C 59 ] 



may be preferved in a found ftate for a confiderable 

 length of time, or even fometimes rcitored, in a 

 great meafure, after corruption has begun to take 

 place. They may alfo be further improved, and 

 converted to a variety of oeconom.ical ufes to the 

 higheft advantage, if their chemical properties are 

 properly underftoodr 



An eminent author has very juflly obferved, that 

 the application of chemiftry to arts and manufac- 

 tures, is anobjed of a very interefting and extenfive 

 nature ; becaufe many of them confift of a feries 

 of chemical procefles from beginning to end, 

 others only in certain ftages ; the reft being per- 

 formed by mechanical operations. Though arts and 

 manufadlures might owe their firft origin to chance, 

 or random experiments, yet the improvement and 

 perfe(5lion of them muft ultimately depend on cer- 

 tain fa6ls, and principles, which it is the province 

 of chemiftry to illuftrate and explain. 



Private intereft indeed has long checked the 

 progrefs of the arts, and felfiftily monopolized the 

 moft lucrative employments, by cafting a veil of 

 fecrecy over the different procefTes; but chemiftry 

 aflifts us in drawing afide the veil, and oftentimes 

 too in accompliftiing the end, by more fimple and 

 efficacious means. 



In 



