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Front page, forword and index

Front page, forword and index Page of 251 Front page, forword and index Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
FOREWORD
In Classical Times knowledge of minerals was based almost entirely upon philosophical speculations. Interesting theories were never tested by direct observations and mining was not a socially acceptable occupation. Little attention was given to mining and minerals, other than gems, and then only as an adjunct to the broader theories concerning the origin of the Universe. Although there may have been earlier writers Aristotle is the first known to us to have presented a comprehensive theory of the origin and nature of minerals. In his Meteorologica he advanced the theory that all natural substances consisted of four properties, dryness, dampness, heat and cold, and these were combined in the four primitive elements, water, air, earth and fire, elements that could be transmuted by altering the relative proportions of the properties. This concept dominated the thinking of man for the next two thousand years.
Another early treatise on minerals was De Mineralibus by Theophras-tus, a contemporary of Aristotle. Theophrastus accepted the theory of four primitive elements and separated mineral substances into two classes, those affected by heat and those not affected.
The next important work on minerals was the monumental Natural History of Pliny, an encyclopedia of the entire field of Nature, written in 77 a.d. In it are collected all the theories, fables and observations of Greek, Latin and Oriental writers up to that time. This work served as the au­thority and source book for writers on Natural History subjects for six­teen centuries, although it did not dominate or shape the thinking of men as did the works and teachings of Aristotle.
There was no important work on mineralogy from the time of Pliny until Agricola published his De Natura Fossilium in 1546 and the shorter introductory work Bermannus in 1530. During the intervening fourteen centuries that spanned the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and the Dark and Middle Ages, writers on mineralogical subjects merely elabo­rated on the information and much of the misinformation contained in Pliny's Natural History. The development of mineralogy, if it could be called development, can be traced through the numerous lapidaries and encyclopedias that began to appear after the time of Pliny. There was no factual foundation to this development. Each writer cited some previous writer as his authority for the most ridiculous and incredible facts and theories and commonly embellished some of the more fanciful. The result was a spreading structure of theories supported by fables, a structure top
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Front page, forword and index Page of 251 Front page, forword and index
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