Outlines of mineralogy / by J. Kidd.

  • Kidd, John, 1775-1851.
Date:
1809
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of mineralogy / by J. Kidd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    PART H. Having attempted, in the foregoing part of this in- troduction, to explain certain general phenomena con- nected with the history of mineralogy ; it remains to speak of the characters by which mineral substances may be individually distinguished. In looking at even a small collection of minerals, ■with a view to the description of them, it is obvious tliat the varieties in any one of their external charac- ters are very numerous : various shades of colour for instance, and various modifications of form, are con- tinually presenting themselves ; and consequently the variety in the descriptive language, where accuracy is aimed at, must be proportionally great: and it is on this account that, in rnineralogical treatises, we meet with those numerous combinations of descriptive epi- thets which are suggested by the endless variety of co- lour, texture, consistence, and in short of every sepa- ' rate character of a mineral. On many occasions these discriminations have been carried to a tedious and nearly useless length; and principally in the descrip- tion of colour, which, of all the characters of a mineral, is perhaps the least important; a difference in this respect often depending on causes too trilling to inter-