ON THE VALUE OF CHEMISTRY, &C. 116 



occuring of which the earlier ages were totally igno- 

 rant, and which have purely resulted from trying experi- 

 ments ; who for instance would have imagined that by 

 a chemical process linen rags could be converted into 

 more than their own weight of sugar * or that sawdust 

 could be converted into a substance very similar in its 

 properties to bread, and which though perhaps not quite 

 so palatable as that from flour is both agreeable, whole- 

 some, digestible and highly nutritious ;f again what 

 baker would have thought that the steam from his oven 

 while baking a batch of bread could be converted into 

 gin, yet this is actually the case, a portion of spirit is 

 formed during the process of fermentation, which is in- 

 creased and finally driven off by the heat of baking, 

 this however when collected and condensed is with 

 very little trouble converted into a liquor possessing the 

 same qualities as gin, and a highly talented operative 

 chemist of this town has succeeded in producing from 

 potatoes a spirit infinitely superior in all its properties 

 to the finest French Brandy, it is presumed that these 

 few examples are sufficient to prove the utility and ab- 

 solute advantages resulting from Chemistry and the 

 practice of trying experiments, but it is frequently 

 urged that the danger attending Chemical experiments 

 is often more than sufficient to overbalance the benefit 

 which may result from them, this opinion is without foun- 

 dation as there are but few instances in which this is 

 the case ; we are exposed to accidents in the course 

 of our lives whatever be our pursuits, and to whatever 

 degreee of perfection and facility we may attain in them ; 

 a butcher who might be considered perfectly master of 

 his knife, and a carpenter equally so of his tools fre- 

 quently meet with serious accidents, but these are not 

 talked of because they are common place occurrences. 

 The writer was some time since accosted by a friend 

 with " how could you think of meddling with experi- 



* D'Arcet, Annales de T Industrie, Fevrier, 1829. 



f Prout's account of the experiments of Professor Autenrieth 

 cfZubingen. Phil. Trans. 1827. P. 381. 



