OF CHEM1STKY. 15 



destitute of all metallic matter*; yet it may not be improper to 

 remark, that the external appearance of the yellowish cawk is 

 wholly similar to that of calcined black-jack. That it is much of 

 the same weight as black-jack may appear from the annexed table : 



Weight of a cubic foot of 



Avoirdup. nz. 



White cawk .... 4047 



Yellow cawk . . .4112 



Kebble . . . .4319 



Black-jack . . . 4093 



Water . . . .1000 



In a word, the improvement of metallurgy, and the other me- 

 chanic arts, dependent on chemistry, might best be made by the 

 public establishment of an academy, the labours of which should 

 be destined to that particular purpose. The utility of such esta- 

 blishments has been experienced in Saxony, and other places ; 

 and as mines and manufactures are to the full as important to 

 us, as to any other European state, one may hope, that the con- 

 stituting a Chemical Academy may, in times of peace and tran- 

 quillity, become an object not unworthy the attention of the King, 

 or the Legislature of the British nation +. 



[Bishop Watson. 



This last patriotic recommendation addressed to the public by 

 Dr. Watson, in 1781, though not carried into effect in the precise 

 manner he suggested, has by no means been altogether neglected. 

 If the legislature have not adopted the scheme, it has not been lost 

 sight of by scientific and public. spirited individuals. The Royal 

 Institution led the way, and by the splendid chemical discoveries 

 which have issued from its laboratory and apparatus, under the di- 



* See Mr. Woulfe's ingenious Experiments, in Philos. Trans. 1779, p. 15. 



+ The reader who wishes to become more fully acquainted with the history 

 of chemistry, may consult what Borrichius has said in his Dissertation de Ortu 

 et Progressu Chcmia?, published at Copenhagen, in 1668; and in his book en- 

 titled Hermetis, jEgyptiorum, et Chemicorum, Sapientia ab Hermanni Cou- 

 ringii Animadversionibus vindicata, published at the same place, in 1614. He 

 will also find something worth hit notice on this subject, in Boerliaave'i Che- 

 mistry ; and in a work of Wallerius, called, Chemiz Physics Pars Prima, pub- 

 lished at Stockholm, in 1760; where there is an useful catalogue of the molt 

 approved writers on the various parts of chemistry. 



