110 Chemical Philosophy, [Chap. IL 



ever, the evil, notwithstanding these partial re- 

 forms, continued and increased, until it became a 

 serious impediment in the course of the student. 

 Hitherto the number of objects which had engaged 

 the attention of chemists, had been comparatively 

 small. The acids amounted only to^five ; the earths 

 to four ; the metals to tzcelve or fourteen ; and the 

 neutral salts hardly exceeded twenty. To remember 

 the names of so small a number of bodies, how- 

 ever inaccurate, or injudiciously selected, was no 

 difficult task ; but Avhen the discoveries of Hales, 

 Black, and Cavendish, had laid the foundation of 

 pneumatic chemistry, the boundaries of the science 

 began to enlarge with inconceivable rapidity, and 

 the number of objects became, in themselves, and 

 in their combinations, little short of immense. To 

 have borne the names of all these objects in the 

 memory, without any catenation between them 

 upon philosophic principles, without establishing 

 a system of mutual dependance and relation more 

 simple and intelligible than had hitherto been 

 done, would have been a task beyond ordinary 

 powers. Such was the state of things, when a va- 

 riety of concurring circumstances led to another 

 and a greater revolution than had before occurred. 

 As early as 178^2 M. de Morveau (now M. Guy- 

 ton) proposed a general reform in the language 

 of chemistry. At that time he had undertaken 

 the management of the chemical part of the Ency- 

 eloped ie J\Ic'thodiguc^\ Before entering on the ex- 

 ecution of this great task, he thought it proper to 



* Sec the ^lemoirs of JMorveau, Lavoisier, and Fourcroy, read 

 before the Royal Academy on this subject, in St. John's Method 

 vf Chcmxat Nomenclature, tjc. 8vo. London. I/bS. 



