An essay on mineralogical classification and nomenclature; with tables of the orders and species of minerals / [William Whewell].

  • William Whewell
Date:
1828
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on mineralogical classification and nomenclature; with tables of the orders and species of minerals / [William Whewell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    with which we are concerned; and these points shall be treated as briefly as possible. It appears to be capable of being most satisfactorily shewn, that the rules hitherto proposed for the chemical arrangement of minerals cannot be consistently applied. ‘That strictly followed, they would make it impossible to determine of what species any single specimen was till that specimen had been analysed; and that many very distinctly characterized minerals would be no species at all. See Sect. II. To exhibit clearly the chemical constitution of bodies, formule resembling algebraical formula seem to be convenient and almost necessary. ‘The notation which has been for this end proposed and partly adopted, has the fault of violating the plainest analogies of the symbols which it employs, and hence forfeiting the main advantage of such a notation, which consists in its leading us at once to the conclusions which are numerically deducible from the data. To remedy this defect must be considered as im- portant to Chemistry itself, as well as to such a use of it as is here made: and this is executed in Sect. III. In order that we may make any assertions concerning minerals, we must have names for them; and considering the great un-~ certainty, multiplicity, and irregularity of the mineralogical terms most in use, any system which should make them at the same time simple, regular and easily intelligible would be valuable. It is conceived that the names proposed in the following ‘Tables would, if adopted, offer these advantages. See Sect. [V. It must undoubtedly be granted that in such a matter any change is an evil: but the only way to prevent endless mutability, seems to be to modify the names at present, in such a manner as to reduce them to rules which may fix them for the future. It must also be confessed that names, though easily intelligible, will, if in a new form, sound repulsive and uncouth. But this strangeness a very short usage will certainly overcome, when, as is the case here, the new names have a close analogy with familiar old ones. If we speak of Cobalt Bloom, why should we be revolted at Copper Bloom or Pharmacon Bloom? If we have Copper Green, why may we not also have Dioptase Green or Lens Blue? If however these new names are too repugnant to our habits to be tolerated, ‘it would be easy to substitute others; for instance, Puy ure for Bloom, and Mauacuire for Green. The principle of the nomenclature would remain the same as it is proposed to