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This dissertation has been 6 6 —18 7 3 microjBlmed exactly as received ST, CLAIR, Charles Spencer, 1933- THE CLASSIFICATION OF MINERAIS: SOME REPRESENTATIVE MINERAL SYSTEMS FROM AGRICOLA TO WERNER. The University of Oklahoma,. Ph,D„ 1966 History, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright by CHARLES SPENCER ST. CLAIR i'19661 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA. GRADUATE COLLEGE THE CLASSIFICATION OF MINERALS; SOME REPRESENTATIVE MINERAL SYSTEMS FROM AGRICOLA TO WERNER A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE (21ADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY CHARLES SPENCER ST. GLAIR Norman, Oklahoma 1965 THE CLASSIFICATION OF MINERALS: SOME REPRESENTATIVE MINERAL SYSTEMS FROM AGRIGOLA TO WERNER APPROVED BY 12. ui-r L . ■ j Q S . DISSERTATION COMMITTEE Blis dissertation is gratefully dedicated to my wife Carol and to my sons Bryce, Richard, Jeffry ACKNOWLEDSEMENTS ■ To Thomas M. Smith, Associate Professor of the History of Science, and to Duane H. D. Roller, McCasland Professor of the History of Science and Cirrator of the History of Science Collections, for their helpful criticisms of successive drafts of the dissertation. To David B. Kitts, Associate Professor of Geology, Leroy E. Page, Assistant Professor of the History of Science, and Robert L. Reigle, Instructor of History, for reading and criticizing the manu script of the dissertation. To Mrs. Marcia Goodman, Librarian of the History of Science Collections, for her professional assistance and moral support during the preparation of the dissertation. To mÿ colleagues for their help and encouragement throughout the course of my studies. To Mrs. Betty Beilis for typing the final draft of the dis sertation. To the IMited States Office of Education for fellowships made possible by Title IV of the National Defense Education Act. ÎÜ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ............... vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS........................ vii INTRODUCTION .................. '............. 1 Chapter I. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF MINERAL CLASSIFICATION. .. 8 II. MINERAL CLASSIFICATION ON THE BASIS OF PHYSICAL PROPERTIES . ..................... 4.7 III. MINERAL CLASSIFICATION ON THE BASIS OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES. ......... 89 IV. MINERAL Classification o n the basis of chemical PROPERTIES............... 125 V. TRANSITION TO THE ERA OF MODERN MINERAL CLASSIFICATION . 162 APPENDIX I. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF GEORG AGRICOLA, 1546 . ........... 183 APPENDIX II. SYNOPSIS OF A CLASSIFICATION SCHEME BY ANSELM , BOETHIUS DE BOODT, 1609. .185 APPENDIX III. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF JOHN WOODWARD AS GIVEN IN THE LEXICON TECHNICUM. 1704. 191 APPENDIX IV. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF JOHN WOODWARD, 1714................... 193 APPENDIX V, SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF JOHANN JACOB SCHEUCHZER, 1718........... 199 APPENDIX VI. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF MAGNUS VON BROMELL, 1730 ........... .......... 207 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continiied) Page APPENDIX VII. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF CARL VON LINNÉ, 1735 ..................... 217 APPENDIX VIII. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF JOHAN GOTTSCHALK WALLERITJS, 1747 .............. 223 APPENDIX IX. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF JOHN HILL, 1748. ......................... ....... 231 APPENDIX X. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF ANTOINE JOSEPH DEZALLIER D'ARGENVILLE, 1755............. 238 APPENDIX XI. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF JCffiANN HEINRICH GOTTLOB VON JUSTI, 1757................. 244 APPENDIX XII. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF Axel fredrik cronstedt, 1 7 5 8 ................... 250 APPENDIX XIII. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF JACQUES CHRISTOPHE VALMONT DE BOMARE, 1762 .............: 259 •APPENDIX XIV. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF JEAN BAPTISTE LOUIS DE ROMÉ DE L'ISLE, 1772 ............. 269 APPENDIX XV. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF ABRAHAM GOTTLOB WERNER, 1789 ........................... 275 APPENDIX XVI. SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME OF ABRAHAM GOTTLOB WERNER, 1 8 1 7 ................... 279 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............. 285 LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. Cronstedt's Description of the Color of the Metals. 147 2. Cronstedt's Description of the Fusibility of the Metals........... 148 Vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Major Elements of One of Anselm de Boodt's Schemes for Classifying Stones............................ 30 2. Synopsis of J. J. Becher's Classification of Mineral Substances............. 91 3. Synthetic List of the Major Divisions of the Classification Scheme for Petrifactions Set Forth by A. F. Cronstedt..............................156 vii THE CLASSIFICATION OF MINERALS:. SOME REPRESENTATIVE MINERAL SYSTEMS FROM AGRICOLA TO WERNER INTRODUCTION ... A long-unresolved problem for mineral systematists was the casual, indefinite terminology that they had inherited. For example, "minerals" were defined by John Harris (l667?-1719) in his Lexicon tech- - nicum as "hard Bodies dug out of the Earth or Mines, (whence the Name) being in part of a Metalline, and in part of a Stony Substance, and sometimes with some Salt and Sulphur intermixed with the o t h e r . In exactly defined, the term "minerals” came to be inexactly applied as a synonym for the general term "native fossils." These were "sensible Bodies generated,.and growing in, and of the Earth; whose constituent Parts are so simple, and homogeneous, that there is no apparent Dis- 2 tinction of Vessels, and Juices; between the Part, and the Whole." ----- - 7 — ------ — ------- - --------- :---------- John Harris, "Minerals," Lexicon technicum. or an Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Explaining Not Only the Terms of Art. but the Arts Themselves (London; Printed for Dan. Brown, Tim. Goodwin, John Walthoe, Tho. Newborough, John Nicholson^ Tho. Benskin, Benj. Tooke, Dan. Midwinter, Tho. Leigh, and Francis Coggan, 1704). ^Ephraim Chambers, "Fossil Kingdom," Cyclopaedia, or an Ikiiversai Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Containing the Definitions of the Tertos and Accounts of the Things Signify'd Thereby, in the Several Arts. Both-Liberal and tfechanical. and the Several Sciences. Human and Divine; the Figures. Kinds. Properties. Productions. Prepara tions. and Uses, of Things Natural and Artificial: the Rise. Progress. Naturalists who studied miherals, in the general sense> were called . "mineralists” or "mineralogists»”^ The study of minerals, mineralogy, was defined in the Encyclopédie in 1765 as "la partie de l ’Histoiré naturelle qui s'occire de la connoissance des substances du regne minéral, c'est-à-dire des terres, des pierres, des sels, des substances inflammables, des pétrifications, en mot, des corps inanimés & non pouryus d'organes sensibles qui se trouvent dans le sein de la terre & à sa surface."^ Other terms that are frequently encountered in the early literature of mineralogy are "fossil," "adventitious fossil," and "fig ured stone." The term "fossil," more ccmnnonly the Latin fossilium. was and State of Things Ecclesiastical. Civil. MLlitarv» and Commercial; with the Several Systems. Sects. Opinions. &c. among Philosophers. DivinesT lYbthemaans. Phvsicians. AntigiMrjes. Criticks. &c. : the Whole Intended as a Course of Antient and Modem Learning. Compiled from the Best Authors. Dictionaries. Journals. Memoirs. Transactions. Ephemêri^» &C.» in Several Languages (London; Printed for James and John Riapton, John Darby, Daniel Midwinter, Arthur Bettesworth, John Senex, Robert Gosling, John Pemberton, William and John Innys, John Osbom and Tho. Longman, Charles Rivington, John Hooke, Ranew Robinson, Francis Clay, Aaron Ward, Edward Symon, Daniel Browne, Andrew Johnston, and Thomas Osbom, 1728)'; Vol. I. ^Nathan Bailey, Dictionarium Britannicum. or a More Comoleat TMivefsal Etymological English Dictionary than Any Extant (London; Printed for T. Cox,. 1730), unnumbered, defined a "Mineralist" as "one skilled in the Knowledge of Minerals" and a "Mineralogist" as "an Author who Treats on Minerals." ^Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences.des arts et des métiers, par une société de gens de lettres (Paris; Chez Briasson, David l'atné, Le Breton, Durand [Vols. 8-17 have Neufchastel: Chez Samuel Faulche & Compagnie], 1751-1765, X, 541: "the part of nat ural history that is occupied with knowledge of the substances of the mineral kingdom; that is to say, of the earths, stones, salts, inflam mable substances, pétrifications, in a word of the boàies inanimate and not provided with sensible organs that are found in the bosom of the earth and at its surface." 3 , used to denote natural bodies that were "dug up"; this usage dates from classical antiquity.^ In Greek the tei& corresponding to foshilium is the now-obsolete English words oryctognosy and oryctology 7 ' derive from it. "Adventitious fossils," also called "foreign fossils" or "extraneous fossils, " were "the Exuviae of Sea and Tjind Animal m: the Fossil-Shells. Bones. Teeth. &c. which are plentifully found in the Earth. "Figured stones" or "formed stones" were "such bodies, which being either pure stone or spars, are found in the earth so formed, that their outward sha.pe very nearly resembles to the external form of 9 ' ' muscles, cockles and other shells, &c." By the end of the eighteenth century the term "fossil" was still used in a general sense ; later, it -, assumed its modem, more restricted meaning. ^Ethan Allen Andrews, Hamer's Latin Dictionary; A New