CHEMISTRY A SCIENCE. 13 



for its own sake ; and not for any advantage 

 to be derived from it: no other principle 

 will enable a man to make progress in the 

 sciences." 



Remarkable discoveries upon the nature of 

 combustion succeeded, and were followed by 

 the labours of Hales, Black, and Cavendish, 

 in their important investigations upon the 

 chemistry of gases. The great discovery of 

 the gas, oxygen, and of a part of the chemistry 

 of vegetation, were next in order of progression. 

 Water was formed, by Cavendish, by the union 

 of its constituent gases, hydrogen and oxygen. 

 This discovery is justly considered as deserving 

 a special place in the history of chemistry. 

 Mr. Watt appears to have arrived at the right 

 conclusion as to the composition of this fluid, 

 even before Cavendish ; losing, however, as it is 

 said, the honour of his discovery from the delay 

 in the publication of his experiments. It would 

 be tedious to follow in consecutive order the 

 further progress of the science, and we shall, 

 therefore, hasten to a close. With each successive 

 year, it became richer in stores of facts, and more 

 extensively applicable to the arts, comforts, 

 and luxuries of mankind. The celebrated Dr. 

 Dalton, the propounder of the atomic theory 

 one of the most beautiful of the science pub- 

 lished his views in 1803 ; and shortly after 

 the immortal Davy rose to eminence by his 

 electrical investigations. Subsequently Dr. 

 Michael Faraday, by his splendid researches 

 upon the electric principle and its important 

 bearings upon Chemistry and chemical pheno- 

 mena in general, gave an impetus to the science 



