RISE AND PROGRESS 



of Berlin, Petersburgh, Stockholm, Upsal, Bononia, Bourdeaux, 

 Montpelier, Gottingen, and of several others which have been 

 established within the course of the present century. Near a 

 thousand volumes have been published by these learned societies, 

 within less than 120 years. The number of facts which are therein 

 related respecting chemistry, and every other branch of natural 

 philosophy, is exceedingly great ; but the subject is still greater, 

 and must for ever mock the efforts of the human race to exhaust 

 it. Well did Lord Bacon compare natural philosophy to a pyra. 

 mid ! Its basis is indeed the history of nature, of which we know 

 a little and conjecture much ; but its top is, without doubt, hid high 

 in the clouds ; it is " the work which God worketh from the be- 

 ginning to the end," infinite and inscrutable. 



By the light which has been incidentally thrown upon various 

 parts of chemistry, from those vast undertakings of public societies, 

 as well as from the more express labours of Stahl, Newman, Hoff- 

 man, Juncker, Geoffry, Boerhaave, and of many others equally 

 worthy of commendation ; by the theoretic conclusions and syste- 

 matic divisions which have been introduced into it ; from the didac. 

 tic manner in which the students of this art have been instructed 

 in every medical school; chemistry has quite changed its appear, 

 ance. It is no longer considered merely in a medical view, nor 

 restricted to some fruitless efforts upon metals; it no longer at. 

 tempts to impose upon the credulity of the ignorant, nor affects to 

 astonish the simplicity of the vulgar, by its wonders ; but is content 

 with explaining them upon the principles of sound philosophy. It 

 has shaken off the opprobrium which had been thrown upon it, 

 from the unintelligible jargon of the alchemists, by revealing all its 

 secrets, in a language as clear and as common as the nature of its 

 subjects and operations will admit. 



Considered as a branch of physics, chemistry is but yet in its 

 infancy : however, the mutual emulation and unwearied endea. 

 vours of so many eminent men as are in every part of Europe 

 engaged in its cultivation, will, in a little time, render it equal to 

 any part of natural philosophy, in the clearness and solidity of its 

 principles. In the utility resulting to the public from its conclu- 

 sions, with respect to the practice of medicine, of agriculture, arts, 

 and manufactures of every kind, it is even in its present state infe- 

 rior to none. 



The uses of chemistry, not only in the medical, but in every 



