This cabinet of mineralogy, formed at the _Hôtel des Mines_, _Rue de
l'Université_, _No. 293_, is principally intended to present a
complete collection of all the riches of the soil of the French
Republic, arranged in local order. A succession of glazed closets,
contiguous and similar to each other, that is about six feet and a
half in height by sixteen inches in depth, affords every facility of
observing them with ease and convenience. On these cases the names of
the departments are inscribed in alphabetical order, and the
vacancies which still exist in this geographical collection, are
daily filled up by specimens sent by the engineers of mines, who,
being spread over the different districts they are charged to visit,
employ themselves in recognizing carefully the mineral substances
peculiar to each country, in order to submit their views to the
government respecting the means of rendering them useful to commerce
and to the arts.
The departmental collection, being thus arranged on the sides of the
gallery, leaves vacant the middle of the apartments, which is
furnished with tables covered with large glazed cases, intended for
receiving systematic collections, and the most remarkable mineral
substances from foreign countries, distributed in geographical order.
An apartment is specially appropriated to the systematic order
adopted by HAÜY in his new treatise on mineralogy; another is
reserved for the method of WERNER.
In both these oryctognostic collections, minerals of all countries
are indiscriminately admitted. They are arranged by _classes_,
_orders_, _genera_, _species_, and _varieties_, with the
denominations adopted by the author of the method, and consequently
designated by specific names in French for HAÜY'S method, and in
German for that of WERNER. The proximity of the two apartments where
they are exhibited, affords every advantage for comparing both
methods, and acquiring an exact knowledge of mineralogical synonymy.
Each of the two methods contains also a geological collection of
rocks and various aggregates, classed and named after the principles
which their respective authors have thought fit to adopt.
The other apartments are likewise furnished with tables covered with
glazed cases, where are exhibited, in a manner very advantageous for
study, the most remarkable minerals of every description from foreign
countries, among which are:
1. A numerous series of minerals from Russia, such as red chromate of
lead, white carbonate of lead, green phosphate of lead; native
copper, green and blue carbonate of copper; gold ore from Berezof;
iron ore, granitical rocks, fossil shells, in good preservation, from
the banks of the Moscorika, and others in the siliceous state,
jaspers, crystals of quartz, beril, &c.
2. A collection from the iron and copper mines of Sweden, as well as
various crystals and rocks from the same country.
3. A very complete and diversified collection of minerals from the
country of Saltzburg.
4. Another of substances procured in England, such as fluates and
carbonates of lime from Derbyshire; pyrites, copper and lead ore,
zinc, and tin from Cornwall.