6 INTRODUCTION. 



fire appears in the modern view as only the transient 

 attendant of chemical combination. 



Each one of the acknowledged elements has its own 

 specific properties, affinities, and capacity of combina- 

 tion. These peculiarities, and all resulting phenomena, 

 it is the province of chemistry to investigate and ex- 

 plain. Light, heat, and electricity, stand in intimate 

 relation to all chemical action, either as cause or effect, 

 or unfailing attendant, and are therefore briefly consid- 

 ered in the earlier part of the present work. 



The study of science has not for its object the mere 

 gratification of an idle curiosity. Looking at the sub- 

 ject from a material point of view alone, chemistry is 

 one of the great agents in the transformation of nature, 

 and its subjugation to the wants of man. The earth 

 yields her treasure to its skillfully conducted processes, 

 and even the trodden clay becomes converted in its 

 crucible into shining metal. The arts draw from it, 

 with every succeeding year, increased advantage, and 

 the condition of mankind is elevated, and the world 

 advanced by its progressive triumphs. Agriculture 

 also is indebted to its discoveries. It opens to us mines 

 of agricultural wealth in what would otherwise have 

 passed for worthless refuse. It clothes exhausted fields 

 with new fertility, by the addition of some failing con- 

 stituent whose absence its subtle processes have de- 

 tected. It carefully investigates the laws and condi- 



