The Advantages of Chemical Science. 30 



an important part, and whenever applied in a proper manner 

 must produce advantages. 



In proportion as science advances, all the principles become 

 less complicated, and consequently more useful, and it is then 

 that their application is most advantageously made to the arts. 

 The common labourer can never be enlightened by the general 

 doctrines of philosophy, hut he will not refuse to adopt any 

 practice of the utility of which he is fully convinced, because 

 it has been founded upon these principles. The mariner can 

 trust to the compass, though he may be wholly unacquainted 

 with the discoveries of Gilbeit on magnetism, or the refined 

 principles of that science developed by the genius of (Epinus. — 

 ' The dyer will use his bleaching liquor even though lie is per- 

 haps ignorant not only of the constitution, but even of the name 

 of the substance on which its powers depend. — The great pur- 

 pose of chemical investigation in agriculture ought undoubtedly 

 to be the discovery of improved methods of cultivation. But 

 to this end general scientific principles and practical knowledge 

 are alike necessary; the germs of discovery arc often found in 

 rational speculations, and industry is never so efficacious as 

 when assisted by science. It is from the higher classes of the 

 community, from the proprietors of land, those who are fitted 

 by their education to form enlightened plans, and by their 

 fortunes to carry such plans into execution ; it is from these 

 that the principles of improvement must flow to the labouring 

 classes of the community. There is no idea more unfounded 

 than that a great devotion of time and a minute knowledge of 

 genet ul chemistry tre necessary for pursuing experiments on the 

 nature of soils, or the properties of manures. Nothing can be 

 more easy than to discover whether a soil effervesces or 

 changes colour by the action of an acid, or whether it burns 

 when heated, or what weight it loses by heat; and yet theso 

 simple indications may be of great importance in a system of 

 cultivation. The expense cunnected with chemical inquiries 

 is extremely trifling, — a small closet is sufficient for containing 

 all the materials required. The most important experiments 

 may be made by means of a small portable apparatus : — a few 

 phials containing acids, alkalies, and chemical unguents ; some 

 foil and wire of platinum, a lamp, a crucible, some filtering- 

 paper, some funnels, and glasses for receiving products, are 

 all that can be considered as absolutely essential for pursuing 

 Siseful researches. 



It undoubtedly happens in agricultural chemical experiments, 

 conducted after the most refined theoretical views, that there 

 arc many instances of failure for one of success, and this is in- 

 evitable from the capricious and uncertain nature of the causes 

 tint operate, and from thy impossibility of calculating on all 



