490 PKINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY 



for the philosophical interest attached in chemistry to this law. Although 

 but a recent scientific generalisation, it has already stood the test of laboratory 

 verification, and appears as an instrument of thought which has not yet been 

 compelled to undergo modification ; but it needs not only new applications, 

 but also improvements, further development, and plenty of fresh energy. All 

 this will surely come, seeing that such an assembly of men of science as the 

 Chemical Society of Great Britain has expressed the desire to have the his- 

 tory of the periodic law described in a lecture dedicated to the glorious name 

 of Faraday. 



