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GEMS.
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Lesbos,
for the most ancient treatise on stones. The mineralogical part of the
Natural History by Caius Pliny includes a list of observations, many of
which are still useful and acknowledged in the science. But, mineralogy
has only taken the name and position of a distinct and separate science
in modern times.
Bauer,
the German (known by the name of Agricola, which he assumed in Italy,
where he studied with the learned men who rendered it at that time the
home of arts and sciences), wrote a work about the middle of the
sixteenth century, ' De natura fossilium,' under which denomination
minerals were then comprehended, and he was the first person who
distributed them into distinct classes.
In
Italy, the works of Andrea Cesalpino, of Camillo Leonardo, of Abramo
Portaleone, of Giovan Battista Porta, and of Giovanni Serapione were
already known.
Linnajus,
who found the system of Agricola still in existence, wished to adopt a
new classification for minerals, and was the first to introduce
important observations on crystalline forms.
In
1758, Cronstedt, a Swede, discovered the elementary components of
metals, and Werner, the Saxon, in 1774, gave some rules for determining
mineral species in an empirical manner, and was able to define their
character with great precision.
After
him, the celebrated Abate Hauy, having discovered the laws which
regulate the symmetry of crystals, shed great light on that science,
which he thus founded on a more certain basis.
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