MODERN CHEMISTRY. 433 



imperfectly apprehended before, Lavoisier rendered a ser- 

 vice to science, better deserving of record than many dis- 

 coveries which have higher fame with the world. It is an 

 axiom of which every single chemical phenomenon testifies 

 the truth. 



It may seem that we are dwelling too long on these 

 elementary points ; but in seeking to give a summary view 

 of the changes in modern chemistry, such preliminaries are 

 essential to a comprehension of the subject. The changes in 

 question include, not discoveries of fact only, but alterations 

 and extensions of the methods of enquiry ; sufficient to give 

 a new aspect to the science, even apart from the great results 

 to which they have led. This invention of new means and 

 instruments of research is, in truth, a topic of the deepest 

 interest. The sudden enlargement of power thus obtained, 

 and the faculty of penetrating into parts of nature before 

 hidden or obscure, place such discoveries among the highest 

 class of human attainments, and render them epochs in the 

 history of human knowledge. In Chemistry especially, the 

 reciprocal dependence and felicitous union of new facts and 

 new methods may be said to give a geometrical power to the 

 science ; as in that eminent discovery which taught the uni- 

 versality of definite proportions in chemical combination; 

 and by establishing this fact, placed instruments in our 

 hands, wholly new in their manner of operation, and far 

 more powerful than any before possessed. Reverting to this 

 afterwards, we may notice meanwhile some of these methods, 

 which though not actually new, yet so greatly transcend all 

 anterior use, that they virtually become so, and may rank 

 among the recent revolutions of the science. 



The first, already alluded to, is the wonderful increase of 

 exactness in every part of chemical enquiry. Those only 

 who are conversant with its history can form an adequate idea 

 of the amount of this change, or of the influence it has had 



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