An introduction to mineralogy : comprising the natural history and characters of minerals; and a description of rocks, both simple and aggregated; with a new tabular arrangement of earthy minerals, on a plan designed to facilitate the knowledge of that class of substances. To which is prefixed: a series of conversations explaining the principles of the science, and the elements of crystallography / By Robert Bakewell, author of "An introduction to Geology." With plates.

  • Bakewell, Robert, 1768-1843.
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to mineralogy : comprising the natural history and characters of minerals; and a description of rocks, both simple and aggregated; with a new tabular arrangement of earthy minerals, on a plan designed to facilitate the knowledge of that class of substances. To which is prefixed: a series of conversations explaining the principles of the science, and the elements of crystallography / By Robert Bakewell, author of "An introduction to Geology." With plates. 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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    PREFACE. No circumstance more strikingly distinguishes civilised from savage nations, than the applica- tion of the productions of the mineral kingdom to the service of man, in the rudest stages of society the use of mineral substances being scarcely known. From the mineral kingdom, man first received the arms which secured to him dominion over the beasts of the forest, and enabled him to resist the fury of the elements, or render them in a great degree subservient to his will. Nearly all the useful implements and ornamental decorations of the most polished nations of ancient or modern times, have been derived from the mineral kingdom j and yet it is only within the short period of the last half century, that mineralogy has been regularly^ cultivated as a science, or engaged the attention