce qui n'étoit qu'une manière plus élégante de faire l'aveu de son ignorance. Un examen réfléchi nous y découvre des lois d'arrangement, à l'aide desquelles le calcul représente et enchaîne l'un à l'autre les résultats observés; lois si variables et en même temps si précises et si régulières; ordinairement très-simples, sans rien perdre de leur fécondité.’ Haüy, Minéralogie, vol. i. pp. xiii. xiv. Again, vol. ii. p. 57, ‘notre but, qui est de prouver que les lois d'où dépend la structure du cristal sont les plus simples possibles dans leur ensemble.’
[1138] On the remarkable power possessed by crystals, in common with animals, of repairing their own injuries, see Paget's Pathology, 1853, vol. i. pp. 152, 153, confirming the experiments of Jordan on this curious subject: ‘The ability to repair the damages sustained by injury … is not an exclusive property of living beings; for even crystals will repair themselves when, after pieces have been broken from them, they are placed in the same conditions in which they were first formed.’
[1139] ‘M. Pinel a imprimé une marche nouvelle à l'étude de la folie…. En la rangeant simplement, et sans différences aucunes, au nombre des autres dérangemens de nos organes, en lui assignant une place dans le cadre nosographique, il fit faire un pas immense à son histoire.’ Georget, de la Folie, Paris, 1820, p. 69. In the same work, p. 295, ‘M. Pinel, le premier en France, on pourrait dire en Europe, jeta les fondemens d'un traitement vraiment rationnel en rangeant la folie au nombre des autres affections organiques.’ M. Esquirol, who expresses the modern and purely scientific view, says in his great work (Des Maladies Mentaes, Paris, 1838, vol. i. p. 336), ‘L'aliénation mentale, que les anciens peuples regardaient comme une inspiration ou une punition des dieux, qui dans la suite fut prise pour la possession des démons, qui dans d'autres temps passa pour une œuvre de la magie; l'aliénation mentale, dis-je, avec toutes ses espèces et ses variétés innombrables, ne diffère en rien des autres maladies.’ The recognition of this he expressly ascribes to his predecessor: ‘grâce aux principes exposés par Pinel.’ p. 340. Pinel himself clearly saw the connexion between his own opinions and the spirit of the age: see Pinel, Traité Médico-Philosophique sur l'Aliénation Mentale, p. xxxii.: ‘Un ouvrage de médecine, publié en France à la fin du dix-huitième siècle, doit avoir un autre caractère que s'il avoit été écrit à une époque antérieure.’
[1140] Comp. Mém. de Ségur, vol. i. p. 23, with the Introduction to Des Réaux, Historiettes, vol. i. p. 34. A good illustration of this is, that the Prince de Montbarey, in his Memoirs, gently censures Louis XV., not for his scandalous profligacy, but because he selected for his mistresses some women who were not of high birth. Mém. de Montbarey, vol. i. p. 341, and see vol. iii. p. 117.
[1141] And that too even on such a subject as anatomy. In 1768, Antoine Petit began his anatomical lectures in the great amphitheatre of the Jardin du Roi; and the press to hear him was so great, that not only all the seats were occupied, but the very window-ledges were crowded. See the animated description in Biog. Univ. vol. xxxiii. p. 494.
[1142] Dr. Thomson (History of Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 169) says of Fourcroy's lectures on chemistry, which began in 1784: ‘Such were the crowds, both of men and women, who flocked to hear him, that it was twice necessary to enlarge the size of the lecture-room.’ This circumstance is also mentioned in Cuvier, Eloges, vol. ii. p. 19.