X* INTRODUCTION. 



longs ; we shall find, that although chemistry 

 has occupied the thoughts of, and been pur- 

 sued, with zeal the most ardent, by a great num- 

 ber of learned and enlightened men in every 

 part of Europe, we, continue completely igno- 

 rant of the principles on which chemistry, as a 

 science, is founded. 



Without previous design, or by mere chance, 

 as it may be called, we have, it is true, disco- 

 vered, that when different substances, (such as 

 acids and alkalies, for example) are brought into 

 contact, an union between them takes place ; 

 we are by experience taught, that different bo- 

 dies have a stronger disposition to unite toge- 

 ther, to the exclusion of others with which they 

 may have been combined ; but of the cause 

 why these separations are produced, and new 

 combinations formed on what principle the 

 doctrine of elective attraction, or chemical affi- 

 nity is founded, w r e are totally ignorant. 



By the Researches of Professor DAVY, in the 

 art of chemistry, a multitude of opinions, which 

 by chemists had been received as fundamental 

 truths, have been overturned and exposed : he 

 has proved that a great proportion of the che- 

 mical knowledge, not only of former times, but^ 

 of the present day, is erroneous in some of its 

 most essential points; and it is now become a 

 common observation among our best che- 

 mists, that in consequence of these new disco- 



