\VERNER, ABRAHAM GorruEs, a celebrated minerologist, was burn at \Vehrau on the Queiss, in Upper Lusatia, on the 25th September 1750. His father, who was director of a forge, gave him dif ferent minerals as playthings, and thus accustomed him in early life to recognise them by their more prominent properties. From the school at Buns leur he went to the Mineralogical Academy at Freyburg, and from thence to Leipsic, where he studied natural history and jurisprudence. Here he published, at the age of 24, his treatise on the external characters of mineralogy, a pamphlet of only a few sheets. In 1775 he was appointed pro fessor of mineralogy, and inspector of the mine ralogical cabinet at Freyberg. In 1780 he published the first part of a translation of Cronstedt's mineralo gy, and in his notes on this work he gave the first sketches of his mineralogical system.
In 1791 Werner published his new theory of the formation of metallic veins, which was translated into English by Anderson, and into French by d'Abuisson. In 1792 he was appointed counsellor of the mines in Saxony. His cabinet of minerals, consisting of 100,000 specimens, was sold for 40,000 crowns.
The distresses of his sovereign and his country seem to have prayed upon his mind, and produced a complication of diseases, and having gone to Dres den in the expectation of some mitigation of his suffering, he was taken ill, and died in the arms of his sister on the 30th June 1817, in the 67th year of his age.
Werner had undoubtedly the merit of extending the study of mineralogy, but his reputation never rose above that of a popular lecturer, who derives his fame from the gratitude and admiration of his pupils. No mineralogist ever enjoyed a higher degree of contemporary applause, and its echo will doubtless be heard in another generation; but when mineralogy has been purified from its barbarous technology and its empirical methods, and when it has attained that dignity and perfection which it must soon receive•from the labours of the natural philosopher, the crystallographer and the chemist; we shall in vain look among its facts, or among its generalizations, for any thing that has been con tributed either by Werner or his pupils. See Baron Cuvier's Historical Eloge of Werner, in the Memoirs of the Institute of France.