§2 



CHAPTER IL 



CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY. 



As Mechanical Philosophy has respect to those 

 motions of the larger bodies of the universe which 

 fall under the inspection of our senses, so Chemi- 

 cal Philosophy is the science which explains tlK)se 

 motions that take place among the minute com- 

 ponent parts of bodies, and that are known chiefly 

 hy the effects which they produce ; in other words, 

 its object is, " to ascertain the ingredients that en- 

 ter into the composition of bodies — to examine the 

 nature of these ingredients, the manner in which, 

 and the iav^'s by which, they combine, and the pro- 

 perties resulting from their combination.*' It may 

 safely be asserted, that there is no branch of sci- 

 ence in which the discoveries and improvements, 

 daring the last century, have been more numerous, 

 or more important, than in this. Indeed, such has 

 been their number, and their ititeresting nature, 

 that to exhibit them in detail would be to fill many 

 volumes. 



Though some of the facts and principles which 

 enter into all the systems of modern chemistry have 

 been known for many centuries, and indeed as far 

 back as history reaches ; yet, as a regular science, 

 it could scarcely be said to have had an existence 

 prior to the middle of the seventeenth century. It 



