Chemical Philosophi/. 109 



ptiblic economist chemistry presents a treasure of 

 usefuJ information. By means of this science alone 

 can he expect to attack with success the destroy- 

 ing pestilence, so far as it is an object of human 

 prevention, and to guard against other evils to 

 which the state of the elements gives rise. And 

 in order to the prosecution of numberless plans of 

 the philanthropist to any extent or effect, some 

 acquaintance with the subject in question seems 

 indispensably necessary. Finally, to the domestic 

 economist this science abounds with pleasing and 

 wholesome lessons. It enables him to make a 

 proper choice of meats and driiiks; it directs him 

 to those measures with respect to aliment, cookery ^ 

 cloathing, and respiration, which have the best 

 tendency to promote health, enjoyment, and cheap- 

 ness of living; and it sets him on his guard against 

 many unseen evils, to which those who are igno- 

 rant of its laws are continually exposed. In a 

 word, from a speculative science, chemistry, dur- 

 ing the eighteenth century, has become eminently 

 and extensively 2, practical one; from an obscure, 

 humble, and uninteresting place among the ob- 

 jects of study, it has risen to a high and dignified 

 station ; and instead of merely gratifying curiosity, 

 or furnishing amusement, it promises a degree of 

 utility, of which no one can calculate the conse- 

 quences, or see the end. 



But while the great improvements which have 

 been made in chemical philosophy during the last 

 century are readily admitted, it may not be impro/ 

 per, before closing this chapter, to take notice of 

 the gross abuses which have been adopted by some 

 of the most celebrated cultivators of the science 

 in question, and v^hich have contributed to lessen 

 its value in the view of many serious inquirers. 

 A few extravagant and enthusiastic votaries of 

 chemistry have undertaken, on chemical princi- 



