vi PREFACE. 



fits, and this acknowledgment proceeding from 

 whole nations may be considered as the triumph 

 of mind over empiricism. 



Innumerable are the aids afforded to the means 

 of life, to manufactures and to commerce, by the 

 truths which assiduous and active inquirers have 

 discovered and rendered capable of practical 

 application. But it is not the mere practical 

 utility of these truths which is of importance. 

 Their influence upon mental culture is most bene- 

 ficial ; and the new views acquired by the know- 

 ledge of them enable the mind to recognise, in the 

 phenomena of nature, proofs of an infinite wisdom, 

 for the unfathomable profundity of which, lan- 

 guage has no expression. 



At one of the meetings of the chemical section 

 of the " British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science," the honourable task of preparing a 

 report upon the state of organic chemistry was 

 imposed upon me. In the present work I present 

 the Association with a part of this report. 



I have endeavoured to develop, in a manner 

 correspondent to the present state of science, the 

 fundamental principles of chemistry in general, 



