PLAN OF THE WORK. 



I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, on the general nature and objects of 

 the physical sciences, especially of chemistry, and on its connexion 

 with the other departments of natural knowledge. 



II. THE IMPONDERABLE AGENTS. 



An outline of the great powers which produce, influence and mod- 

 ify chemical phenomena, exhibiting their nature as far as it is under- 

 stood, and their effects as far as they are ascertained. 



They are treated of in the following order 



1. Light, 



2. Heat or caloric, 



3. Galvanism, 



4. Attraction. 



Galvanism, including electricity and magnetism, as far as they are 

 chemical agents, is only sketched in a very general way, in the early 

 part of the work : the fuller development is reserved for the conclu- 

 sion, after all the facts of the science have been explained, and when, 

 as the illustrations are drawn from every part of chemistry, they will 

 of course be best understood. 



III. THE PONDERABLE BODIES. 



I. Inorganic bodies, including all that do not belong to the animal 

 and vegetable kingdoms. 



1 . Oxygen; one of the bodies that exist in greatest abundance, and 

 whose functions and relations are the most important, is first describ- 

 ed ; and its properties are continually illustrated in the progress of 

 the work. 



I have not thought it best to describe the simple substances in un- 

 interrupted succession. Such a method does not appear to me to 

 present advantages, sufficient to compensate for the inconvenience 

 of plunging, at once, into the most complex parts of the science, 

 which must be done, if we would draw the elementary bodies from 

 their combinations, and present them, in the beginning, in a connect- 

 ed view. 



For this reason, chlorine with all its complex relations, and difficult 

 theoretical points, is reserved until the student has become familiar 



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