326 



follow, from the principle of numerical representation, have been en- 

 tirely overlooked. 



Although there may be circumstances that will occasion exceptions 

 to general rules, it appears that 100 numbers may be made correctly 

 to represent nearly all the phenomena of the mutual action of 100 

 different salts, which, if described separately, would require about 

 5000 separate articles. 



The author, having lately paid much attention to some of the prin- 

 cipal facts in chemistry and pharmacy, has attempted the investiga- 

 tion of a series of numbers adapted to this purpose, and has succeeded 

 in representing nearly 1500 cases of double decomposition enume- 

 rated by Fourcroy, with the exception of not more than twenty cases; 

 and although it cannot be expected that these numbers are accurate 

 measures of the forces they represent, yet they may be supposed to 

 be tolerable approximations ; for if any two of them be near the truth, 

 the rest cannot be very far from it. 



Dr. Young, however, observes, that if attractive force, which tends 

 to unite any two substances, may always be represented by a con- 

 stant quantity, it will follow, upon general principles, independent 

 of any further hypothesis, that all known facts on this subject may 

 be arranged in an order not liable to further alteration, in such a 

 manner as to enable us to compare, with facility, a multitude of scat- 

 tered phenomena. For if each force be constant, it follows that there 

 must be a sequence in simple elective attractions, and palpable errors 

 may thereby be detected in the common tables ; for instance, in the 

 four compounds resulting from the union of phosphoric and sulphuric 

 acids with magnesia and ammonia, either the order of the acids, or 

 the order of the bases, must be the same, otherwise the same force 

 may be shown to be both greater and less than another. 



The author observes, secondly, that there must be an agreement 

 between the simple and double elective attractions ; for if fluoric acid 

 stands above the nitric under barytes, and below it under lime, the 

 fluate of barytes cannot decompose nitrate of lime. 



The author makes a third observation (which is less obvious), that 

 there must be a continued sequence in the order of double elective 

 attractions, and accordingly that between any two acids the several 

 bases may be arranged in such an order, that any two salts will de- 

 compose each other, unless each acid be united to that base which 

 stands nearest to it in the series ; and a similar arrangement will ob- 

 tain for the acid between any two bases. In forming tables of this 

 kind from the cases collected by Fourcroy, the author has been under 

 the necessity of rejecting some tacts that were contradictory to others; 

 and in admitting some which were not consistent with numerical re- 

 presentation, he has taken care to notice such inconsistency, and by 

 notes of interrogation, or otherwise, to mark whatever remains in 

 doubt. For the puqjose of assisting the memory in retaining so nu- 

 merous a series of facts, the author has contrived to express, in fifteen 

 Latin hexameters, as many as 1260 cases of double affinity. 





