CHE 
C. majus, Gommon or great celandine, is 
from a foot to eighteen inches in height ; 
cylindric, and a little hairy. The juice of 
the whole plant is salfron-coloured. It ap- 
proaches to the class Tetiadynamia in tlie 
cruciform shape of the corolla, and its sili- 
qne, which, however, ditfers essentially in 
being one-celled. It is common in hedges, 
shady places, and uncultivated grounds, 
flowering from May to July. 
CHELONE, in botany, a genus of the 
Didynamia Angiospennia class and order. 
Natural order of Personatce. Bignonire, 
Jussieu. Essential character: calyx five- 
parted ; rudiment of a fifth filament be- 
tween the upper stamens ; capsule two- 
celled. There are five species, of which 
C. glabra, white chelpne, grows naturally 
in most parts of North America. It is 
about two feet high, with tvr'o leaves at 
each joint, standing opposite without foot- 
stalks. The flowers grow in a close spike 
at the end of the stalk ; they are white, 
and have but one petal, which is tubular, 
and narrow at the bottom, something like 
tire foxglove flower. 
CHELSEA hospital, a noble edifice 
which was built by Charles II. on his re- 
storation, and afterwards improved by his 
successor James II. Non-commissioned 
officers and private men, who have been 
wounded or maimed in the service, are en- 
titled to the benefit of this hospital. There 
are in and out-pensioners belonging to the 
establishment, and the provisions of it ex- 
tend to the militia under tlie following re- 
strictions; seijeants who have served fif- 
teen years, and corporals or drummers who 
have served twenty, may be recommended 
to the bounty. Serjeants on the establish- 
ment may likewise receive that allowance, 
with their pay in the militia. But serjeants 
who have been appointed subsequent to 
the passing of the 26th of George III. are 
not entitled to it under twenty years’ ser- 
vice. 
CHEMISTRY. All the changes that take 
place in bodies — whether by the opera- 
tion of powers not under the direction of 
man, which are called natural phenomena ; 
or of the same powers, modified in their di- 
rection by tlie exercise of our voluntary 
exertions, which constitute the processes of 
art — are effected by motion. When the bo- 
dies from their size and distance from each 
other can be separately distinguished by 
our senses, the effects are referred to the 
division of philosophical science called me- 
chanics ; but when the minuteness of the 
CHE 
bodies themselves, and of the spaces to 
which the individual actions are confined, 
are such that we cannot view and contem- 
plate them separately, but are under the 
necessity of inferring the nature and 
causes of their motions from general re- 
sults or phenomena, the changes are re- 
ferrable to chemistry. 
Chemistry, therefore, as a science, teaches 
us to estimate and account for the changes 
produced in bodies by motions of their 
parts which are too minute to affect the 
senses individually : as an art, its practice 
consists in placing or applying bodies with 
regard to each other in such situations as 
are adapted to produce those changes. ' 
In our investigation of the results of che- 
mistry, we find ourselves, f. om the regular 
connection of the facts, enabled to foretel 
what will happen to certain bodies in certain 
circumstances ; and the rules by w’hich, 
from experience, we are capable of doing 
so, are called laws of nature, if they relate to 
bodies in general; but when they relate to 
particular descriptions of bodies, we form 
our expressions so as to refer tlie effects to 
the bodies themselves under the name of 
qualities or properties. The discovery of 
these laws and properties must in the first 
instances be effected from the observation 
of natural events, and afterwards by insti- 
tuting experiments for the express purpose 
of manifesting them. In these experi- 
ments we may either separate compounded 
bodies into their simpler parts, which is 
called analysis : or we may unite simple 
parts so as to form a compound body, which 
is called synthesis. And our reasonings 
concerning these facts will have a correspon- 
dent denomination. When we describe and 
explain the process of analysis, by which 
general results are deduced by separating 
effects from each other, the operation of 
the mind is distinguished by the same name ; 
but when from the general results we show 
in what manner particular events are pro- 
duced by combining bodies together, the 
method is distinguished by the term syn- 
thesis. 
The synthetical method of teaching is 
undoubtedly the most luminous and clear 
where the first principles or simple ele- 
ments of our knowledge are known or ad- 
mitted, as is the case in geometiy. But in 
chemistry this method of teaching cannot, 
from our imperfect knowledge of the facts, 
be generally adopted, without admitting the 
simplicity of a variety of substances con- 
cerning which there is just reason to doubt. 
