44 ESSAYS BIOGRAPHICAL AND CHEMICAL 



resist the temptation to quote it at full length. Here 

 it is : 



1 . THEOLOGY OR EELIGION, taught by Nature. 



ETHICS, or moral virtues, by Revelation. 



2. GEOGRAPHY. 



3. MY PROFESSION 4. LANGUAGE 



1. Botany. 1. English. 



2. Pharmacy. 2. French. 



3. Nosology. 3. Latin. 



4. Anatomy. 4. Greek. 



5. Surgery. 5. Italian. 



6. Chemistry. 6. Spanish. 



5. LOGIC. 7 - Hebrew. 



6. PHYSICS. 



1. The doctrines and properties of natural bodies. 



2. Of the operations of nature. 



3. Of the doctrines of fluids. 



4. Of the properties of organised matter. 



5. Of the organisation of matter. 



6. Simple astronomy. 



7. MECHANICS. 8. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY. 

 9. RHETORIC AND ORATORY. 10. MATHEMATICS. 



Which of us has undertaken a course of study so exten- 

 sive, and so inclusive ? 



Following out this course, not quite in the prescribed 

 order, however, he reached the subject of chemistry in 

 January 1798. His textbooks were Lavoisier's Chemistry 

 and Nicholson's Dictionary of Chemistry. He kept up 

 the study of mathematics during the whole course, having 

 begun in 1796 : for he remarks on its usefulness as a 

 preliminary to the study of chemistry and physics. In 

 his self-imposed task of mastering chemistry, he at once 

 began practical work, having fitted up a small laboratory, 

 furnished with the very simplest and most inexpensive 



