84 Chemical Philosophy. 



add the name of M. Macquer, who contributed, 

 in an eminent degree, to the advancement ofche^ 

 mical knowledge, by his excellent works, long held 

 in the highest esteem, in every part of Europe. 

 His ingenious experiments and numerous discove- 

 ries, particularly respecting arsenic, dyes and earths y 

 will ever entitle him to honour and c:ratitude from 

 philosophers. By the labours of these great men, 

 and of many others, whose names might with pro- 

 priety be mentioned, did not our limits forbid such 

 an enlargement of the list, the boundaries of che- 

 mical philosophy had b^en more extended, and its 

 stores of experiment and discovery more enriched, 

 within the twenty years immediately preceding the 

 introduction of the theory of the French Academi- 

 cians, than in any whole century before. 



All the great chemists whose names have been 

 mentioned, were, at this time, votaries of the 

 phlogistic theory of Stahl. Their experiments 

 and discoveries, indeed, were sometimes found to 

 militate strongly against this popular doctrine, and 

 some of them ventured occasionally to call in ques- 

 tion its leading principles. Still, however, dis- 

 cerning no preferable ground on which to rest, and 

 finding some ingenious devices to reconcile dis- 

 cordant appearances, they adhered, in general, 

 to the opinions of the illustrious German. But the 

 fair structure of this great philosopher was doomed, 

 like most human labours, to be soon overturned by 

 the restless hand of innovation. The experiments 

 on metals ; the discovery of various facts and prin- 

 ciples with respect to the matter of heat ; and es- 

 pecially the discovery of the composition of water , 

 began to produce a conviction in the minds of some 

 leading chemists in France, that the doctrine of 

 phlogiston was utterly insufficient to account for the 

 phenomena which they witnessed. Macquer and 

 Bayen seem to have been among the first who 



