520 
MATERIA CHEMICA. 
Silk am! thread of different ftrength. 
Stands made of wood or ruffles, for fupporting veflels 
with round bottoms. , 
Iron ladles of different fizes; 
Hammers, fliears, and plyers. - 
Corks, bladders, and fponge. 
Tongs of various forms. 
Files, diamond, and magnet. 
Lutes, linen, cloth, and tow. 
The following philofophical apparatus : 
Air-pump tor condenfing and exhaufting. 
Syringes, microfcope, and burning lens. 
Electric machine and Galvanic apparatus. 
Zinc plates and wire, for minor experiments. 
Hydroftatic balance and hydrometer. 
We dial! conclude with a lift of the fubftances neceflary 
to be kept in a chemical laboratory. Thefe are divided 
into wet and dry. The firft of thefe muff, of neceflity, 
be kept in well-(topped bottles. The latter fhould alfo 
be kept in bottles, the necks of which fhould be wider 
than thofe for liquids. 
Liquids in Common Ufe. 
Sulphuric acid, pure and common. 
Nitric acid, pure and common. 
Muriatic acid, pure and common. 
Acetic acid. Water faturated with ammonia. Solu¬ 
tion of potafh ; of carbonat of potafh ; of fu per-carbonat 
of potafh ; of J'cda, and carbonat of foda ; of carbonat of 
ammonia. 
Lime water, and diftilled water. 
Alcohol, pure and common. The bottles in which the 
above are kept fhould hold from a pint to a quart each. 
After a change of temperature in the air from cold to 
hot, we find at the tops of bottles, about the ftopper, a 
quantity of the liquid which has diftilled up to the hop¬ 
per, and been forced out by the expanfion of the air in 
the bottle. This is very troublefoine, efpecially with 
acids, and may be remedied by giving to the mouth of the 
bottle a flight funnel-fhape, which forms a recefs for the 
liquid. 
Dry Subfances in common ufe. 
Oxyd of manganefe, and common fait. 
Filings and rods of iron, tin, zinc, copper, and lead. 
Chalk and powdered marble. 
Quick-lime, pipe-clay, and fand. 
Magnefia, common and calcined. 
Sulphurets of potafh, iron, and lime. 
Ifinglafs and nutgalls. 
Brafil-wood and turmeric. 
Calcined plafter of Paris, and bone-afhes. 
Black flux and white flux. 
Charcoal powder and fawduft. 
Sulphat of lead, as a body for lutes. 
Nitre in cryftals. 
Borax and alum. 
The following are bodies in folution, ufed as tefts, and 
kept in frnall quantities, in bottles from one to two ounces 
in fize. The bottles fhould be fhaped at the mouth as 
above recommended, and the diameter fhould be half the 
height *n the cylindric part. 
Sulphat of potafh. Nitrat of filver. 
— -- foda. 
--alumine. 
— . ■ ammonia. 
- magnefia. 
-zinc. 
-filver. 
Oxy-fulphat of iron. 
Nitrat of potafh. 
--foda. 
-barytes. 
-ftrontian. 
-lime. 
Vol. XIV. No. 992. 
-copper. 
• -lead. 
• -bifmuth. 
Muriat of potafh. 
-foda. 
■ - barytes. 
• - ftrontian. 
- lime. 
-ammonia. 
-gold. 
— - platina. 
■ -tin. 
Acetat of filver. 
•-copper. 
-lead. 
Muriat of cobalt. 
Oxymuriat of mercury. 
Phofphat of foda. 
•—-ammonia. 
Fluat of potafh. 
•-ammonia. 
Borat of foda. 
Carbonat of potafh. 
---foda. 
----ammonia, 
Acetat of potafh. 
-- — barytes. 
■-ftrontian. 
—-. alumine. 
The following fubftances 
ftate, and free from the conraft of air and inoifture s 
Sulphat of iron kept in alc.ohol, 
Muriat of lime. 
Oxymuriat of potafh. 
Barytic earth. 
Strontian earth, and all pure earths. 
Pure potafh, and foda. 
Potaftium and fodium, kept in naphtha. 
Sulphurets of potafh, iron, and lime. 
Phofphuret of lime. 
Phofphorus and pyrophorus. 
Oxy-acetat of iron. 
Oxalatof foda and ammonia, 
Succinat of ammonia. 
Tartrat of ammonia. 
Pruffiat of potafh and iron. 
—-. lime and iron. 
Pure gallic acid in alcohol. 
Infufion of galls in alcohol. 
--- litmus. 
Acetic acid, pure. 
Hydrofulphuret of potafh. 
fhould be kept in the folkl 
It is alfo proper that the chemift fhould pofiefs as great 
a variety of all the known chemical bodies as poflible, both 
limple and compound. They are worth poflefiing even as 
a matter of curiofity ; but they will be highly valuable in 
giving a familiar knowledge of the different fubftances 
which the experimentalift may expeft to meet with, and 
enable him to diftinguifh them from what may be new. 
To avoid mifcarriages alfo, and prevent being impofed 
upon, it will be very proper to cultivate a knowledge of 
the productions of nature in their crude ftate, and pecu¬ 
liar places of growth, where, being firft viewed and ex¬ 
amined before they are gathered or dug up, an exaCt 
knowledge of them, as nature furnifhes them, may be pro¬ 
cured. For want of this previous qualification, men, 
otherwife of great fagacity, have erred in their operations, 
and perhaps blamed the original author of a procefs in 
which they mifcarry; while they are all the while ufing 
a wrong fubjeCt, or an adulterated or imperfect one, in- 
ftead of the true. From this mifiake alone, numberlefs 
complaints have arifen of failure and uncertain fuccefs in 
the proceffes and experiments recorded even by the heft 
authors. 
The perfon who would work in chemiflry with plea- 
fure and fuccefs, fhould make a fufficiently copious col¬ 
lection of a. materia chemica of this kind, all the particulars 
of which he is well affured of, as to the genuinenefs and 
perfection of their kinds. Thefe being always ready, will 
prevent the neceflity of fending to the druggilt at every 
turn, where the things lent for are often,either not to be 
had, or only in a fophifticated ftate. It ■ impoffible to 
exprefs with how little expenfe and trouble, yet with how 
great profit and pleafure, numerous experiments,and thofe 
of the moft difficult kind, may be made, when the ope¬ 
rator has, in this manner, all his materials about him. 
Becher tells us, that he has, in this manner, gone through 
fifty experiments in a day; and, while writing on chemi¬ 
cal fubjeCls, if any difficulty or uncertainty occurred, he 
immediately got up from his defk, made the neceflary ex¬ 
periment, and fat down again to write the certain faCt: fo 
tlrat, he affirms, there was very little more trouble in mak¬ 
ing the experiment at the fire than in defcribing the pro¬ 
cefs by the pen. 
MATE'RIA MED'ICA, thofe fubftances, which, fe- 
leCted from the animal, vegetable, or mineral, kingdom, 
and\£mployed either in a limple or combined ftate, are 
adapted to heal diforders. In other words, it is a collec¬ 
tion of remedies; and will therefore naturally form an in¬ 
troduction to our article Pathology. 
6 T 
MATE'RIA 
