84 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



Quick-lime is prepared by a chemical process. Potash is 

 a product of the same art, to which also vitriolic and all 

 the acids owe their existence. The manufacture of soap 

 is also a branch of this science. All the operations of the 

 whitster, the steeping, washing, and boiling in alkaline 

 lixiviums, exposing to the sun's light, scouring, rubbing, 

 and blueing, are chemical operations, or founded on chemi- 

 cal principles. The same may be said of the arts of dyeing 

 and printing, by which those beautiful colours are impressed 

 on cloths, which have contributed so largely to the exten- 

 sion of the manufactures of this place. How few of the 

 workmen employed in them possess the least knowledge 

 of the science to which their profession owes its origin and 

 support .'' If random chance has stumbled on so many 

 improvements, what might industry and experience have 

 effected, when guided by elementary knowledge } The 

 misfortune is that few dyers are chemists, and few chemists 

 dyers. Practical knowledge should be united to theory, in 

 order to produce the most beneficial discoveries. The 

 chemist is often prevented from availing himself of the 

 result of his experiments by the want of opportunities of 

 repeating them at large ; and the workman generally looks 

 down with contempt on any proposals the subject of w^hich 

 is new to him. Yet under all these disadvantages, I believe 

 it will be confessed, that the arts of dyeing and printing 

 owe much of their recent progress to the improvements of 

 men who have made chemistry their study. Much, how- 

 ever, remains to be done ; and, perhaps, in no respect are 

 the manufactures of this country more defective than in 

 the permanency of their colours. Sensible as our manu- 

 facturers are of this defect, is it not strange that so few of 

 them should attempt to acquire a knowledge of those 



