THE AMERICAN CHEMIST. 241 



lished iminerous short articles in this periodical aii<l in the New York 

 Medical Repository. 



In December, 1709, he read a i)aper before the American Philosophical 

 Society on '' Change of place in different forms of air throngh several 

 interposing- snbstances," and, says Dr. Bolton, "recognizes distinctly 

 for the first time the phenomenon of gaseous diffusion." In the volume 

 of the Xew York Medical Ilepository for 1798-'99 he published eight let- 

 ters to Dr. Mitchell defending tlu^ doctrine of phlogiston. In the same 

 journal Dr. J. Woodhouse, professor of chemistry in the University of 

 Pennsylvania, had many papers, from 1795 to 1800 and beyond, — oppos- 

 ing Dr. Priestley's phlogistic views. What meager showing this is, 

 when we consider that on the other side of the ocean, we find in the 

 Annales de Chimie, the first volume of which appeared in 1789, such 

 names ot French chemists as Fourcroy, Lavoisier, Berthollet, Ohaptal, 

 Sennebier, Pelletier, Seguin, Yauquelin, Guyton de Morveau, and others, 

 as contributors, from 1789 to 1800, of articles on the greatest variety 

 of chemical subjects; qualitative and quantitative analyses of minerals 

 and mineral waters, studies of the chemical properties of elements and 

 of their compounds, the chemistry of plant life and animal life, proxi- 

 mate analyses of some organic substances, the preparation of pure salts 

 of various kinds, the illuminating power of different oils, besides the 

 discussions on phlogiston, which Avere of course a prominent feature in 

 the chemical literature of that period when this theory was receiving 

 its death blows at the hands of Lavoisier. Books on chemistry were 

 published, such as Methode de Komcnchiture Chimique, Traite de Chiniie, 

 Ussai de Sfatique Ghimique, System dcs Connaissanccs Cliiiniquc, Philo- 

 sopMe Ghimique; and in that same i)eriod tha Annale.s de Chimie wns, 

 started. In Gernumy there was Eichter, author of An/aiuj.syriixden 

 der Stochiometrie, der Messkunst Chemischer Elemente, and " TJeher die 

 neueren Gegcnstdnde in der Ghemie^^ in which he established by his own 

 researches "the doctrine of proportions by weight, and showed that 

 acids combined with bases to form salts, and developed the law of neu- 

 tralization." There was also Klaproth, the first professor of chemis- 

 try in the University of Berlin, who developed esi)ecially (pnintitative 

 analysis, established l)y his improve<l methods the c()m])()sition of many 

 minerals, and discovered uranium, titanium, and zirconium. In Swe- 

 den there was Scheele, who made a multitude of important contribu- 

 tions to chemistry, of which even a very imperfect enumeration would 

 take too much of my time; and Bergmann, eminent as an analytical 

 chemist and for his researches in analytical chemistry. 



In England there was Cavendish who established the composition of 

 water, and of nitric acid. 



We pass on to the next decade, 1800-1809, when in England Sir 

 Humphrey Davy first appeared prominently as a discoverer in chem- 

 istry, and published his account of the isolation of the metals potassium 

 and sodium, andDalton with his first developments of theatomic theory; 

 gM93 16 



