S8 Mr. Colquhoimon the Life and iVritings [Fbb, 



undoubted, and whose views of political economy, though sadly 

 narrowed by the prejudices of his day, were nevertheless 

 honestly and earnestly directed to the encouragement of manu- 

 facturing and agricultural industry, ever since his days it had 

 been the practice in France to appoint one of her most eminent 

 chemists to the peculiar superintendence of the processes of 

 dyeing. After the death of ^lacquer, it will be recollected that 

 Berthollet was his successor in this situation, and it must surely 

 have been a source of great pleasure to e, mind constituted like 

 his, to find that an enlightened view of the processes of dyeing, 

 adapted to the advanced state of chemical science, was greatly 

 wanted ; and to feel that he was fully able to satisfy the wishes 

 and fulfil the expectations of his country. 



From the time of the publication of M. d'Albo, under Colbert 

 in 16t)9 down to 1784, when Berthollet was appointed, a suc- 

 cession of distinguished chemists, Dufay, Hellot, and Macquer, 

 each filling this honourable situation in their turn, presented to 

 the French dyers an excellent digest of the principles and prac- 

 tice of their art, in which the improvements of science and of 

 method were alike explained, and placed on a level with the 

 advancement of knowledge and the arts. The last of these 

 chemists, Macquer, though he lived till 1784, had not assented 

 to the new theory of Lavoisier, and had indeed only in the last 

 years of his life employed some of its doctrines to an extent so 

 partial, as rather to increase the perplexity of the old system 

 than materially to remove it. Accordingly, the vacant situation 

 had not long been occupied by Berthollet, when the revolution 

 in chemistiy, and the many important discoveiies accompanying 

 it, rendered every preceding work on dyeing defective in inform- 

 ation, and to the modern dyer almost unintelligible in its expla- 

 nations. These deficiencies were amply supplied, and the 

 various processes of the art were ably explained according to the 

 new philosophy of chemistry, by the publication of Berthollet's 

 Elements of Dyeing in 1791. This was indeed the work of a 

 master, and bears throughout, in a striking manner, the impress 

 of its author's character. It is alike remarkable for the profound- 

 ness, the truth, and the originality of its general views of the 

 processes in the art ; and by a happy application of correct 

 theory, the work abounds in new and valuable information 

 respecting the nature of colouring matters, mordants, and every 

 substance used in dyeing, which is accompanied vvith a copious 

 explanation of the most advantageous methods of employing 

 them in practice. Thirteen years after this, another greatly 

 enlarged edition of this v/ork, embodying every improvement, 

 was prepared by the joint labours of Berthollet and his son, 

 A. B. Berthollet, then a young man of the fairest promise. 



Among the other improvements which Berthollet introduced 



