An Elementary Treatise on Crystallography (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Excerpt from An Elementary Treatise on Crystallography

The greater number of substances which we prepare in our laboratories are susceptible of crystallization, that is to say, of assuming regular geometrical forms; and it is observed that when the formation of these crystals proceeds under the same circumstances, the forms of the difl'erent individual crystals are precisely similar, so much so, indeed, that these forms are one of the most certain means of distinguishing crystalline bodies from each other. The crystalline forms which different natural substances afi'ect, appear, at first sight, to be infinitely variable; but a minute study of these various forms has brought to light certain general laws to which they are all subj ect, and which set limits to their number.

The laws relative to the crystalline forms of bodies already occupy a conspicuous place in our chemical theories, and the importance of this branch of study will become still greater, when the science of crystallo graphy is more generally spread, and chemists give themselves the trouble of determining, with precision, the crystalline forms of the bodies which they examine. The principles of this science, which here follow, require merely of the reader an acquaintance with elementary geometry.

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