OK THE ALKALINE MATTIR IN SEItUM &C. 2SS 



whether a few grains of saliae matter may be expected to 

 yield results similar to those which would be obtsuued from 

 lar}<er quantities ; whether, for instance, the same infe- 

 rences might be drawn from rhoiuboidal crystals of a mi- 

 nute size, as from similar crystals of larger dimensions ; or 

 whether experinu>uts tried upon an ounce or two of my 

 dropsical fluids, may be brought into competition with those 

 whion he performed upon two or three pints of his ropy 

 sputvim. 



Such a scepticism, I must own, I have myself never en- 

 tertained. I have always thought on the contrary, that the 

 chemical properties, which belonged to a particle of matter, 

 were exactly similar to those, which would be found to be- 

 long to a whole mountain of the same substance ; that a 

 rhomb of only one hundredth part of an inch might be 

 ctiaracterised by its form as distinctly as one a hundred 

 limes larger*. But I carry the point still farther, for 1 go 

 the length of believing, that many experiments of research 

 may be wonderfully facilitated by analysing upon a small Expenmenti 

 scale; that a great deal of convenience, of economy, and ^^^^^1^^-^^, 

 sometimes even of accuracy, may thus be gained ; and that cated. 

 in some instances we may even obtain new and unexpected 

 powers of inquiry by operating upon small quantitiesf. 



Thus, were it not for the assistance of minute or micros- Inttancesof 



• Thus I hare no hesitation in maiutaining, that unless it be proved, 

 that nitrate of potash may crystallize in rhombs, my conclnsious re- 

 specting the particular point in question, would stand upon that eri- 

 deoce alone ; or that unless it be shown, that carbonate of potash may 

 crystaliae in c»bes, my inference respecting the presence of muriate of 

 potash stands uncoutroTerted. 



With regard to my attempt at expressing centesimal parts of grains, 

 which is, with some apparent reason, noticed as an instance of singu- 

 lar pretention to accuracy, 1 beg to obsfrre, that I have never actu- 

 ally attempted to weigh smaller quantities than decimal parts of grains; 

 and whenever smaller fractions have been expressed, they have arisen 

 from a conversion of those numbers to some general standard. 



■f I would also observe, while upon this subject, that there it a degree 

 of neatness gained, by reducing the ».cale of operations, which is often 

 incompatible with processes in the large way. Thus I have never 

 found it necessary, in analysing, to introduce among the enumera- 

 tion of C(mtent9, "a little dirt," as some old-school chemists have 

 been in the habit of doin j. 



COpic 



