PRESENT IMPORTANCE OF THE SCIENCE. 15 



remedy. It analyses the processes constantly 

 in operation in the mysterious laboratory of 



f r i T i 



the human frame; and indicates with precision 

 many of the changes which matter undergoes 

 in the performance of the essential functions 

 of life. It teaches us the most appropriate 

 food for the strong and vigorous; and directs 

 us how to modify and re-arrange the diet of 

 the sick and feeble. Chemistry too bears more 

 directly than will be readily conjectured upon 

 the life and destinies of nations. It has engines 

 of tremendous power* for the annihilation of 

 fleets and armies ; yet, in its most peaceful 

 applications, to renew and invigorate the soil, 

 it gives promise to shed a full measure of 

 peace and prosperity upon ages to come. In 

 its products, while it has contributed much 

 to the adornment of our persons, it has also 

 warmed, lighted, and ventilated our dwellings, 

 purified our beverage, and supplied us with the 

 most exquisite utensils for our meals. While 

 we are enumerating the boons conferred upon 

 us by this science, the dim oriental outlines of 

 the fabled genii rise to recollection, by whose 

 supernatural agencies, held in control by the 

 magic lamp or ring, houses were built and 

 stocked, and many other wonderful works easily 

 performed. Such a heaven-born power is ours 

 in the science of chemistry the plaything of 

 the child, the fascination of the student, the 

 servant of man, obedient to his bidding, who 



* In all probability, Captain Warner's celebrated appa- 

 ratus for the destruction of vessels at a great distance is an 

 ingenious piece of mechanism charged with some explosive 

 chemical compound perhaps the remarkable fluid, the 

 Chloride of Nitrogen. 



