THE
AUTHOR’s PREFACE.
In compliance with the requeſt of my learned and amiable friend, the celebrated Mr. Ferber, I tranſmitted to him a ſlight ſketch of mineralogy, in which the ſubjects were arranged according to their conſtituent or component parts. After peruſing it, he requeſted my permiſſion to publiſh it. At firſt I thought it better to ſuppreſs a work that was ſo imperfect, eſpecially when I conſidered the number of analyſes that yet remained to be made. He replied, that a perfect method was not yet to be expected in a ſubject ſo extenſive, but that having once laid a good foundation, I might occaſionally make ſuch additions and corrections, in new editions of the work, as future experiments might render neceſſary. Indeed, I was fully aware, that the ſyſtem would ſooner be rendered perfect, if ſubmitted to the inſpection of other more diſcerning chemiſts, than if the completion of it reſted upon myſelf only. The different remarks of others, will correct errors, which, by a further attention, I might have amended; but if the intereſt of ſcience be promoted, no matter by whom.
This little work contains Genera and Species, except in the appendixes, which, as not properly belonging to my deſign, contain Genera only.
The Genera are founded upon the prevalent component parts; the Species upon the diverſity of the composition. Varieties depend upon external appearances, and therefore are at preſent omitted.
After this manuſcript was ſent away, I diſcovered two species of ſtannum ſulphuratum (tin combined with ſulphur), one of which contains about forty per cent. of ſulphur, the other only twenty. The firſt has the appearance of aurum muſivum; the latter partly reſembles antimonium ſulphuratum (crude antimony), but does not contain antimony. Both are contaminated by a ſmall quantity of copper. I got them from Nerchinſkoi in Siberia[[1]].
As to the Terra Ponderosa (heavy earth), I have long been aware of its great reſemblance to calx of lead, and have even lately found a method of precipitating it by the phlogiſticated alkaly[[2]]; ſo that I verily believe it to be of a metallic nature, although it has never yet been made into a regulus, and, therefore, I ſtill place it with the earths, until its ſituation be better aſcertained.
If providence allots me life and health, I hope, a few years hence, to republiſh this imperfect ſketch, corrected and enlarged.
OF A
NATURAL SYSTEM
OF
MINERALOGY.
The Mineral Kingdom conſiſts of the foſſil ſubſtances found in the earth. Theſe are either entirely deſtitute of organic structure, or, having once poſſeſſed it, poſſeſs it no longer: ſuch are the petrefactions.