PREFACE. 



By tlie application to Chemistry of the methods 

 which had for centmies been followed by philoso- 

 phers in ascertaining the causes of natural pheno- 

 mena in physics — by the observation of weight and 

 measure — Lavoisier laid the foundation of a new 

 science, which, having been cultivated by a host of 

 distinguished men, has, in a singularly short period, 

 reached a high degree of perfection. 



It was the investigation and determination of all 

 the conditions which are essential to an observation 

 or an experiment, and the discovery of the true 

 principles of scientific research, that protected 

 chemists from error, and conducted them, by a way 

 equally simple and secure, to discoveries which have 

 shed a brilliant light on those natural phenomena 

 which were previously the most obscure and incom- 

 prehensible. 



The most useful applications to the arts, to 

 industry, and to all branches of knowledge related 

 to chemistry, sprung from the laws thus established ; 

 and this influence was not delayed till chemistry 



