TOE ALCHEMIST. 



INTRODUCTION. 



WE must look through a long vista of ages 

 if we would discover, buried in the obscurity .of 

 time, the origin of what is now rightly called 

 the science of Chemistry. We know little about 

 the time when the few facts which formed its 

 first beginnings were gathered together, but it 

 appears probable that Egypt was the country 

 where this took place. Some one, it is pro- 

 bable, wiser than his fellows, first found out and 

 applied the chemistry of a few common bodies ; 

 he may have discovered the properties of a com- 

 mon acid, such as acetic acid ; or of a common 



B 



