BIRTH-TIME OF SCIENTIFIC CHEMISTRY. 11 



the illustrious Francis Bacon, proved most bene- 

 ficial to the development of true knowledge, and 

 assisted to destroy many of the foolish systems of 

 philosophy which had so long held it a captive. 

 As chemical philosophy was among the earliest to 

 benefit by these principles, so it soonest began to 

 expand and to gather continual strength. The 

 origin and further progress of the science has been 

 happily compared to Milton's fine description of 

 the erection of Pandemonium : 



" Soon had his crew 



Opened into the hill a spacious wound 



And digged out ribs of gold 



Anon out of the earth, a fahric huge 



Rose like an exhalation 



Built like a temple." 



About this period also the great scientific 

 societies first took origin : the Royal Society in 

 1662 ; the Academy of Sciences at Paris in 

 1666. Thus the progress of knowledge received 

 a most powerful impulse. The learned com- 

 municated periodically with each other, and 

 united in the prosecution of similar scientific 

 inquiries. Chemistry enjoyed much of their 

 attention ; and soon began to exhibit the hitherto 

 concealed energies of a most important depart- 

 ment of knowledge. Many of the elementary 

 bodies were now known ; and new ones were in 

 continual process of being added to the list. 

 Phosphorus, that most curious and peculiar 

 substance, at first the chemist's toy, and sold at 

 the rate of one hundred shillings the ounce, now, 

 in the form of the lucifer, our most common 

 domestic resource, with many salts, acids, and 

 chemical preparations, became common. The 



