4 INTRODUCTION. 



have originated may have failed in the establishment of their 

 premises, some little additions to our acquisition of informa- 

 tion have been usually attained, always of importance to 

 Science : occasionally a hint has been afforded which might lead 

 to the right path to that desirable portal of knowledge to 

 which the ardent inquiring eye of the lover of Science is ever 

 directed, with the same anxious hope which usually animates 

 the traveller, who looks over the interminable plain for some 

 propitious landmark to direct his way. These are the happy 

 contributions which become the solace to the laborious inves- 

 tigator, the welcome credence that assures him that he has not 

 toiled in vain. 



Such have been the inducements that have prompted the 

 exertion of these humble efforts, yielding to the pleasurable 

 hope of the only expected recompence, that they may not be 

 vain ; that a scintilla of information, acquired by the investi- 

 gation, may redeem both the trespass, and the presumption of 

 the attempt. 



In the year 1818, pondering on the then extremely compli- 

 cated system of Physics, and finding that the discoveries of the 

 philosophers of that day were rather yielding fresh additions to 

 the list of already acknowledged elements, or undecomposed 

 bodies, than reducing them in number (the latter in better 

 accordance with true philosophy), I ventured to enter on the 

 investigation of the subject: aware of my great deficiencies, so 

 ill suited in every respect for a task of such difficulty, and 

 without the command of the needful extent of chemical appa- 

 ratus to test the several points with critical accuracy, I resolved 

 to make my views, in their crude state, at once known to the 

 most eminent philosophers of the day ; and I accordingly sub- 

 mitted a short prospectus, explanatory of the system I had to 

 propose, for investigation, 200 copies of which were printed, 

 and one forwarded to each of the gentlemen, the most cele- 

 brated for science at the time, entreating them individually to 

 bestow some thoughts on the subject, and with the hope (as I 



