A treatise on the external characters of minerals / [Robert Jameson].

  • Robert Jameson
Date:
[1805]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the external characters of minerals / [Robert Jameson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    compound; nor could I omit white and black, the former fC being considered as a combination of all colours, and the te latter as the mere privation of light or colour; for these “ are distinctions that pertain to the theory of colours among “ natural philosophers, and cannot be well applied in com- “ mon life, in which black is ranked among the colours as “ well'as white and yellow; and green, which is mixed, <f considered as a principal colour, as well as red, which is ** simple, “ In the adoption of the principal colours enumerated “ above, I am countenanced by Dr. SchoefFer, who has ex- <c hibited them with the exception of the grey, in his sketch “ of a general association of colour, Regensburg, 1769. I (C am, however, justified in adding the grey colour, by ob- iC serving, that it occurs very frequently in the mineral king- “ dom; that the attempt to bring it under any one of the “ other colours would be attended with many difficulties, “ and that, if we have respect to denominations, it is con- <e sidered in common life as actually differing from the “ others.” Werner’s External Characters, p. 38, 39. Each of these principal colours contain one which is, oryctognostically considered, pure or unmixed with any other, which is called the characteristic colour : thus snow white is the characteristic colour of white; ash grey, of grey; velvet black, of black ; Berlin blue, of blue; emerald green, of green ; lemon yellow, of yellow; carmine red, of red ; and chesnut brown, of brown. Having thus established eight characteristic colours, he next defined and arranged the most striking subordinate varieties. The definitions were obtained principally by occular exa- mination, which enables us speedily to detect the different colours of which the varieties are composed. In detailing the result of this kind of ocular analysis, if I may use the Expression, the predominant component parts are mentioned 3
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