] 46 Notices respecting New Books. 



none ; neither Hippocrates, Galen, nor Dioscorldes, were 

 acquainted even with distillation. The origin of chemistry, 

 ^i a science of experiment, cannot be dated further back 

 than the 7lh or fith century of the Christian asra, and is 

 perhaps owing to the Arabians. From that period till the 

 present age, when " it would be indelicate in a cotemporary 

 writer to assume the ri^ht of arbitrator on the particular 

 nieritg of chemical philosophers," we have a brief but in- 

 lerestind sketch of the progress of chemical researches and 

 discoveries. The conclusion of the; Introduction unfolds 

 some of the Professor's >ieneral views. 



" Whether matter consists of indivisible corpuscles or 

 physical points endowed with attraction and repulsion, still 

 the same conclusions may be formed concerning the powers 

 by which they act, and the quantities in which they com- 

 bine; and the powers seem capable of being measured by 

 their electrical relations, and the quantities on which they 

 act of being expressed bv numbers, fn combination, cer- 

 tain bodies form regular solids ; and all the varieties of 

 crystalline aL'greiiates have been resolved bv the genius of 

 Haiiy into a few primary forms. The law* of crvstalliza- 

 tion, of definite proportions, and of the electrical polarities 

 of bodies, seem to be intimately related, and the complete 

 illustration of their connection, probably, will constitute 

 the mature age of chemistrv. 



" Complexity almost alvvavs belongs to the early epochs 

 of every science ; and the grandest results are usually ob- 

 tained by the most simple means. A great part of the 

 phsenomena of ohemisirv may i')e already submiued to cal- 

 culation ; its most imporianl truths are capable of extremely 

 simple numerical expre.-sions, which may be acquired with 

 facility by students ; and there is great reason to believe, that 

 at no very distant period the whole science will be capable 

 of elucidation by mathematical principles. The relations 

 of the common metals to the bases of the alkaiivS and 

 earths, and the gradations of resemblance between the 

 bases of the earths and acids, point out as probable a simi- 

 larity in the constiiution of all inflammable bodies ; and 

 there are not wanting experin)enis, which render their 

 possible deconiposiiion far from a chimerical idea. It is 

 contrary to the usual order of things, that events so har- 

 monious a^ those of the svsltin of the earth should de- 

 pend on such diversified aoents as are supposed to exist in 

 our artificial a ran^ements ; and there is reason to antici- 

 pate a great reduction in the numljer of the undecomposed 

 bodies^ and to expect that the analogies of nature will be 



found 



