CiiAP. II.] Chemical P/iilosopIn;. ri.'> 



and Girt^nncr, are eiilitlcd to very respectful no- 

 tice. But the elaborate researclies of Mr. ll;il- 

 ehet, in this interesting field of in(]uirv, arc ImUiI- 

 cularly well known, and do ecpial honour to his iu- 

 dustry and aeuteness*. I'he same depai'linrnt of 

 chemistry has also been explored, with great suc- 

 cess, by M. Alerat Guillott and otliers. 'Ihesc 

 investigations have led to important discoveries, 

 have thrown much light on the animal economy, 

 and furnished many indications for the iinpro\c- 

 ment of medicine and surgery. 



Though vegetable pliijsiologj/ had been studied 

 with some degree of success, by several persons, 

 in the seventeenth century; yet, p\irsuing this 

 species of inquiry through the medium of cliemis- 

 try was scarcely thought of, and far less realised, 

 till the eighteenth. Within a few years past che- 

 mists have directed much attention to the struc- 

 ture, composition, and food of plants ; have greatly 

 extended, by this means, the limits of tiie science; 

 and have contributed much to the improvement of 

 botany, agriculture, the materia medica, and vari- 

 ous arts of life. Among those who have dis])Iay- 

 ed the greatest acuteness, zeal, and success, in tins 

 department of chemical inquiry, we may reckon 

 Dr. Hales and Dr. Priestley, of Great Britain ; Dr. 

 Ingenhouz and Mr. von Humbold, of Ciermany : 

 Mr. Sennebier and Mr. Saussure, of (jeneva ; and 

 several others. 



The employment of chemistry by the miner alo- 

 gist, as a means of analysing the various substances 



■^ Phliosophicul Transactions for IT^P ^"^ ^^^''^■ 

 f Anjialcs de. Chymie, torn, xxxiv, p. ()«• 



