71 



ARRANGEMENT OF CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES, 

 AND PRACTICAL DEDUCTIONS. 



Before entering into a further inquiry of the 

 principles of any particular operations of husban- 

 dry, a general view of the workings of nature in 

 her various processes and proceedings, may ma- 

 terially assist in directing attention to the proper 

 points; for this purpose, the following explan- 

 ations and arrangement are offered. 



All things that constitute animated nature are 

 reducible to the same primitive or elementary 

 principles, — viz. oxygene, hydrogene, nitrogene, 

 carbon, and earth. The three first are permanent 

 elastic fluids, or gases ; the fourth a permanent 

 substance; and although the earths are proved, by 

 Sir Humphry Davy, to be compounds of highly 

 inflammable metals and oxygene, it does not ap- 

 pear that they are found in any other state than as 

 such compounds, in vegetables or animals ; nor 

 that it is necessary they should be further subdi- 

 vided, either for the reproduction or suste- 

 nance of vegetables, or animals. I shall, there- 

 fore, take the liberty, in the pursuit of my 



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