32 Proceedings of the Royal Pliysical Society. 



do so in saying that I cannot help thinking that, if Hooke 

 and Mayow could have had the results of the work of Black, 

 Priestley, and Cavendish to guide them as the French chemist 

 had, they might in great measure, if not entirely, have anti- 

 cipated his brilliant achievements. However, they lived 

 before the discovery of oxygen or the discovery of the com- 

 position of water had been made, and they left Lavoisier's 

 work undone, so that, leaving supposition out of considera- 

 tion, and dealing alone w^ith what actually happened, we 

 must ascribe full honour to the French philosopher for having 

 finally and completely upset Stahl's phlogiston theory, and 

 for having placed chemistry on the firm and sure base it now 

 occupies. . 



It may be objected, I know, and I admit, with some 

 show of reason, that a sketch, superficial though it be, 

 such as I have endeavoured to present to the Society to- 

 night, which professes to give an outline, however meagre, of 

 the early history of chemistry, is by no means complete 

 without at least a mention of the names and chief works of 

 such men as Proust, John Dalton, Thomas Thomson, Wol- 

 laston, Berzelius, Davy, Gay-Lussac, Dulong and Petit, Mit- 

 scherlich, etc. • The history of the labours of these chemists, 

 however, I think belongs to an era further on than that 

 with which I have thought it wise to attempt to deal, and 

 therefore I have determined to make the close of last century 

 my halting-place, the more so as I feel that I have trespassed 

 already sufficiently on your patience, and also that the mere 

 mention of what these men have done for our science in this 

 paper would prolong it far beyond its legitimate limits. 



It has been said by an able writer on this subject, referring 

 to the origin and rise of chemistry, that the basis of the chemi- 

 cal edifice is sunk deep in Eastern soil ; that the walls raised 

 slowly and laboriously during the Middle Ages were com- 

 pleted by Black, Priestley, and Lavoisier, and that the men of 

 our own day are working at the roof. I therefore stop at the 

 completion of the walls of our noble mansion, and leave the 

 task of describing the making and fitting of the prodigious 

 roof to some future and more able chemical occupant of the 

 honourable position from which I now retire. 



