14 CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY. 



tion of oils and fats, the preiDaration of soap, and the various 

 articles of the perfumer ; and, lastly. Illumination, which in- 

 cludes chandlery, the manufacture of gas, with the various 

 substances and apparatus which afford light, such as burning- 

 fluids, lamps, and jets. Oleics is an appropriate term for the 

 class. 



After the arts which supply man with clothing and minister 

 to other external wants, those which afford him nourishment 

 follow, and may be conveniently grouped under the term 

 Sitepsics, (atfof, food, and t^-uj, cook, prepare.) The extraction 

 of farinas and sugar, with the refining of the latter, are fol- 

 lowed by their modification under the singular process of fer- 

 mentation and conversion into alcohol, which, in its turn, is 

 ];eadily changed into vinegar during the acetous fermentation. 

 The various culinary arts form another convenient group of 

 the domestic arts, embracing the preparation and preservation 

 of food. 



The whole series of chemical arts may be closed by chemical 

 agriculture, or the art of directing and controlling the growth 

 of plants and animals, whence its name BiotecJmies, (3iof, life, 

 tixvri-, dft,) in order to render their products, in quantity and 

 quality, most suitable to the demands of the arts or the 

 more immediate wants of man. To effect this, the influence 

 of the air, water, and soil, of mineral substances and ma- 

 nures, on the growth and productions of plants, must be 

 studied ; the composition of their ashes, under different circum- 

 stances of growth and product, examined ; the influence of food 

 and other circumstances on the growth of animals and of 

 their parts, such as hair, horn, fat, &c., must be investigated. 

 These important observations in organic life constitute a true 

 art, as yet in its infancy ; and it is of a chemical character, 

 so far as it is pursued with a chemical object in view, (the 

 quantity and quality of organic product,) and by chemical 

 agency, (minute, practical analysis.) We may consider it under 

 the several heads, — of the chemical changes observed in the 

 formation of useful products in plants and animals, including 

 the peculiar chemical character of such products ; of the in- 



