ON THE ALKALINE MATTER IN SERUM &C» 153 



has been thought right, however, to assume an hypothe* 

 sis, or more truly two hypotheses, to account foi tlie pot- 

 ash in the menstruum of alcohol: viz. 1, to imagine, 

 that muriate of potash is present ; 2, that it it dissolu- 

 ble in alcohol. If potash was present in the indissoluble 

 residue, it was most important to have exhibited the state 

 in which it existed. It was not difficult to determine, if 

 doubted, the state of the potash in the alcohol, by burning 

 the residue left on evaporation, which would have denuded 

 it if united to the acetic acid, but not if united to muriatic 

 acid. Supposing, hov/ever, it be judged right, to receive 

 these experiments as evidence of the facts asserted by the 

 adverse party, 1 beg to claim the right also of opposingthe 

 contravening evidence above delivered in stating tlie re- 

 gults of a similar experiment. From this representation I 

 submit to our judges, whether or not 1 am entitled to 

 object to the enumeration of subcarboiiate or carbonate 

 ©f soda as one of the impregnating ingredients of serum, 

 and especially to the proportion denoted in centesimal parts 

 of a grain, in a mass amounting to 7 or 8 grains, consist- 

 ing of 7 different substances. 



Having communicated merely the information of the 

 senses through the intermede of experiments*, it will be de- 

 termined by the chemical world, whether or not the op- 

 posing pasty have demonstrated errours in observation, 

 or illegitimate conclusions. I am of opinion, that the best 

 founded conclusions are but provisional; and of course, Chemieal ooa. 

 that chemistry has not yet attained the rank of a science, or elusions at 



, ^ - , ^ . ^„. . . . . present but 



at least, of a demonstrative science. 1 his opinion seems just pcoTibional. 



from a retrospective view of the varying states of chemistry for 

 the last hundred years. Many of the theories of the illustrious 

 Stahljwere, for half a century, admitted as demonstrations of 

 the agency of phlogiston. That these doctrines were errone- 

 ous was evinced by the succeeding discovery of the age^ncy of 

 oxigen, especially manifested by the ever-to-be-lamented 

 Lavoisier ; and the pneumatic doctrine, in son^e parts, has 



* Sensus enim per se res infirma est, et aberrans ; neque organa ad 

 amplicandos aensus aiU acdendos nmltuiii valent, sed orriisis rerior 

 interpretatio naturae conficitur per instantias, et experiment i idonea 

 et apposita; ubi sensns de experimeiilo tantum, expjiimeutum de n»- 

 tuia et re ipsa judicct — Bacon's Novum Orgarium. 



lately 



