8 CHEMISTRY INDISPENSABLE 



The process by which the elements of a compound 

 body are brought into combination is directly oppo- 

 site to that by which it is separated into its ultimate 

 constituents. It was very natural that the chemist 

 should attempt to reproduce the body which he had 

 decomposed, by putting these parts or elements 

 again together ; that he should labor to imitate by ar- 

 tificial means the chemical changes taking place in 

 nature ; and that he should essay, even if he failed 

 to gain his end, to produce new bodies and fresh 

 chemical changes, in addition to those already in 

 existence and in active operation. From this cir- 

 cumstance chemistry derived its second appellation, 

 the Art of Combination [Mischungskunsl, mixing 

 art). The numerous discoveries and inventions 

 with which these experiments were crowned are too 

 universally known to need corroboration by the ci- 

 tation of examples. 



As long as chemistry did not inquire, in its meth- 

 ods of analysis and combination, into the respective 

 weight and measure of bodies, it remained little 

 more than a mere docimacy^ or art of assaying ; it did 

 not become a science until the habit was acquired of 

 instituting chemical researches with the Balance, 

 constantly in hand. This instrument is to the chem- 

 ist what the compass is to the mariner. The ocean 

 had indeed been navigated before the discovery of 

 the compass, but to continue steering with certainty 

 to a preappointed mark, and to recover the proper 

 course, however often it might be lost, was not pos- 



